Wow....that was a blast last night.
I've decided that 3.5 wasn't forcing me to get better, so I moved up to 4.0 in league play. Played my first 4.0 doubles match last night - it was a great experience.
My partner is also new to men's 4.0 (he has a mixed-exclusive rating), but he's a great doubles player. Solid volleys, nice placement on returns - basically, we're opposites of each other.
They guys that we played were a bit older (I'd wager one was late 40's, the other may have been late 50's), and were crafty doubles players, not to mention one being a lefty. We came out trying to blast them off of the court, and quickly found ourselves down a set 6-1. Not a good start. On a small positive note, the 1 game we won was my serve, which I held at love, including a second serve ace.
For the second set, we made a couple of adjustments. My partner started really punching his returns and coming in behind them, which forced their shots to get a bit pressured. I started hanging back on my returns and really laying into my returns. When they chased their serves in, I tried my best to drop the ball at their feet. We also started serving out wide to the lefty, which made poaching much easier. Second set goes in our favor 6-3.
In the tiebreak, we kept up with the same game plan, and pretty soon, we were up 7-3. After a couple of points, they are serving at 9-6, and I'm returning. The serve is a kick to my forehand - I sit back, and hit my forehand down the line, which their net man gets a racquet on, but drops at the bottom of their side of the net.
So far, I'm 1-0 in 4.0 play.
I've decided that 3.5 wasn't forcing me to get better, so I moved up to 4.0 in league play. Played my first 4.0 doubles match last night - it was a great experience.
My partner is also new to men's 4.0 (he has a mixed-exclusive rating), but he's a great doubles player. Solid volleys, nice placement on returns - basically, we're opposites of each other.
They guys that we played were a bit older (I'd wager one was late 40's, the other may have been late 50's), and were crafty doubles players, not to mention one being a lefty. We came out trying to blast them off of the court, and quickly found ourselves down a set 6-1. Not a good start. On a small positive note, the 1 game we won was my serve, which I held at love, including a second serve ace.
For the second set, we made a couple of adjustments. My partner started really punching his returns and coming in behind them, which forced their shots to get a bit pressured. I started hanging back on my returns and really laying into my returns. When they chased their serves in, I tried my best to drop the ball at their feet. We also started serving out wide to the lefty, which made poaching much easier. Second set goes in our favor 6-3.
In the tiebreak, we kept up with the same game plan, and pretty soon, we were up 7-3. After a couple of points, they are serving at 9-6, and I'm returning. The serve is a kick to my forehand - I sit back, and hit my forehand down the line, which their net man gets a racquet on, but drops at the bottom of their side of the net.
So far, I'm 1-0 in 4.0 play.
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