My opponent showed up carrying a matching pair of Blue Yonexes, so I knew he could play.
He was in his early 30s, just moved here from Boston. He was 6’3”, lean, and athletically built. I wasn’t expecting him to be such a physical beast.
In warmup, it was clear that he was comfortable and solid off both wings on the baseline, but less comfortable at net. One of those singles specialist guys.
We started the match, and I was playing solid enough to win the points, but my opponent was a grinding baseline wall. Every point was long, and only ended when I took the initiative by either coming to net or trying to draw my opponent to net. He was quite good at passing shots both wings, so I had to approach carefully and play patiently.
After a few games, I realized that the more conventional the rally ball I gave him, the better he played. He liked to unload on his fh on waist high mid court balls. The more I MEP’d it with junk, the more likely I was to win the point. So I played like a rec level Santoro.
I ended up closing it out without losing any games, but it took more than 90 minutes to win 6-0, 6-0. There were almost no unforced errors from either of us.
He said afterward that he can usually win against “baseliners” because he is faster covering the court and more consistent than them, but that he needs to play against more guys like me that give him more variety.
He said he wins in singles against 4.0 players 75% of the time, and against 4.5 players 25% of the time. Sounds about right.
Updated % of Games Won:
100%
