when I was in college one of my neighbors in the dorm asked me to hit with him once because he was thinking about trying out as a walk on. the first time we stopped to get some water I remember him asking me "do you hit everything as hard as you can?"
the part of that comment I like to focus on is not the part about hitting as hard as you can (the funny thing is I was holding back), but that to him it seemed that every ball was like that. merely hitting hard can only take you so far. one difference between being a good high school or junior tennis player and being a good college player is the ability to hit that shot consistently, with accuracy, from anywhere on the court, on the run, etc.
That is exactly what I love seeing in a tennis match the most. The ability to place the ball anywhere on the court with consistency and power. Consistency comes first, I think.
This is somewhat off topic, but perhaps some relevance may be found.
I don't actually play tennis. I mean, I've played some mock matches with my brother and sister but neither of them actually play tennis. That was back when I was first getting interested in it and they were humoring me
All I've done is watch tons and tons of tennis matches on YouTube, lots of videos at FYB, read books about it, listen to CD's about it, and practice on a wall by myself, as well as aiming for various odd objects. I suppose I'm an aspiring player. :?
Back to semi-on-topic, even though I've never played a real tennis match against a real tennis player, I understand the feeling of being pressed to counter a shot that, although not blazingly fast, but placed perfectly in a difficult area to return and heavy and fast enough to make it hard to set up the counter.
When I watch college level tennis players play, most of the time I'm surprised (less now) to see a huge amount of shots either going into the net or just plain out. I see less creative use of net play and shot speed variety. I just see power, power, power! And it's boring! :|
