Signed up for my first 4.5 tournament!

J

jdubbs

Hall of Fame
Signed up for my first 4.5 tourney 3 weeks from now, so gives me plenty of time to work on my game.

I'm a better than average 4.0 with a winning record in tourneys and league play, a finals appearance. Not setting the 4.0 world on fire by any means, though. I've been playing a couple of 4.5's lately and done pretty well, and at least not getting blown off the court, so I'm going to level up and see how it goes.

My biggest problem has been double faulting, but I worked on it and have gotten it down to 1-2 DF per match by taking off some on my first serve. Also working with a pro on hitting more cross court and being more patient. Next up is working on return of serve.
Overall I'm excited. Worst case I spent $40 to get schooled for an hour.

Any tips on what I'll expect to see out there?
 
I wouldn't expect you to see a huge jump from the 4.5s you've been playing.

My belief is that anytime you are playing a level up, you have to really focus on taking advantage of the crucial points as the chances you are going to get in those points are going to be less than your current level.

Either way, let us know how it goes.
 
1-2 double faults an entire match? I wish!!! I double fault 1-2 times a set! Your serve percentage must be awesome!

I recently took up the task of 4.5, and honestly as long as you have the anticipation and foot speed, there won't be much difference from playing the average guys you're playing.

If you can manage to get your return of serves down, and you have some consistent game and serving, I believe you won't have a problem at least winning a match or two! 4.5 aren't all too scary, it's just having the confidence to impose your game against them! :D

-Fuji
 
Is that the real key, play out more? I'd say as a strong 4.0/weak 4.5 right now that my problem is I try to play a poor man's Andy Murray or Gilles Simon game out there and I have more of an attacking style so I get caught in a bad strategy. The 4.5s I have played have spectacular consistency and I sometimes find myself "pulling the trigger" too soon. I have played one west coast based 5.0, and 1 legit 4.5 player and a 4.5 player on his way to being upgraded.

Lost to the 5.0 6-2, 6-3, 6-0, , beat the normal 4.5 7-5, 6-1, and then lost 6-2, 6-1 to the 4.5 on the way to being bumped but in all 3 cases the guys were insanely consistent. the west coast 5.0 had great instincts to come to net though and great placement and literally it was like the poor man's djoker or agassi where he beat you up on points you won. Basically you had to put a knife in him to win a point and then u'd be so dead u'd lose 2-3 points in a row in less than 2-3 shots. The normal 4.5 match was really tight in the first set and I basically caught fire in the second and was able to blow him off the court. The 6-2, 6-1 was the longest match, i just could not elevate my game on break point chances..but again insane consistency but I had a lot of chances...even took notes.

So in your mind, would you say is it better off going for shots and losing 6-2, 6-2 or trying to play their game and be more defensive where you still lose 6-2, 6-2 but are so spent afterwards cause you just don't have that consistency. I'm played the top seeded guy in this tourny tomorrow that's a legit 4.5, got to the finals of it last year and is a lefty and consistent. so i'm trying to game plan what to do, if i should just get the ac/dc in the ipod prematch and go out and try to catch fire off medium paced shots or most likely in vain try to prolong the inevitable by playign long rallies...

Fuji said:
1-2 double faults an entire match? I wish!!! I double fault 1-2 times a set! Your serve percentage must be awesome!

I recently took up the task of 4.5, and honestly as long as you have the anticipation and foot speed, there won't be much difference from playing the average guys you're playing.

If you can manage to get your return of serves down, and you have some consistent game and serving, I believe you won't have a problem at least winning a match or two! 4.5 aren't all too scary, it's just having the confidence to impose your game against them! :D

-Fuji
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I do feel like you need to be patient in points (if you want to give your best effort). To go out and think, "well we've hit 4 balls, it's time to rip one" from anywhere...then it's suicide. That's not tennis. You need to work to his backhand, few players should be able to beat you (or attack you even) if you continue to work it. Early on give him a variety of shots (including bringing him in, etc)...find something that appears shakier than other parts of his game and try to build points toward that weaker area. No matter the level, there is a weaker portion of every players game. This is the way you should approach every match in my honest opinion.
 
Coach Carter said:
I do feel like you need to be patient in points (if you want to give your best effort). To go out and think, "well we've hit 4 balls, it's time to rip one" from anywhere...then it's suicide. That's not tennis. You need to work to his backhand, few players should be able to beat you (or attack you even) if you continue to work it. Early on give him a variety of shots (including bringing him in, etc)...find something that appears shakier than other parts of his game and try to build points toward that weaker area. No matter the level, there is a weaker portion of every players game. This is the way you should approach every match in my honest opinion.
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This is good advice. I played my pro a few points the other day and we were trading groundstrokes just fine, but his consistency unnerved me and I started trying to hit winners with poor results.

I would like to be able to really hit the ball deep and hard, and find my chances. At 4.0 my game translates to success because they don't have the consistency, or give me an easy ball to come in on for a putaway.

That won't be the case at 4.5, so I'm going to ratchet up my fitness big time to prepare to grind it out.
 
I think if you come into a point with a preconceived idea of what should happen after x number of shots, you're setting yourself up for a bad outcome. I think you need a strategy, you need to understand what it is you want to exploit, a game plan. But within a point you must let the point tell you when it's time to react. For me, I'm an all court player and provided my opponent hasn't shown a great ability to hit passing shots off solid approach shots, I'm going to consistently attack but ONLY when I have a good opportunity to attack. I don't try to create chicken salad out of chicken crap.

The other thing: get Brad Gilbert's book "Winning Ugly". Good stuff on the thought process of how to approach a match. One basic tip: during warmup, hit your opponent a variety of balls. See how he responds to low forehands, high forehands, low backhands, high backhands, backspin to both sides, topspin to both sides, does he move better left or right, does he move forward well? You want to find out what your opponent wants to do, and what he does NOT want to do.

Then figure out a game plan where you can apply your strengths to his weaknesses. Make him do what he does not want to do. Relentlessly. Even a 4.5 with a well rounded game has shots he'd rather not hit and would prefer to hit something else. Use that information to your advantage.

I was playing a guy a few weeks ago, very interesting. He was struggling with his groundies, very erratic, except for when I approached the net. When he had a target (me) to work around, his groundies were deadly. He didn't even realize it, but he WANTED me to come to the net. Even off solid approaches he won virtually every one of those points. So guess what, I stopped attacking. I fed him medium pace balls in his wheelhouse, moving him side to side and let him overhit and spray his shots.

he won the first 2 games of the match, took me that long to realize what he did and didn't want to do. So I changed strategy and won the next 9 games in a row and won the match 2 and 2.

Be observant, have a plan, but be flexible and let the point dictate the right shot, not some preconceived idea about what should be happening by that point in the point.
 
^^^

Good advice. I'm by nature an aggressive player but don't adjust enough during matches. These guys will be match tough, so I'll need to make adjustments. Should be interesting. Pressure is off, I don't care about winning or losing, just playing well and make them beat me instead of just giving the match away through double faults and losing shots.
 
Yeah for me it's not like say 5 shots and I say, forget it and pull the trigger. I definitely will be more patient, esp since we're playing indoors so perfect conditions. In outdoors with potential wind or humidity, I can get more mentally impatient.

I have observed most 4.5s are great lateral movers, not as great up/down so may try that with him because I can hit passing shots. I may try to hit down the middle the whole time too. I know even pros like Murray and Simon, two great counter punchers, actually hate the ball down the middle because it gives them nothing to work with so I might do that. Also I might try junkballing, I watched Gilles Simon play on HCs one time and is variety is incredible, lot of off pace stuff at unexpected times, almost knuckle ball type of shots at times, I think that can help me.

My biggest concern is my fitness. Even though I work out and do cardio, I mean I have low bf but my anerobic conditioning for tennis can be suspect. Although this tends to not be a factor if i'm winning haha, funny how that works.


Posture Guy said:
I think if you come into a point with a preconceived idea of what should happen after x number of shots, you're setting yourself up for a bad outcome. I think you need a strategy, you need to understand what it is you want to exploit, a game plan. But within a point you must let the point tell you when it's time to react. For me, I'm an all court player and provided my opponent hasn't shown a great ability to hit passing shots off solid approach shots, I'm going to consistently attack but ONLY when I have a good opportunity to attack. I don't try to create chicken salad out of chicken crap.

The other thing: get Brad Gilbert's book "Winning Ugly". Good stuff on the thought process of how to approach a match. One basic tip: during warmup, hit your opponent a variety of balls. See how he responds to low forehands, high forehands, low backhands, high backhands, backspin to both sides, topspin to both sides, does he move better left or right, does he move forward well? You want to find out what your opponent wants to do, and what he does NOT want to do.

Then figure out a game plan where you can apply your strengths to his weaknesses. Make him do what he does not want to do. Relentlessly. Even a 4.5 with a well rounded game has shots he'd rather not hit and would prefer to hit something else. Use that information to your advantage.

I was playing a guy a few weeks ago, very interesting. He was struggling with his groundies, very erratic, except for when I approached the net. When he had a target (me) to work around, his groundies were deadly. He didn't even realize it, but he WANTED me to come to the net. Even off solid approaches he won virtually every one of those points. So guess what, I stopped attacking. I fed him medium pace balls in his wheelhouse, moving him side to side and let him overhit and spray his shots.

he won the first 2 games of the match, took me that long to realize what he did and didn't want to do. So I changed strategy and won the next 9 games in a row and won the match 2 and 2.

Be observant, have a plan, but be flexible and let the point dictate the right shot, not some preconceived idea about what should be happening by that point in the point.
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ive played a lot of 4.5 tournies and i can tell yout its always the constent guys who win these things. its not because they are way better, but more because to win a tourny you need to string together 4 to 5 match wins in a row. if you always go for winners you can easily drop one match based off errors to a lesser oppononent. i used to do this a lot.

one thing i have noticed that really helped my game is the point construction it takes to win and be consistent. if you have a ball that is short, but not the most ideal to put a way a winner i would suggest hitting a nice angled shot and make your opponent hit an even more difficult shot, then you will have a much easier winner on the next shot. i noticed i was always going for winners when i didnt need to. now i try and hit one or two extra shots to set up my winner and put myself into a position to not make an UE.

another thing i always remind myself of while im playing is that placement will always beat power. i noticed i used to always try and overpower my opponent and would make errors. if i hit a really powerful shot the guy would still block it back and sometimes it would go deep and i would be backpedaling. i really started to try and place my shots much better. this increased my constistency and gave me many more chances to put away the point when the guy had just ran for a ball i place out wide.

a lot of these 4.5 guys will come out and try and out constistent you and the ones that lose will be the ones trying to overpower you. just focus on placing your shots and putting your opponent in tough positions and then go for the winner. a lot of times you can even live off errors when they start trying to hit running winners because they know you are waiting for their short ball to put away.

hope this helps. and let us know how you do. video is always fun to watch too.
 
^^^
Good feedback, thanks. Fitness is definitely going to be my main issue.
I played a match the other day where I was up 5-2, set point, and just absolutely ran out of gas. This was with a super consistent player and we had really long rallies so I ran out of steam fast and then it was all downhill from there. But I gave away a lot of games on double faults, and i think I've figured that out.

I've worked with my pro on hitting better cross court and staying in the rallies much longer. I think if I really work on my fitness, and my serve holds up, I've got most of the shots I need to compete at this level. Or, we'll see at least.

I just figure I'd play 4.5 and skip the first and 2nd round 4.0 matches, which usually are pretty marginal players, and play a good player while I'm still fresh to see what happens.
 
achokshi99 said:
Is that the real key, play out more? I'd say as a strong 4.0/weak 4.5 right now that my problem is I try to play a poor man's Andy Murray or Gilles Simon game out there and I have more of an attacking style so I get caught in a bad strategy. The 4.5s I have played have spectacular consistency and I sometimes find myself "pulling the trigger" too soon. I have played one west coast based 5.0, and 1 legit 4.5 player and a 4.5 player on his way to being upgraded.

Lost to the 5.0 6-2, 6-3, 6-0, , beat the normal 4.5 7-5, 6-1, and then lost 6-2, 6-1 to the 4.5 on the way to being bumped but in all 3 cases the guys were insanely consistent. the west coast 5.0 had great instincts to come to net though and great placement and literally it was like the poor man's djoker or agassi where he beat you up on points you won. Basically you had to put a knife in him to win a point and then u'd be so dead u'd lose 2-3 points in a row in less than 2-3 shots. The normal 4.5 match was really tight in the first set and I basically caught fire in the second and was able to blow him off the court. The 6-2, 6-1 was the longest match, i just could not elevate my game on break point chances..but again insane consistency but I had a lot of chances...even took notes.

So in your mind, would you say is it better off going for shots and losing 6-2, 6-2 or trying to play their game and be more defensive where you still lose 6-2, 6-2 but are so spent afterwards cause you just don't have that consistency. I'm played the top seeded guy in this tourny tomorrow that's a legit 4.5, got to the finals of it last year and is a lefty and consistent. so i'm trying to game plan what to do, if i should just get the ac/dc in the ipod prematch and go out and try to catch fire off medium paced shots or most likely in vain try to prolong the inevitable by playign long rallies...
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I'm a middle of the road 4.5 right now, and my whole game is based upon ME dictating the pace. I'm not a fan of grinding for hours on end honestly. I'm a big fan of taking the net, so my whole strategy is to try and draw them out wide, and just take the net to end points. (It's a lot easier to say!)

As long as you are able to get chances to score points, you have your foot in the door. I think that if you are able to covert on chances, you're going to do well. I worked A LOT on finishing points on put away shots 99% of the time. I don't miss over heads, or sitters anymore. As soon as I get a chance ball, it's my point. That makes a big difference, because no players at equal level can hit perfect shots all the time! Then with my placement if I can make them give up a little bit more then they would like to, then it all works in my favor.

I'm not much of a defensive style player, so honestly I would be much happier with my own game if I went out and lost 6-2 by hitting my shots and playing my game, then grinding and trying to beat his game and still loose 6-2. Just my personal ideal's though! I'd much rather loose on my terms then be beat by someone else.

Of course take it all with a grain of salt! :)

-Fuji
 
and to add on to THAT point, to not let your opponent play their game, you need to figure out what their game is. Most players go through warmups mindlessly. As I said above, use that time to really dial in to what your opponent does and doesn't want to do. hit him a variety of shots and see how he reacts, then use that information to do what Sim says. Figure out how to apply your strengths to their weaknesses and make them hit shots they'd rather not hit.
 
Posture Guy said:
I think if you come into a point with a preconceived idea of what should happen after x number of shots, you're setting yourself up for a bad outcome. I think you need a strategy, you need to understand what it is you want to exploit, a game plan. But within a point you must let the point tell you when it's time to react. For me, I'm an all court player and provided my opponent hasn't shown a great ability to hit passing shots off solid approach shots, I'm going to consistently attack but ONLY when I have a good opportunity to attack. I don't try to create chicken salad out of chicken crap.

The other thing: get Brad Gilbert's book "Winning Ugly". Good stuff on the thought process of how to approach a match. One basic tip: during warmup, hit your opponent a variety of balls. See how he responds to low forehands, high forehands, low backhands, high backhands, backspin to both sides, topspin to both sides, does he move better left or right, does he move forward well? You want to find out what your opponent wants to do, and what he does NOT want to do.

Then figure out a game plan where you can apply your strengths to his weaknesses. Make him do what he does not want to do. Relentlessly. Even a 4.5 with a well rounded game has shots he'd rather not hit and would prefer to hit something else. Use that information to your advantage.

I was playing a guy a few weeks ago, very interesting. He was struggling with his groundies, very erratic, except for when I approached the net. When he had a target (me) to work around, his groundies were deadly. He didn't even realize it, but he WANTED me to come to the net. Even off solid approaches he won virtually every one of those points. So guess what, I stopped attacking. I fed him medium pace balls in his wheelhouse, moving him side to side and let him overhit and spray his shots.

he won the first 2 games of the match, took me that long to realize what he did and didn't want to do. So I changed strategy and won the next 9 games in a row and won the match 2 and 2.

Be observant, have a plan, but be flexible and let the point dictate the right shot, not some preconceived idea about what should be happening by that point in the point.
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Nice post - I couldn't agree more! :) Gilbert's book has a chapter dealing with the importance of footwork. I've found that my game has improved since I started paying more attention to this.
 
nickarnold2000 said:
Nice post - I couldn't agree more! :) Gilbert's book has a chapter dealing with the importance of footwork. I've found that my game has improved since I started paying more attention to this.
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thanks.

I'd love to know what you mean specifically when you say "paying more attention to...." footwork. I understand the importance of it and I'll do some drills to work on it, but once I'm playing it's kind of like breathing. It just happens without me giving it much thought.
 
Posture Guy said:
thanks.

I'd love to know what you mean specifically when you say "paying more attention to...." footwork. I understand the importance of it and I'll do some drills to work on it, but once I'm playing it's kind of like breathing. It just happens without me giving it much thought.
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Not me. My natural tendency is to stop moving. I sometimes have to tell myself to bring the energy i.e. Keep the feet moving, during rallies.
 
jdubbs said:
Not me. My natural tendency is to stop moving. I sometimes have to tell myself to bring the energy i.e. Keep the feet moving, during rallies.
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^I'm a mix of the two of you. Playing a few years of mixed dubs with my wife I got a much better idea of what the difference was between my good and bad days on the court and it pretty much came down to footwork.

She always told me that when I was playing great tennis it looked like I was dancing on the court (which was obviously not consciously controlled) and when I played poorly, my feet were always planted. So now when I'm not hitting well, I try to keep them moving first and foremost.
 
yonexpurestorm said:
he says it was 3 weeks from when he started his thread. im thinking next week.
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Yeah it's actually on the 22nd. I'm playing well right now, in singles anyway. Hung with a 5.0 before losing 6-4 (we only played 1 set). Serving is in a groove, cut back on double faults (though it can become an issue at any time). Trying to control my nerves. God knows why I still get nervous, except that I put too much pressure on myself to do well at tourneys. Not nearly that nervous in social matches.
 
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jdubbs said:
Yeah it's actually on the 22nd. I'm playing well right now, in singles anyway. Hung with a 5.0 before losing 6-4 (we only played 1 set). Serving is in a groove, cut back on double faults (though it can become an issue at any time). Trying to control my nerves. God knows why I still get nervous, except that I put too much pressure on myself to do well at tourneys. Not nearly that nervous in social matches.
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The more tourneys you play they start to become routine, just like those social matches.
 
ive definitely noticed how the more tournaments i play the more relaxed i have become, and the more relaxed the better i play. i just played the finals of my last tournament and lost the first set 0-6. i just told myself the match isnt over and play your game. i was able to pull it through and win the next two sets. ive noticed that confidence in your game is so key. once you start tightening up you will never win.
 
danno123 said:
It's probably a stupid question, but how does one find local tournaments?
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They are actually kind of hard to find if you aren't in the tennis "know" of your city/ state/ province!

I just google "tennis -enter place here-", and normally there is a site with tennis in your area. It's how I find all my Tournaments. :)

-Fuji
 
heftylefty said:
Where is the tournament?
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Odd that this question went unanswered since the OP is wondering what to expect. In my neck of the woods what you should expect is that in the first round you will be in the semis. On the other side of the draw, the winner will get a bye to move through to the finals. If you win your first match you will be in the finals against someone who has yet to play a match.
 
yonexpurestorm said:
i think the op is in northern cali, so i would assume the draw should be a decent size.
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I don't like to put too much out there on the net about where or who I am, because I reserve the right to be snarky and angry at other players, or myself, at times, and I don't necessarily want to the whole world to know it.

That being said, this tourney has a pretty big 4.5 draw, I'll know more next week.
 
Based at GoldenGatePark in SanFrancisco, in my day, like the late '70's, the local tourney had a 64 man C draw. Didn't know the #'s for the B's.
My next tourney, the SFCityOpen, had a 128 C men's draw, so I had to stay in there for a few rounds to win it.
OaklandCityOpen had a 40 man A/Open draw.
Concord, Pleasanton, WalnutCreek had 32 man Open draw, with a few byes, which of course, I didn't qualify for.
Sacto and Davis had a total of over 300 players in the men's division, A, B's, and C's.
Heck, even the ChineseNationals in the late '70's always had over 128 singles draw.
Maybe the best guys don't come from here, but lots of pretty good players travel here to play the local tourneys.
 
Played a practice match against a 4.5 player (albeit with a losing record at 4.5 tourneys) yesterday.

He had a huge serve, and won all his service games, though I had a few break points.

I won all my service games also and most importantly NO double faults. Wow, that was a breakthrough. What a relief, as DF's cost me more games than anything.
I lost 7-6 in a tiebreak and our court time ran out. I played pretty well overall, but I'll need to do better returning big serves. If I don't get a big server, I hopefully can hold serve majority of games. I was even S&V'ing with success.

Draws come out in the next few days and then we'll see what it looks like. Hopefully I'll draw a weaker player to start.
 
Posture Guy said:
thanks.

I'd love to know what you mean specifically when you say "paying more attention to...." footwork. I understand the importance of it and I'll do some drills to work on it, but once I'm playing it's kind of like breathing. It just happens without me giving it much thought.
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What I've noticed is, the more nervous I feel (ie. in a tournament) the more I need to remind myself to stay on my toes and to keep my feet moving. Outside of competition it's not a problem but nerves can absolutely kill a players game if you don't know how to handle it (IMO).
 
nickarnold2000 said:
What I've noticed is, the more nervous I feel (ie. in a tournament) the more I need to remind myself to stay on my toes and to keep my feet moving. Outside of competition it's not a problem but nerves can absolutely kill a players game if you don't know how to handle it (IMO).
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Nerves can kill your foot work and make you just stand there like a statue.
 
Well, I made the quarterfinals.

Of course, the tourney hasn't started yet, but there were only 8 players who signed up.

My opponent transitioned from 5.0 to 4.5 a couple of years ago and is 8-3 in singles at 4.5 with league play and a single tournament (which he made the finals in).

I have my work cut out for me. Put on top of that I pulled a muscle in my back and my knees hurt, and it's going to take some luck, like a traffic accident, to win this one.

On the flip side I've got nothing to lose. My serve has been really great the last couple of times I played with no double faults and decent pace.

I'm going to grind and stay in points as long as possible. Pick my spots and not try to hit winners 5 feet behind the baseline.

Oh, and if I manage to get by him, I get the #1 seed who's won six tournaments at 4.5 so far this year.
 
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i always love those challenges of playing someone that is supposed to beat you. if you lose its no big deal, as long as you can say you played your hardest and he just out played you. and if you just have one of those days where your racket become excalliber and you cant do anything wrong and pull out the win you will have a great boost in confidence and will be eager to get back on the court. either way its a win/win. just dont get discouraged if you lose. i noticed i was getting discouraged losing alll my open tournament matches, but i tried to focus on what i was doing well and realize what i needed to work on in order to compete.

good luck and let us know how it goes.
 
jdubbs said:
I don't like to put too much out there on the net about where or who I am, because I reserve the right to be snarky and angry at other players, or myself, at times, and I don't necessarily want to the whole world to know it.
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In that case, you really shouldn't have posted your following post... But don't worry, your secret identity is safe with me.

jdubbs said:
Well, I made the quarterfinals.

Of course, the tourney hasn't started yet, but there were only 8 players who signed up.

My opponent transitioned from 5.0 to 4.5 a couple of years ago and is 8-3 in singles at 4.5 with league play and a single tournament (which he made the finals in).

I have my work cut out for me. Put on top of that I pulled a muscle in my back and my knees hurt, and it's going to take some luck, like a traffic accident, to win this one.

On the flip side I've got nothing to lose. My serve has been really great the last couple of times I played with no double faults and decent pace.

I'm going to grind and stay in points as long as possible. Pick my spots and not try to hit winners 5 feet behind the baseline.

Oh, and if I manage to get by him, I get the #1 seed who's won six tournaments at 4.5 so far this year.
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I don't know your first opponent. But I've played the #1 seed (league match a couple of years ago). Good player. Can be beaten though - a friend of mine has played and beaten him a few times. My friend has a conservative style that forces opponents to take it to him, so grinding is a good strategy to try if you get past your first match.
 
jdubbs said:
Well, I made the quarterfinals.

Of course, the tourney hasn't started yet, but there were only 8 players who signed up.

My opponent transitioned from 5.0 to 4.5 a couple of years ago and is 8-3 in singles at 4.5 with league play and a single tournament (which he made the finals in).

I have my work cut out for me. Put on top of that I pulled a muscle in my back and my knees hurt, and it's going to take some luck, like a traffic accident, to win this one.

On the flip side I've got nothing to lose. My serve has been really great the last couple of times I played with no double faults and decent pace.

I'm going to grind and stay in points as long as possible. Pick my spots and not try to hit winners 5 feet behind the baseline.

Oh, and if I manage to get by him, I get the #1 seed who's won six tournaments at 4.5 so far this year.
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I thought you said this would be your first 4.5 ?? I see another one where it looks like you actually did pretty well.
 
jdubbs said:
Well, I made the quarterfinals.

Of course, the tourney hasn't started yet, but there were only 8 players who signed up.

My opponent transitioned from 5.0 to 4.5 a couple of years ago and is 8-3 in singles at 4.5 with league play and a single tournament (which he made the finals in).

I have my work cut out for me. Put on top of that I pulled a muscle in my back and my knees hurt, and it's going to take some luck, like a traffic accident, to win this one.

On the flip side I've got nothing to lose. My serve has been really great the last couple of times I played with no double faults and decent pace.

I'm going to grind and stay in points as long as possible. Pick my spots and not try to hit winners 5 feet behind the baseline.

Oh, and if I manage to get by him, I get the #1 seed who's won six tournaments at 4.5 so far this year.
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Play like you have nothing to lose, and have a great time! :)
 
Well, finished my match earlier today.
Right to it: lost 6-1, 6-2.
My opponent was a former college player and is now a coach.
The good:
Only 3 double faults for me, compared to 15-20 my last time out.
I stayed in most points; I wasn't overwhelmed or overpowered. Had a few game points that I lost, most games went to duece.
Had some really good winners, was pretty steady overall on both sides.

The bad:
Stayed too far back. His shots didn't penetrate that far but I was standing too far back to really do much with them and lunging for them. Also made me susceptible to the drop shot.
Volleys: I had my chances at net, but missed I think all of my chances there.
Serve. I gave up a lot by basically hitting two second serves. A big first serve will let me go on the offensive more often. Just have to make sure my 2nd goes in.


All in all, I actually played very well. My stamina was good, I was in most points, and had a lot of fun. He would beat me 10 times out of 10, but now that I know what to expect, I won't be as overwhelmed and I know I can work on a few things to make it more competitive next time. He has an excellent record at 4.5, so nothing to be ashamed of for me.
 
too bad you lost but participating in a competition makes one realize how many talented players there are out there in the world.
 
Sounds like you walked both into and out of this match with the right mindset as far as having a game plan and what you want to adapt going forward to compete at the 4.5 level.

From your basic synopsis, what I'll say is find some time to practice your second serve. I don't care how good someone's game is at 4.5, if they don't have a serve that can take me out of a point, I will get a break or two a set because I will make sure that every ball gets back in play.

You nailed it on the head, you can't go for your first if you can't rely on your second, so find that second serve and work on location imho. It's nice to have variety but if you can hit 3-4 spots and keep it mixed up, you only need a mild kick or topspin serve to be effective. Look to hit both corners and the body...if you can, work on finding both the bh and fh hips but most only go 'body' and that's where you start. Each player gets handcuffed on one or the other from what I've seen at 4.5 and 5.0. So when you find it, work the pattern of 3 and keep them gessing.

To me, variety of serve types on the second means nothing until you can hit your spots. So work on one that ends up being the most consistent for you and add down the line when you have total confidence in it.
 
props to you jdubbs. never any shame in losing to a better player. plus it makes it clear what skills you need to work on.

i thought it was interesting that you said you played too deep. i find playing lesser players, i'm able to dictate and i'm inside the baseline. against stronger players i play behind the baseline and i'm in pure turtle mode. obviously better players hit deeper (not always harder though) and make it tough to take over a point.
 
jdubbs said:
Well, finished my match earlier today.
Right to it: lost 6-1, 6-2.
My opponent was a former college player and is now a coach.
The good:
Only 3 double faults for me, compared to 15-20 my last time out.
I stayed in most points; I wasn't overwhelmed or overpowered. Had a few game points that I lost, most games went to duece.
Had some really good winners, was pretty steady overall on both sides.

The bad:
Stayed too far back. His shots didn't penetrate that far but I was standing too far back to really do much with them and lunging for them. Also made me susceptible to the drop shot.
Volleys: I had my chances at net, but missed I think all of my chances there.
Serve. I gave up a lot by basically hitting two second serves. A big first serve will let me go on the offensive more often. Just have to make sure my 2nd goes in.


All in all, I actually played very well. My stamina was good, I was in most points, and had a lot of fun. He would beat me 10 times out of 10, but now that I know what to expect, I won't be as overwhelmed and I know I can work on a few things to make it more competitive next time. He has an excellent record at 4.5, so nothing to be ashamed of for me.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a great experience.

Will be interesting to see how your opponent does in the next round against the #1 seed.
 
Looks like u played well. At least u weren't blown off the court. Now u know what to work on and u can hang Iin the 4.5s. I started to realize that when u lose u learn much more about ur gm than winning. Jus gotta keep working.
 
My opponent went on to beat the #1 seed (with a 23-4 record and 6 tournament wins this year) in straight sets in the semi-final, then won the final 6-0, 6-1.

So I guess I don't feel too bad. If I get a lesser opponent I might be able to scratch out a win. Another tournament coming next month.
 
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