travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
I’m in Santa Cruz for the weekend, and I arranged to play again with a guy I had hit with a few months ago.
I had played very poorly against him last time, and I thought maybe this time I might make it closer. I had played him twice, losing 6-0, 6-1, and then again 6-2, 6-1.
When I told him I wanted to play a match, this time he again asked me if I wanted him to play his best. I said yes. He then suggested we bet $1000 on the match. I said ok, but then the deal is he has to win without me winning any games. He backed off on the bet - ‘too risky.’
While we were warming up, I asked him what his best ranking was. He said he has reached about 700 in the world. So that explained why I didn’t do very well last time.
We started the match (on red clay at 8:30am, 88F, bright sun, and very humid) and this time he is just abusing me from the getgo. Every forehand seems to find the corners. His backhand is solid and hurting me too. He doesn’t hit exceptionally hard, using solid smooth strokes with moderate spin, but I felt like I was getting overwhelmed by the quality and accuracy of his shots.
Every time I hit what would normally be a neutral ball against a 5.0 player, he would reply with his next shot wide and deep to the corner seemingly without leaving his comfort zone.
My game was not clicking at all, and I didn’t have much of forehand today. And I couldn’t really serve due to not being able to grip the racquet in the hot humid conditions with sun screen residue on my fingers. But even if I was playing better, I don’t think I could make it that competitive with this guy.
His advice to me during match was not to slice so much on my forehand because my slice was making it too easy on him (good advice, but my drive forehand just wasn’t in the tool box today). He said similar thing about my dink serves, but alas same problem.
He was most impressive on the out-of-structure points. On two occasions when I blasted an overhead but put it in reach of him, he returned a winner passing shot past me - once with a forehand crosscourt block and once with a 2hb dtl.
It turns out he is currently traveling the world as a full-time coach for his student. Hs student is now the top-ranked 14-year-old in South America, who won 5 ITF tournaments in 16s in Europe this year, and is now playing 18s. So my friend is playing points against his pupil everyday and staying in good playing form.
I think this guy today was playing the highest level baseline tennis I’ve ever played against. The guy I played against last month in Ecuador had reached a much better ranking (top 300), but this guy was playing much closer to his top form from his playing days. Also, getting to play the Ecuadorian ex-ATP pro on hard court at least gave a chance to hit my normal forehand, but today on the red clay I felt pretty helpless on most points.
I was able steal a few games, losing 6-1, 6-2. But unlike against my Ecuadorian friend, I never really felt like I was in the match today.
The games that I won were because I took riskier chances on neutral balls, and then charged the net hard behind the approach to earn putaway volleys.
I only won games when I could string a few of these together. Extending points from the baseline was hopeless - I don’t think I won any long points because I just got further behind in the point the longer the rally lasted.
His level was clearly much better today than when I played him back in June.
Anyway, today was one of those humbling tennis days.
I had played very poorly against him last time, and I thought maybe this time I might make it closer. I had played him twice, losing 6-0, 6-1, and then again 6-2, 6-1.
When I told him I wanted to play a match, this time he again asked me if I wanted him to play his best. I said yes. He then suggested we bet $1000 on the match. I said ok, but then the deal is he has to win without me winning any games. He backed off on the bet - ‘too risky.’
While we were warming up, I asked him what his best ranking was. He said he has reached about 700 in the world. So that explained why I didn’t do very well last time.
We started the match (on red clay at 8:30am, 88F, bright sun, and very humid) and this time he is just abusing me from the getgo. Every forehand seems to find the corners. His backhand is solid and hurting me too. He doesn’t hit exceptionally hard, using solid smooth strokes with moderate spin, but I felt like I was getting overwhelmed by the quality and accuracy of his shots.
Every time I hit what would normally be a neutral ball against a 5.0 player, he would reply with his next shot wide and deep to the corner seemingly without leaving his comfort zone.
My game was not clicking at all, and I didn’t have much of forehand today. And I couldn’t really serve due to not being able to grip the racquet in the hot humid conditions with sun screen residue on my fingers. But even if I was playing better, I don’t think I could make it that competitive with this guy.
His advice to me during match was not to slice so much on my forehand because my slice was making it too easy on him (good advice, but my drive forehand just wasn’t in the tool box today). He said similar thing about my dink serves, but alas same problem.
He was most impressive on the out-of-structure points. On two occasions when I blasted an overhead but put it in reach of him, he returned a winner passing shot past me - once with a forehand crosscourt block and once with a 2hb dtl.
It turns out he is currently traveling the world as a full-time coach for his student. Hs student is now the top-ranked 14-year-old in South America, who won 5 ITF tournaments in 16s in Europe this year, and is now playing 18s. So my friend is playing points against his pupil everyday and staying in good playing form.
I think this guy today was playing the highest level baseline tennis I’ve ever played against. The guy I played against last month in Ecuador had reached a much better ranking (top 300), but this guy was playing much closer to his top form from his playing days. Also, getting to play the Ecuadorian ex-ATP pro on hard court at least gave a chance to hit my normal forehand, but today on the red clay I felt pretty helpless on most points.
I was able steal a few games, losing 6-1, 6-2. But unlike against my Ecuadorian friend, I never really felt like I was in the match today.
The games that I won were because I took riskier chances on neutral balls, and then charged the net hard behind the approach to earn putaway volleys.
I only won games when I could string a few of these together. Extending points from the baseline was hopeless - I don’t think I won any long points because I just got further behind in the point the longer the rally lasted.
His level was clearly much better today than when I played him back in June.
Anyway, today was one of those humbling tennis days.
. You don’t believe a solid 4.5 can hang in with ex-pros?
