So I played a long tiebreak today and I won!

FiReFTW

Legend
Against the new guy I know, who asked me if I want to go out for some hitting "sparring" a week ago

So this guys plays tournaments and leagues and has been playing since he has been 5, so he is quite a solid player.

So since I didn't update the other thread: last day we just hit around a bit, getting the feel of each other.

My takeaway, he has a very solid tennis game, good forehand, good backhand, good all around (volleys, dropshots, just all shots), good spin on shots but most importantly EXTREMELY consistent, you can see he has been playing tennis for a very very long time.

So his overall game and baseline game is much more complete and better than mine, however my forehand held up good against him and actually caused him some problems when we picked up intensity and hit some harder shots in corners at times, so @rogerroger917 was not wrong when he said my forehand seems to be pretty decent.

Anyway, today we went out to hit again, and we warmed up, and hit around for 40 mins or so, get really warmed up, and then he said we should play a tiebreak till the end of our session, but since there was alot of time left we said we can play a tiebreak till 15.

Long story short I won 15:10

The most suprizing thing was how confident and relaxed I was, I was probably very confident because we played tiebreakers and I trust my serve, even more so after some nice comments here by some posters that it seems like its a pretty effective serve.
Usually im very nervous and tight, specially at start, and I mess up many shots and my nerves and lack of confidence get the better of me, so im very suprized at this... perhaps because my coach and me have been playing some points for the last 10 mins in each session lately, and im getting more point play and more confidence in my game.

He is more solid from the ground of course because of his more complete game and a ton of experience, but my serve seems like it was a big problem for him, he had quite alot of trouble with with me hitting some aces and some UE's from him, and considering his level and experience that is quite good proof that my serve is indeed quite effective, so im very happy considering the time ive played because I know I have a ton of reserve.

Anyway some self analysis on my shots relative to my level and my tactics:

-1st serve is rly good, has pace has spin, I can place it decently and seems like it causes problems to opponents
-Forehand is good I can trust it to not let me down and I can hit shots I couldn't even imagine like 6 months ago, I have good control of placement, spin, arc and everything
-My passing shots are extremely good
-2nd serve getting much better I feel more confident in it and I didnt double fault at all
-I made massive improvements in volleys (working most on them atm) and they went from 1 to 5-6 now, but still alot of room for improvment
-Backhand needs alot of work still, I can hit it with alot of pace or spin or whatever but its just inconsistent its not yet at an adequate level and I cant count on it to hold up
-Backhand slice better but still inconsistent, I can hit nasty low skid slices but not consistently, sometimes they float and sit up too much, very inconsistent, they can be good or they can be bad, I dont have perfect control
-Made massive improvements in footwork but still have lot of room for improvement

My game:

In general I play a varied game with topspin, slice, dropshots, mix it up alot, im a shotmaker and go for shots and I like to play creative and try to outfox the opponent, which I did a few times and caught him on the wrong leg (turn inside out on short FH then pivot around to hit an inside in, change grip on short ball to continental and fake dropshot then slice it deep in the corner etc..)

Few tactics I currently use:

Slice wide to open court on DEUCE (goal to open up court and try a one-two punch)
Kick wide on AD (goal to open up court and try a one-two punch)
Slice down the T on AD (goal to strech and get short ball and then finish in either corner)
Short angle CC slice out of nowhere (to suprize him and win point or if he gets to it he is streched short wide and use my good passing shot to easily pass him in the open court)
Drop shots (when I see he is a bit deeper, but try to hold on till last second with disguise)
When wide on forehand sometimes hit short angle buggywhip forehands (goal to get him off the court and open the court)
Try to mix up topspin BH and slice BH in order to get weaker ball so can runaround and use inside out or inside in forehand (however due to my BH and BH slice not being that great yet, its quite an inconsistent tactic)

thats all so far regarding tactics

Anyway hope you enjoyed my long essay lol.

Any advice what other tactics I could try, depending on my current strengths?
 

styksnstryngs

Professional
You can also play a game to 21 where you each serve 5 points. If you get to 20-20 it's win by 2 and you each serve one point.

J
I have a few hitting partners that I match up against well and sometimes our ten point tiebreakers end up going to 14-all, plus the points we play are all decent points.
 

FiReFTW

Legend
It is amazing how much easier tennis is when you are feeling confident. Nice write up.

From my personal experience thus far its inconceivable how much..before playing tennis I would NEVER in a million years think that some mental thing like this can affect your level so much.

If im nervious and tight and not confident and afraid to miss shots and afraid to lose, I can lose 6:0 or 6:1 to the same guy I can beat 6:1 when I feel confident and play to win points and have that killer instinct where every point I just play to win the point.

You just double fault and miss easy sitters all day when u feel like that, so you self implode.
 

user92626

G.O.A.T.
You can also play a game to 21 where you each serve 5 points. If you get to 20-20 it's win by 2 and you each serve one point.

J
If you're gonna play that many points, why wouldn't you want to play regular sets where you get the real feel of what tennis intends, ie hold, break point, etc. ? Not to mention it's alot easier to keep track of the scores and points.
 
C

Chadillac

Guest
If you're gonna play that many points, why wouldn't you want to play regular sets where you get the real feel of what tennis intends, ie hold, break point, etc. ? Not to mention it's alot easier to keep track of the scores and points.

Change overs.

You can also play a game to 21 where you each serve 5 points. If you get to 20-20 it's win by 2 and you each serve one point.

J

Ping pong has the same scoring system.

To @FiReFTW, I made up a game called the streak game (dumb name). The winner of the point gets to serve, the winner is the person who has the longest streak.


3-2-1 is also really fun. 3pts for a winner off any ball that doesnt bounce, 2pts for a winner off the bounce and 1 pt for an unforced error. You can kind of cheat and hit out balls for a 3pt winner :)
 

user92626

G.O.A.T.
It ends up taking 15-20 minutes so if you have more than enough time to play a couple breakers but not enough for a set.

J
20 points is very long. I have played 15 point tie breaker before, exactly like regular TB but go to 15! It wasn't good because people quit once the gap got too big, like 8-1! And it's tedious to call points!

When we don't have enough time, we simply play "first to 4 games win", ie 4-1 or 4-3 is just as good.

Flip the racket for first serving which isn't a big deal cuz everyone's serve sucks.

If time is really tight, do no-ad games.
 

FiReFTW

Legend
You didn't do us and yourself any good by not filming this tiebreak.

Yes your probably right, bit I need a break, edited so many videos lately that im pretty fed up with it atm, last one I did of my serve I was already super annoyed doing it and completely fed up with it.
 

Steady Eddy

Legend
That's good to hear.

Twice I've played guys who were way less experienced than me, but they hit all these improbable winners with their forehands. That sounds like you. At times I wanted to ask them, "How did you make that shot? Do you know how hard that shot is?"

Anyway, you might become one of those guys whose forehand is a real weapon. See if you can make it into one. Work on getting good at running around your backhand.
 

Curious

G.O.A.T.
Yes your probably right, bit I need a break, edited so many videos lately that im pretty fed up with it atm, last one I did of my serve I was already super annoyed doing it and completely fed up with it.
Shotcut. Free video editor, lots of features, there's a few good videos on Youtube about how to use it. I really like it.
 
Top