travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
In Santiago this weekend. I was able to line up a Saturday afternoon 2pm match with a teaching pro by showing up in the morning at Nicolas Massu’s academy and asking around.
The teaching pro was older dude, mid 50s, wearing long sleeve poly shirt and cap like most do in sunny places like this. He was finishing up a serve lesson with an 8-year-old girl, and chatting with the hot mom afterward.
Doesn’t speak a lick of English, just mumbly fast Chilean Spanish. We warm up with some mini. Than some groundies. Some volleys. He’s curious about my racquet with heavy tape all over it. He asks me what I want to do. I tell him I just want to play a match. “A set? Ok let’s do it.” He seems excited. “You serve.”
They had watered the red clay court before my session. But in the dry desert mountain air, the court was already getting dry and powdery, with poor traction, by the time we start.
We started playing points. I was playing pretty conservatively. Just trying to make balls. Get it to his 1hb. It seemed to be working. I had a mobility advantage and could reach more balls. I didn’t serve well, but was solid off the ground and held serve to open.
After we cross to other side, he says that he really likes to play tennis. He doesn’t like to watch on tv.
I kept playing my conservative counter-punchy style, still working well, and broke to go up 2-0. The next game up 15-love, he hit a crosscourt sharp angle 1hb near the sideline. I inspected mark, couldn’t tell, and gave him the benefit of the doubt on the call. He thought his shot was out and came across net to check the mark. He pointed to the mark. I said yeah I think that’s it. But I can’t see any space so it’s his point. In my experience, teaching pros are usually very generous with calls when winning, but rarely when losing, so this was unusual.
But then I tossed in 2 double faults, and lost the game. I broke again to go up 3-1, but he was starting to improve and dictate better with his forehand. The next game, his fh starting landing in the corners, and he broke my serve again. I was still up 3-2, I realized that this guy might be better than I initially thought, and I might have a tough match on my hands, and I wasn’t just going to roll this old guy.
He was slicing most of his bh, but pretty good at placing his slice and using it to move the ball around. Earlier he had been attempting bh drop shots, but missing some, and I successfully reached other and win the point.
The next game, he started getting more pro-active about running around his bh. He was hitting solid forehands to the corners and making me play D. I started stabbing deep defensive lobs in the air. At first these seemed to work well to extend the point. But then he starts stepping in and taking my defensive high balls out of the air with swinging fh volleys. He made a winner on one. Then another. I realized I had to respect his swinging volley was solid. He held to get to 3-3.
I’m thinking, ok, he’s better than I thought. But he’s older than me. I’m going to have to play well, but if I buckle down I should still be able to pull this one out.
Next game, I start rolling loopy high balls crosscourt to his bh. He runs around one and hits an inside-out loopy deep ball. I decide to back up and reply with a sky ball bh lob 80 feet high. My sky ball was going to land in the service line. I see he’s set up to take the sky ball out of the air. I’m thinking that’s pretty risky, but his overhead ugly and bloops short crosscourt angle where I have no chance to reach it. He also gets a lucky net cord, and he breaks me to go up 4-3. He’s got momentum, but that game seemed lucky.
Next game, his forehand seems to go up another level. He spanks winners to the corner and runs me ragged. Any ball I leave in the middle without enough on it he takes control of the point. I try positioning deep to return. That doesn’t work — just gives him too much time to run around the bh. I try returning from inside baseline. That works a couple points, but then he blows an ace by me. He goes up 5-3. This is a little deflating. I’m starting to think to myself that his forehand is practically pro caliber. Am I imagining it? Part of problem is that my conservative game plan was based on assumption that I was playing someone lower level than me. It was clear I had to ditch it and play a little more aggressively.
I go to my back and add an accessory, something to try and turn the momentum. I play a solid game on my serve. I hold to get back to 4-5.
But his forehand continues to grow in strength and accuracy. And now his slice bh seems crisper and more confident than before. He serves it out to win the set 6-4. I say let’s keep playing. I wasn’t playing that badly, but he outplayed me. I lost those next two games too - had game point on my serve, but then couldn’t execute my first serve and he spanked a couple fh return winners. Part of the problem was the court surface was super slippery and hard to play defense on, so with him having the more offensive game style, it was hard to stay in the rallies.
Afterward, I’m thinking, this guy must have been playing ITF level when he was younger. I ask him. He says, “I played big tournaments, and small tournaments.”
“Big tournaments, I played Roland Garros, Hamburg.”
What was your best ranking? “300”
In singles? “Yes”
I’d been punked.
He seemed very satisfied with his comeback victory. He said that he had played well, and that he just needed a few games to get grooved again.
I have a rematch scheduled for Monday morning. I probably don’t have much chance, but if I can expose his movement and 1hb, and if I can serve better, there is hope.
Any suggestions on how to beat a old dude with pro caliber strokes?
The teaching pro was older dude, mid 50s, wearing long sleeve poly shirt and cap like most do in sunny places like this. He was finishing up a serve lesson with an 8-year-old girl, and chatting with the hot mom afterward.
Doesn’t speak a lick of English, just mumbly fast Chilean Spanish. We warm up with some mini. Than some groundies. Some volleys. He’s curious about my racquet with heavy tape all over it. He asks me what I want to do. I tell him I just want to play a match. “A set? Ok let’s do it.” He seems excited. “You serve.”
They had watered the red clay court before my session. But in the dry desert mountain air, the court was already getting dry and powdery, with poor traction, by the time we start.
We started playing points. I was playing pretty conservatively. Just trying to make balls. Get it to his 1hb. It seemed to be working. I had a mobility advantage and could reach more balls. I didn’t serve well, but was solid off the ground and held serve to open.
After we cross to other side, he says that he really likes to play tennis. He doesn’t like to watch on tv.
I kept playing my conservative counter-punchy style, still working well, and broke to go up 2-0. The next game up 15-love, he hit a crosscourt sharp angle 1hb near the sideline. I inspected mark, couldn’t tell, and gave him the benefit of the doubt on the call. He thought his shot was out and came across net to check the mark. He pointed to the mark. I said yeah I think that’s it. But I can’t see any space so it’s his point. In my experience, teaching pros are usually very generous with calls when winning, but rarely when losing, so this was unusual.
But then I tossed in 2 double faults, and lost the game. I broke again to go up 3-1, but he was starting to improve and dictate better with his forehand. The next game, his fh starting landing in the corners, and he broke my serve again. I was still up 3-2, I realized that this guy might be better than I initially thought, and I might have a tough match on my hands, and I wasn’t just going to roll this old guy.
He was slicing most of his bh, but pretty good at placing his slice and using it to move the ball around. Earlier he had been attempting bh drop shots, but missing some, and I successfully reached other and win the point.
The next game, he started getting more pro-active about running around his bh. He was hitting solid forehands to the corners and making me play D. I started stabbing deep defensive lobs in the air. At first these seemed to work well to extend the point. But then he starts stepping in and taking my defensive high balls out of the air with swinging fh volleys. He made a winner on one. Then another. I realized I had to respect his swinging volley was solid. He held to get to 3-3.
I’m thinking, ok, he’s better than I thought. But he’s older than me. I’m going to have to play well, but if I buckle down I should still be able to pull this one out.
Next game, I start rolling loopy high balls crosscourt to his bh. He runs around one and hits an inside-out loopy deep ball. I decide to back up and reply with a sky ball bh lob 80 feet high. My sky ball was going to land in the service line. I see he’s set up to take the sky ball out of the air. I’m thinking that’s pretty risky, but his overhead ugly and bloops short crosscourt angle where I have no chance to reach it. He also gets a lucky net cord, and he breaks me to go up 4-3. He’s got momentum, but that game seemed lucky.
Next game, his forehand seems to go up another level. He spanks winners to the corner and runs me ragged. Any ball I leave in the middle without enough on it he takes control of the point. I try positioning deep to return. That doesn’t work — just gives him too much time to run around the bh. I try returning from inside baseline. That works a couple points, but then he blows an ace by me. He goes up 5-3. This is a little deflating. I’m starting to think to myself that his forehand is practically pro caliber. Am I imagining it? Part of problem is that my conservative game plan was based on assumption that I was playing someone lower level than me. It was clear I had to ditch it and play a little more aggressively.
I go to my back and add an accessory, something to try and turn the momentum. I play a solid game on my serve. I hold to get back to 4-5.
But his forehand continues to grow in strength and accuracy. And now his slice bh seems crisper and more confident than before. He serves it out to win the set 6-4. I say let’s keep playing. I wasn’t playing that badly, but he outplayed me. I lost those next two games too - had game point on my serve, but then couldn’t execute my first serve and he spanked a couple fh return winners. Part of the problem was the court surface was super slippery and hard to play defense on, so with him having the more offensive game style, it was hard to stay in the rallies.
Afterward, I’m thinking, this guy must have been playing ITF level when he was younger. I ask him. He says, “I played big tournaments, and small tournaments.”
“Big tournaments, I played Roland Garros, Hamburg.”
What was your best ranking? “300”
In singles? “Yes”
I’d been punked.
He seemed very satisfied with his comeback victory. He said that he had played well, and that he just needed a few games to get grooved again.
I have a rematch scheduled for Monday morning. I probably don’t have much chance, but if I can expose his movement and 1hb, and if I can serve better, there is hope.
Any suggestions on how to beat a old dude with pro caliber strokes?
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