There's a guy on my mixed team, a neighbor of mine that I've been playing tennis with for 2.5 years now. He's 60 or 61 years old, but is a former professional soccer player - so incredibly athletic and quick-footed, though sprinting nowadays is not so easy for him. He has been playing tennis for 20 years or more and if the conversation gets to tennis, he will brag to anyone who will listen about two things:
1) Has never taken a single tennis lesson.
2) Has lost at mixed dubs only once or twice in the past 50+ matches - which is like 4 or 5 years worth of dubs seasons (though he only plays mixed at low 3.5 level and almost never at line 1 unless there is NO other choice, as he doesn't trust female partners at the level of mixed plays to help enough against line 1 competition - kind of a copout, but there it is).
He has a waiter's tray serve that is about as fast as is possible with the physiological limits of the motion - can place it well, and only very rarely double faults. This motion has taken its toll on his arm though as he was out half of this mixed season with frozen shoulder and elbow issues).
He plays on a roughly equivalent to 4.0 men's dubs team (ALTA B-2) at line 1 or 2. In his younger years he played on 4.5+ level teams (ALTA A and AA level) with his son who is currently a 4.5+ player.
He has almost no topspin on his forehand, which looks like a flat eastern grip sort of thing - not exactly ugly, but certainly not "pretty" - with anywhere from "just enough" to "pretty heavy" pace. Fundamentally his footwork is decent, but not orthodox... and his forehand goes EXACTLY where he wants it to, almost every time. He can chip slice the forehand as well with decent accuracy and often uses that for a drop shot or ROS.
His backhand is slice only, and it too goes EXACTLY where he wans it to almost every time - it looks like a hacker's slice, but I guarantee you that he can hit it low, driving, and skipping, or floating and checking up, which ever he wants, and put it wherever he wants to. He can drop shot like nobody's business. Absolutely no topspin backhand whatsoever. If you catch him stretching for a backhand he'll just hit a flat one back deep on you.
His return of serve is just a simple directed block for anything with decent pace, and if you hit him a soft second serve he WILL drop slice it and unless you are ready for it and have a pretty fast horse to get on, you aren't going to get it back.
His net game is solid, with the exception of the overhead which he really doesn't hit well - especially now with his shoulder problems.
I estimate his USTA rank at 4.0 at this point, but he's 60 or 61 with bad knees and a shabby elbow and shoulder. Two years ago he was a rock solid 4.0. The thing about him is that along with his non-pretty strokes and his sublime placement, he has truly cat-like reflexes even for his age - and he has "another gear" to find if he gets into serious competition. He plays down for mixed because he likes to humiliate the men by hitting to the women until they either blow the point or hit him one at the net that he can jam down the man's throat. In men's dubs he plays at his level and last season, won 7 out of 8 matches at line 1 or 2 on his ALTA B-2 men's dubs team. He lost in the second round of playoffs.
I have personally watched him utterly confound and destroy 4.0 dubs players who had strokes that looked like they were DEFINITELY formerly coached college level players (D2 or D3) - guys with sweet heavy topspin FH/BH strokes, hard nasty serves, super fast feet, etc.
When you watch him play you think "This guy's just a hack, look at those garbage strokes..." and then you're scratching your head as he's serving for the set and pulls out the hardest flat waiter's tray serve he has and paints the sideline 3 feet short of the service line for an ace.
In general he plays low risk, smart tennis - aiming for big targets, and only finessing when that's the smart play, rather than forcing it. He can lob but rarely uses topspin lobs unless he's goofing around and trying to make you run, but it's more about placement when he does it to reset the point or just to beat you because you got too close to the net.
I guess you'll just have to take my word for it because I have no match video to show you of him. This guy is no longer much for singles (bad knees and his age) but if you aren't a solid 4.0+ dubs team you don't stand much of a chance against him and his usual partner (who isn't as good as he is, not even very close).
Thanks for pointing out to everyone about this clown!
