It looks like your upcoming UTR league has five UTR 7.XX guys signed up already, so that means you'll likely be playing for prize money! Exciting.
UTR Flex League Match Blog
- Thread starter travlerajm
- Start date
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
It would be more exciting if I had a little more recent mileage up on my tennis legs.
If nothing else, the $$ involved means highly motivated opponents, which is a key ingredient for drama, which is a key ingredient for stories to entertain your audience, ha.
FuzzyYellowBalls
Legend
That amount of money, in Seattle, won't motivate many. BUT, @travlerajm can join the ranks of professional tennis player.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Been there. Done that.
NTPR Tourney with $150,000 in Prize Money - An Untold Incredible but True Story
Chapter 1. The Hook The year was 2001. On the neighborhood public courts all-around Seattle, flyers were posted to invite players to play a national tournament with huge cash prizes. Open men’s singles division, for example, had $20,000 prize for the champion. There were also cash prizes...
tt.tennis-warehouse.com
Perhaps you're right, though in my experience when there's money on the line there is another level of intensity, even if the amount is small. It's like the difference between playing poker with your buddies for meaningless chips versus throwing actual dollar bills down on the table. Even if you only stand to win/lose a few bucks, the feeling becomes much different.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Update:
Week and a half ago, had my first ever usta 4.5 singles flex league match lined up. We agreed to play outdoors, and my opponent reserved a court at a paid lighted facility at 6:15p, at a place in the city I’d never played before.
I get there a little early, and holy **** it’s freezing cold out there with the extreme wind chill. I hadn’t worn long pants, but luckily I had a pair of double layer stretch poly warm-ups stashed in my car that I hadn’t worn in long time. They weren’t ideal for performance, but at least I wouldn’t be cold and uncomfortable.
Right as my opponent is showing up, sprinkles start to come down. My opponent tries to reserve an indoor court, but none available. We decide to play outdoor anyway and hope that the weather holds up.
He has a long sleeve poly shirt, glasses. He’s chatty and asks where I’m from. He’s from Delhi. I ask him if he works at Amazon, and I guess correctly.
He’s wielding a black and yellow Babolat. His groundstrokes technique in mini warmup seems better than your typical Amazon employee.
He says he’s a 4.0, but was winning too many matches 6-0, 6-0 in 4.0 flex leagues because he kept running into 3.5s. So he’s playing 4.5 this year.
We start match, and I’m feeling awkward in the cold, drizzly, windy conditions, and with my full warmup gear.
My shorty Volkl wasn’t working for me that day. All I can do is push. He’s dictating the points with his strong straight-arm semi-western fh, and I’m doing just enough to win them. I go up 2-0, 0-40 in his serve. Next point, I slip and lose the point to 15-40, as the rain suddenly hit the slippery critical threshold.
We decide to stop. While waiting for the light rain to subside. I suggest we play some straight-ahead half court baseline feed points to 11.
I couldn’t hit groundstrokes as well as him, and with halfcourt and the wind, I lost my advantage of being able to poke the ball to awkward spots. He won the first game to 11.
Halfway thru the second game, he wants to stop as the rain hasn’t improved. I think he was also uncomfortable and not feeling like he was playing well in the blustery cold conditions.
We decide to reschedule for the following weekend after we both return from travels…
Week and a half ago, had my first ever usta 4.5 singles flex league match lined up. We agreed to play outdoors, and my opponent reserved a court at a paid lighted facility at 6:15p, at a place in the city I’d never played before.
I get there a little early, and holy **** it’s freezing cold out there with the extreme wind chill. I hadn’t worn long pants, but luckily I had a pair of double layer stretch poly warm-ups stashed in my car that I hadn’t worn in long time. They weren’t ideal for performance, but at least I wouldn’t be cold and uncomfortable.
Right as my opponent is showing up, sprinkles start to come down. My opponent tries to reserve an indoor court, but none available. We decide to play outdoor anyway and hope that the weather holds up.
He has a long sleeve poly shirt, glasses. He’s chatty and asks where I’m from. He’s from Delhi. I ask him if he works at Amazon, and I guess correctly.
He’s wielding a black and yellow Babolat. His groundstrokes technique in mini warmup seems better than your typical Amazon employee.
He says he’s a 4.0, but was winning too many matches 6-0, 6-0 in 4.0 flex leagues because he kept running into 3.5s. So he’s playing 4.5 this year.
We start match, and I’m feeling awkward in the cold, drizzly, windy conditions, and with my full warmup gear.
My shorty Volkl wasn’t working for me that day. All I can do is push. He’s dictating the points with his strong straight-arm semi-western fh, and I’m doing just enough to win them. I go up 2-0, 0-40 in his serve. Next point, I slip and lose the point to 15-40, as the rain suddenly hit the slippery critical threshold.
We decide to stop. While waiting for the light rain to subside. I suggest we play some straight-ahead half court baseline feed points to 11.
I couldn’t hit groundstrokes as well as him, and with halfcourt and the wind, I lost my advantage of being able to poke the ball to awkward spots. He won the first game to 11.
Halfway thru the second game, he wants to stop as the rain hasn’t improved. I think he was also uncomfortable and not feeling like he was playing well in the blustery cold conditions.
We decide to reschedule for the following weekend after we both return from travels…
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travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
In Minnesota, I met up and played a sparring match against a 5.0c player from the forum.
Indoors at the U of Minn courts, my Volkl shorty with kevlar/nylon boardy bed, the way I had it set up, was totally ineffective at the baseline. This was the first time I’d used it with my normal clothing setup.
I was getting pushed around and not winning enough baseline points. Couldn’t get any depth on my bh and couldn’t trust my fh enough to do anything but slice. I felt anemic from the baseline.
I won some service games by serve-and-volley behind high kickers to the bh, and broke a couple times by chip-and-charge. But it was clear that my racquet wasn’t cutting it for singles. Too underpowered.
I would need to change things up for my flex league singles setup…
Indoors at the U of Minn courts, my Volkl shorty with kevlar/nylon boardy bed, the way I had it set up, was totally ineffective at the baseline. This was the first time I’d used it with my normal clothing setup.
I was getting pushed around and not winning enough baseline points. Couldn’t get any depth on my bh and couldn’t trust my fh enough to do anything but slice. I felt anemic from the baseline.
I won some service games by serve-and-volley behind high kickers to the bh, and broke a couple times by chip-and-charge. But it was clear that my racquet wasn’t cutting it for singles. Too underpowered.
I would need to change things up for my flex league singles setup…
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
I flew home Friday, with my Saturday usta flex league match continuation scheduled for 6:15p indoor.
Saturday morning, I got my Juice Pro out of the closet. It had been set up really heavy for doubles. And it had some sentimental value because I had used it in the pivotal match to win an unlikely open level mixed doubles title last year.
tt.tennis-warehouse.com
Saturday morning, I got my Juice Pro out of the closet. It had been set up really heavy for doubles. And it had some sentimental value because I had used it in the pivotal match to win an unlikely open level mixed doubles title last year.
Adrenaline Rush - injected myself into open level mixed doubles tournament final on red clay
Yesterday I was planning to play my usual hitting session playing singles for an hour against a teaching pro. Earlier in the day, the club director, an ex Top 700 WTA pro, had mentioned to me that she was playing the final of an open-level mixed doubles tournament that evening. The match was...
tt.tennis-warehouse.com
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
I inspected the Juice Pro and decided 500g was a little too cumbersome for flex league singles play.
I stripped off a bunch of weight. I left in the year+ old kevlar/poly stringbed. Ended up at 375sw and liked how it felt in wall testing yesterday afternoon.
I felt more ready for singles, but unfortunately my legs were still feeling beat-up from battling a 5.0 guy for 90 minutes on wedsneday…
I stripped off a bunch of weight. I left in the year+ old kevlar/poly stringbed. Ended up at 375sw and liked how it felt in wall testing yesterday afternoon.
I felt more ready for singles, but unfortunately my legs were still feeling beat-up from battling a 5.0 guy for 90 minutes on wedsneday…
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Yesterday match time, indoors with my newly re-vamped Juice, I felt very comfortable and under control in warm-up. Best I’d felt in a singles league warm-up in a long time.
Opponent suggests that we start from the score we left off with last week (with me having a 2.5 game lead). I said nah I’m ok to re-start fresh with 0-0 score indoors.
We start the match, and I’m playing nice and crisp. Opponent is playing aggressively, right into my hands. I’m counterpunching well. I jump out to a 4-0 lead behind he starts to up his game.
He broke me after a 6-deuce game to get to 4-1, but I closed out the set 6-1.
Second set, my level was starting to get a little sloppier, and opponent was starting to find his groove with his heavy Babolat forehand and solid bh.
With me leading 2-1. Opponent puts on his hat. I was hoping this might mess up his timing, but instead he started playing better, and my legs started feeling tired and wobbly.
I sort of lost the ability to volley or hit overheads at the end of the second set, which limited me to defense only style of play. And that made it easier for this opponent.
He passed me by in level and ran off 5 of 6 games to close out the set 6-3. My legs were gassed, my hammies saying “no mas” and I was considering retiring a few games earlier, but I decided to keep going.
In the super, I somehow recovered my net skillz and re-asserted dominance. It was probably mostly just regression to the mean in each of our levels, but I ran off a string of points without making errors and playing a little more aggressively to take the tiebreak 10-4.
2 hours of singles and I was hurting.
Opponent suggests that we start from the score we left off with last week (with me having a 2.5 game lead). I said nah I’m ok to re-start fresh with 0-0 score indoors.
We start the match, and I’m playing nice and crisp. Opponent is playing aggressively, right into my hands. I’m counterpunching well. I jump out to a 4-0 lead behind he starts to up his game.
He broke me after a 6-deuce game to get to 4-1, but I closed out the set 6-1.
Second set, my level was starting to get a little sloppier, and opponent was starting to find his groove with his heavy Babolat forehand and solid bh.
With me leading 2-1. Opponent puts on his hat. I was hoping this might mess up his timing, but instead he started playing better, and my legs started feeling tired and wobbly.
I sort of lost the ability to volley or hit overheads at the end of the second set, which limited me to defense only style of play. And that made it easier for this opponent.
He passed me by in level and ran off 5 of 6 games to close out the set 6-3. My legs were gassed, my hammies saying “no mas” and I was considering retiring a few games earlier, but I decided to keep going.
In the super, I somehow recovered my net skillz and re-asserted dominance. It was probably mostly just regression to the mean in each of our levels, but I ran off a string of points without making errors and playing a little more aggressively to take the tiebreak 10-4.
2 hours of singles and I was hurting.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Update:
Haven’t played much lately. But I have a pair of UTR singles flex league prize money matches against NextGen up-and-comers lined up for this week. My old tennis legs certainly not ready.
Just hoping to complete the matches intact.
Haven’t played much lately. But I have a pair of UTR singles flex league prize money matches against NextGen up-and-comers lined up for this week. My old tennis legs certainly not ready.
Just hoping to complete the matches intact.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
My first UTR prize money match last night.
We agreed to play indoors at 8pm at my opponent’s home club.
He’s about a decade my junior.
His UTR was in the 6.xx, but doubles UTR 7.xx. This is unusual in these UTR leagues, as most guys I’ve encounter are better at singles.
It turned out that I should have paid closer attention to that UTR split. Day before, in sparring session with my old hitting buddy to choose my weapon for flex league, I was winning more points with my extended juice pro. But that was because my friend plays a grinding passive style with netphobia.
This opponent last night was the opposite. He was very good at pressuring the net. And I was not good at passes or chip lobs. Couldn’t hit a paaa yo save my life. And opponent kept slamming my lob attempts for winners.
I grabbed a 2-0 lead to open. But he won next 3 to put me in 2-3 hole. Then I recovered to win first set 6-4.
Second set didn’t go well. I fell behind. Came back from 2-4 to tie. Then had game points to get to 5-4 before our session ended. But I gifted him a questionable call on his sideline (when he couldn’t see it well enough to call it). And I wasn’t sure myself, that would have given me 5-4 lead. Then I ended up losing the game.
6-4, 4-5.
I’m not feeling very good about my level right now. Really this felt like a guy I should crush, and I let him play me even. Feeling like an old guy on the way down.
We agreed to play indoors at 8pm at my opponent’s home club.
He’s about a decade my junior.
His UTR was in the 6.xx, but doubles UTR 7.xx. This is unusual in these UTR leagues, as most guys I’ve encounter are better at singles.
It turned out that I should have paid closer attention to that UTR split. Day before, in sparring session with my old hitting buddy to choose my weapon for flex league, I was winning more points with my extended juice pro. But that was because my friend plays a grinding passive style with netphobia.
This opponent last night was the opposite. He was very good at pressuring the net. And I was not good at passes or chip lobs. Couldn’t hit a paaa yo save my life. And opponent kept slamming my lob attempts for winners.
I grabbed a 2-0 lead to open. But he won next 3 to put me in 2-3 hole. Then I recovered to win first set 6-4.
Second set didn’t go well. I fell behind. Came back from 2-4 to tie. Then had game points to get to 5-4 before our session ended. But I gifted him a questionable call on his sideline (when he couldn’t see it well enough to call it). And I wasn’t sure myself, that would have given me 5-4 lead. Then I ended up losing the game.
6-4, 4-5.
I’m not feeling very good about my level right now. Really this felt like a guy I should crush, and I let him play me even. Feeling like an old guy on the way down.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Next match is Sunday morning indoor. Time to build a new weapon for this one.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Guy I play tomorrow is undefeated and leading my group in the prize money league.
I will have to dial back the clock and pull something special out of my bag.
Today I built a new racquet from scratch starting with a Babolat Pure Strike Gen3, and tuned it up on the testing wall.
I call it the bloody zebra. It weighs a lot.
I will have to dial back the clock and pull something special out of my bag.
Today I built a new racquet from scratch starting with a Babolat Pure Strike Gen3, and tuned it up on the testing wall.
I call it the bloody zebra. It weighs a lot.
Would you be willing to share some of your general customisation principles?
Most who customise - for example, professional players - appear to start with a base frame, go through testing to make their changes, and then use that setup consistently. They may make amendments to string tension based on weather and surface, they may not. They don’t seem to make any significant alterations during the season - once the racquet has been ‘dialled in’, they stick with it.
You appear to create something completely different for each match. Today you play an opponent, who based on your description you’ve never faced. How did you select the Pure Strike? What caused you to add significant weight? I do wonder whether consistently using the same equipment would enhance your results… perhaps that’s the topic of the next thread!
Hope the match goes well!
Most who customise - for example, professional players - appear to start with a base frame, go through testing to make their changes, and then use that setup consistently. They may make amendments to string tension based on weather and surface, they may not. They don’t seem to make any significant alterations during the season - once the racquet has been ‘dialled in’, they stick with it.
You appear to create something completely different for each match. Today you play an opponent, who based on your description you’ve never faced. How did you select the Pure Strike? What caused you to add significant weight? I do wonder whether consistently using the same equipment would enhance your results… perhaps that’s the topic of the next thread!
Hope the match goes well!
Purestriker
Legend
Is that dampener legal?Guy I play tomorrow is undefeated and leading my group in the prize money league.
I will have to dial back the clock and pull something special out of my bag.
Today I built a new racquet from scratch starting with a Babolat Pure Strike Gen3, and tuned it up on the testing wall.
I call it the bloody zebra. It weighs a lot.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Flatworm.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
My general customization principle is that I’m not actually very talented at tennis.
Pretty much every opponent I’ve faced in competitions over the course of the last 35 years has had more tennis skill than me.
In my youth, I was fortunate enough to be a pretty good athlete, and so historically I could often leverage physics advantages over my more-skilled opponent by playing unconventional gamestyles, like kamikaze S&V or extreme pushing.
But those strategies only work when you have youth on your side. And the present situation of this prize money league (which, to be clear, brings out a completely different type of player than the type of battle tested player than the rec players I faced in the first couple rounds of flex league in this thread) is that I find myself 10, 20, or even 30 years older than my competition. My opponents are more skilled at tennis, more durable, more flexible, and more physically ready to run around the court for hours.
The only way I’m going to win is if I can leverage a technology advantage. If I go into these matches using a regular racquet, I’m not giving myself a chance to win. So when I customize, one of philosophies is to lean into extremes. Does a heavier racquet provide an advantage? The answer is yes, but it takes a lot of careful tuning of the entire kinetic chain to fully realize the advantages of a heavier racquet. And therein lies the rub.
Why did I choose a pure strike platform? I had some pure strikes lying around that I had purchased for one of my racquet clients. Also, I had never been a Babolat player. But my past couple of opponents have pushed me around the court with babs. If I can’t beat ‘em, might as well join ‘em.
A number of subtle technology edges are visible in the photo of my bloody zebra Babolat above.
1. I’m a fan of kevlar. The stringbed is strung up fresh yesterday with 16g ashaway kevlar mains and 1.30 grapplesnake Tour M8 crosses, at 60 lbs with thorough prestretch. Gives excellent ball grab, spin, and launch angle control.
2. The grip shape and tourna has been extended nearly an extra 2” to give more comfort to the upper hand on 2hbs.
3. The shape of the butt flare has been altered from the miserably feeling Babolat shape to a Prince shape.
4. A boatload of extra mass has been slathered all over the racquet, inside and out. Some of it is visible. This helps me get more plow-through effect.
Purestriker
Legend
Talent is overrated. I’d take your grit.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Opponent today was undefeated and in first place in my prize money league division. He had beaten the ex college player that I lost to in a super, and had routed the guy that played me evenly on Thur. He had also won the usta sanctioned club championship tourney held at his home club last weekend.
My Thur opponent, after losing badly to him, had said to me something like “that little guy gets to every ball.”
So I was expecting him to be a little guy. I saw a little guy standing in the reception desk area, and asked him if he was my opponent. Nope. Wrong guy.
It turned out that today’s opponent was actually tall, about 6’3” rangy, and very athletic. So maybe ‘little’ was not meant in a literal way?
He was in his late 20s. Ntrp peak prime.
He’s using a Pure Drive, and he has a western NextGen style Babolat forehand. In warm-up, his 2hb looked solid.
We start the match, and it’s clear he plays a very cerebral and strategically deliberate style, leveraging his athleticism with patience. At first he was tending to play a reactive style, but in realizing that I was at my best when he let me get to net, he changed his style and became more pro-active about forcing the issue.
My own game, playing with my bloody zebra for the first time. I was very solid on serve, excellent on volleys and overheads, pretty solid on rallies. ok on chip lobs but a little subpar on passing shots.
His Babolat western forehand improved as the match wore on, and it became clear that he had successfully deceived me in the warmup into playing hi fh. His fh was a weapon if I left him anything chest high. He preferred to slice on the bh wing, alternating chips and lobs, with excellent control of his chip lob trajectory.
We were both serving well enough to hold serve every game. He stuck on a backward hat at 4-3, and his fh quality seemed to improve. He used his height and length well to mix up the second serves. I was using primarily S&V on my own serves.
We stayed on serve first 10 games thru 5-5…
My Thur opponent, after losing badly to him, had said to me something like “that little guy gets to every ball.”
So I was expecting him to be a little guy. I saw a little guy standing in the reception desk area, and asked him if he was my opponent. Nope. Wrong guy.
It turned out that today’s opponent was actually tall, about 6’3” rangy, and very athletic. So maybe ‘little’ was not meant in a literal way?
He was in his late 20s. Ntrp peak prime.
He’s using a Pure Drive, and he has a western NextGen style Babolat forehand. In warm-up, his 2hb looked solid.
We start the match, and it’s clear he plays a very cerebral and strategically deliberate style, leveraging his athleticism with patience. At first he was tending to play a reactive style, but in realizing that I was at my best when he let me get to net, he changed his style and became more pro-active about forcing the issue.
My own game, playing with my bloody zebra for the first time. I was very solid on serve, excellent on volleys and overheads, pretty solid on rallies. ok on chip lobs but a little subpar on passing shots.
His Babolat western forehand improved as the match wore on, and it became clear that he had successfully deceived me in the warmup into playing hi fh. His fh was a weapon if I left him anything chest high. He preferred to slice on the bh wing, alternating chips and lobs, with excellent control of his chip lob trajectory.
We were both serving well enough to hold serve every game. He stuck on a backward hat at 4-3, and his fh quality seemed to improve. He used his height and length well to mix up the second serves. I was using primarily S&V on my own serves.
We stayed on serve first 10 games thru 5-5…
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travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
The games were getting closer, with several going to deciding points. I finally broke serve to get to 6-5, and serve-and-volleyed to close out the set 7-5.
The next set, the key points started to desert me. I got a little sloppier. The games were still tight. But I fell into an 0-4 hole…
The next set, the key points started to desert me. I got a little sloppier. The games were still tight. But I fell into an 0-4 hole…
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
I started to play better, and felt like I was mounting a comeback. But I ended up dropping the second set 6-3. We finished the second set right as our 90-minute indoor time slot was ending.
He went to go see if he could grab some court time on another court. He came back and said, yes. We have another 30 min on court 2. So we moved over, and he ran to the bathroom, resulting in a 10-minute total break between sets.
The 10-minute break would be my undoing. I started the tiebreak cold, making multiple uncharacteristic errors on slice forehands into the tape. I couldn’t crawl out of the 1-5 hole. A questionable sideline call on my overhead removed any chance at a comeback. I went down 10-4.
I asked if he wanted to play a baseline game to 11 afterward since we still had the court. We played 2 of them. Both games, I fell way behind early, then came storming back to win them. Too bad I couldn’t muster the same level when I needed it in the super.
His style of play reminded me of my own, and he was the first to comment that we had similar styles (not in strokes), but in general gamestyle.
Afterward, when I stopped by the front desk, it turned out that quite a few people had gathered to watch the end of our match. My opponent was sort of a local legend there it seems.
The head pro (at least I asume he was head pro) seemed to have enjoyed watching our match. He made comments on how tough that guy was to play against, because he’s so long that he reaches everything. He said “I got you” and comped my court fee and guest fee.
He went to go see if he could grab some court time on another court. He came back and said, yes. We have another 30 min on court 2. So we moved over, and he ran to the bathroom, resulting in a 10-minute total break between sets.
The 10-minute break would be my undoing. I started the tiebreak cold, making multiple uncharacteristic errors on slice forehands into the tape. I couldn’t crawl out of the 1-5 hole. A questionable sideline call on my overhead removed any chance at a comeback. I went down 10-4.
I asked if he wanted to play a baseline game to 11 afterward since we still had the court. We played 2 of them. Both games, I fell way behind early, then came storming back to win them. Too bad I couldn’t muster the same level when I needed it in the super.
His style of play reminded me of my own, and he was the first to comment that we had similar styles (not in strokes), but in general gamestyle.
Afterward, when I stopped by the front desk, it turned out that quite a few people had gathered to watch the end of our match. My opponent was sort of a local legend there it seems.
The head pro (at least I asume he was head pro) seemed to have enjoyed watching our match. He made comments on how tough that guy was to play against, because he’s so long that he reaches everything. He said “I got you” and comped my court fee and guest fee.
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ErrorMachine
Rookie
Dang, what a story. So close. 90 minutes is not enough for a match unless it’s a fast 4.
I hope that you're finding these dogfights far more rewarding than the earlier cakewalks, even if you're not always ending up on the right side of the score line. What UTR does this latest guy hold? Is he the highest rated in the group?
Regarding the racquet, what I find most surprising is the mass. You tend to be a strong starter, but sometimes fade a touch in the later phases. Some of your match reports are equating that to conditioning and fatigue, and so the casual observer might wonder if you'd fare better with a setup designed for when you've already got a set in your legs. I fell foul to the TT wisdom of 'use the heaviest racquet you can handle' when I joined, playing with something that was great during the first point, but that felt like a log during the last. Those folk who pushed you around the court with a stock Babolat might be on to something.
Regarding the racquet, what I find most surprising is the mass. You tend to be a strong starter, but sometimes fade a touch in the later phases. Some of your match reports are equating that to conditioning and fatigue, and so the casual observer might wonder if you'd fare better with a setup designed for when you've already got a set in your legs. I fell foul to the TT wisdom of 'use the heaviest racquet you can handle' when I joined, playing with something that was great during the first point, but that felt like a log during the last. Those folk who pushed you around the court with a stock Babolat might be on to something.
Purestriker
Legend
Little at 6"3? Hmm. Sounds like an athlete! Usually when they have that grip they want those high and heavy shots and they hate the eastern drives.
Purestriker
Legend
Solid match. The Zebra needs to stay in the bag and hey, free tennis!
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
I will try adding more weight next time.
How did you guys manage to finish 2 full sets and a warmup in 90 minutes?
Purestriker
Legend
That is plenty of time. Usually takes 90 minutes for 2 sets and a tie breaker.
Depends on the play style and rally length. It sounds like they were both playing "tactical", which usually means long points. But maybe Trav was playing lots of "kamikaze S&V".
I lost to a guy 1&2 a few weeks ago. Match took over 2 hours. Long rallies. Guy on a neighboring court asked me the score after the match and couldn't believe it. He said he thought I had won.
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travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
It was no-ad. And Both of us were approaching the net on every opportunity.
In my case, the weapon I brought to the show was good for slice approaches and excellent for volleys and overheads. But it was subpar for passing shots, so if I let him get to the net before I did, I didn’t give me best chance to win the point. I was serve-and-volley about 75% of the points.
In his case, he obviously was most comfortable playing a reactive counterpuncher style. But he smartly realized early that he was going to lose if he didn’t take the initiative, and he was having some success approaching the net. He was good at hitting fh approaches to my fh corner if I left anything above the net near the service line. He was weakest if I kept the ball below net level and to his bh side. If I went loopier get would run around it and use his agility to get an opportunity to crush a high fh.
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travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Yesterday’s opponent was 100% 7.xx UTR, but he has been beating all the other 100% 7.x UTR’s this year.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
My next opponent is scheduled for 9am Saturday, an hours drive away at opponent’s home outdoor courts. I’m concerned about the outdoor match in sun, because I absolutely suck in the sun.
Opponent is career teaching pro in his 30s who logged 80+ combined usta matches on TR last year, with high 4.5 dynamic ntrp.
Opponent is career teaching pro in his 30s who logged 80+ combined usta matches on TR last year, with high 4.5 dynamic ntrp.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Obviously I’m reaching the phase of my tennis career, where age coupled with lack of practice/training time is turning me into a Bo1 specialist.
Moon Shooter
Hall of Fame
Your timing was about right for no ad in my experience. You can get through about 21 games in 90 minutes (if you keep it moving pretty well) which usually is enough time to end the match.
jhick
Hall of Fame
Yeah this is me too. I purposely try to avoid playing when the mid-day sun (anywhere from 11-1) is a problem. Anytime the sun is in the direct path of my service toss, my service games go south quickly. I lose all of my confidence in the serve, and feel like a blind bat playing out points. I might as well serve underhand...that would put me at a disadvantage, but probably better than the blind bat scenario.
I'll take the wind over the sun any day of the week.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
I’m concerned that the strength of my game with my current setup that I used yesterday was my net play. But playing indoors always gives me more confidence in rushing the net, with no sun or wind to mske overheads trickier.
Back in my heyday, i was a S&V guy, and used to always do well in the weeklong tournaments and reach a lot of finals, then lose in the final.
The early rounds were usually in the evenings in the shade, and then the final would be in the afternoon with bad sun angle.
It makes a huge difference. I played at 3 pm in the wind yesterday. The sun was in my peripheral vision, so it had no impact on me. The wind honestly doesn’t bother me.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Today I came home from work and went to work on my setup, then went to the testing lab late. Made some good progress and feeling more confident in my singles prognosis. Still using the bloody zebra, but I overhauled my accessories to get everything feeing better.
On Wednesday, i have a sparring match with my friend who I have dubbed ‘the human body breaker’.
He has been playing a lot of league matches and dominating his usta 4.0 singles league. He plays a style with a huge western spinny forehand that jerks you around side to side as he aims for the side-lines. He pairs the giant forehand with an exaggerated underspin dropper on his bh wing.
I haven’t lost to him in the past, but it’s difficult to get thru a match with him without limping with an injury afterward. I haven’t played with him in a long time because of the danger factor, but I don’t have a regular guy at the moment, and the body breaker has been itching to play me. And I need to test this iteration of the zebra before my prize money match sat morning.
On Wednesday, i have a sparring match with my friend who I have dubbed ‘the human body breaker’.
He has been playing a lot of league matches and dominating his usta 4.0 singles league. He plays a style with a huge western spinny forehand that jerks you around side to side as he aims for the side-lines. He pairs the giant forehand with an exaggerated underspin dropper on his bh wing.
I haven’t lost to him in the past, but it’s difficult to get thru a match with him without limping with an injury afterward. I haven’t played with him in a long time because of the danger factor, but I don’t have a regular guy at the moment, and the body breaker has been itching to play me. And I need to test this iteration of the zebra before my prize money match sat morning.
Purestriker
Legend
You ditched the worm?
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
My wed evening spar with the human body breaker started out a little rough. I pulled away to win the first set 6-2. Second set, I fell behind 0-2. Body breaker started doing his usual thing of transforming into beast mode second set. He was running me side to side with his massive Jim Courier forehand, and hitting nice drops too. I was playing better too though. I came back to take the lead 5-4.
But my legs were sending signals. I retired leading 6-2, 5-4. Body breaker wanted to continue of course. He wanted to finish breaking my legs.
But I wanted to save something for my Saturday morning UTR prize money match.
But my legs were sending signals. I retired leading 6-2, 5-4. Body breaker wanted to continue of course. He wanted to finish breaking my legs.
But I wanted to save something for my Saturday morning UTR prize money match.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
This morning’s opponent was 100% UTR 7. 4.35 TR. More than 80 usta matches logged last year.
I drove an hour to meet him at high courts in Tacoma that I hadn’t played on in 35 years since I defeated Swedish exchange student Johannus 4-2 in the 3rd sophomore year JV.
Back in high school, the courts belonged to a powerhouse team, they were bright blue color and nice. Today, they looked run-down and dusty. An extra large and fresh-looking turd pile was sitting just outside the alley of the end court where my opponent was waiting for me. We were the only ones there.
When I pointed out the pile of $h!#, and noted that it didn’t look like it came from a dog, he suggested it would be better if we move down to the court on the other end…
I drove an hour to meet him at high courts in Tacoma that I hadn’t played on in 35 years since I defeated Swedish exchange student Johannus 4-2 in the 3rd sophomore year JV.
Back in high school, the courts belonged to a powerhouse team, they were bright blue color and nice. Today, they looked run-down and dusty. An extra large and fresh-looking turd pile was sitting just outside the alley of the end court where my opponent was waiting for me. We were the only ones there.
When I pointed out the pile of $h!#, and noted that it didn’t look like it came from a dog, he suggested it would be better if we move down to the court on the other end…
puppybutts
Hall of Fame
paaaMy first UTR prize money match last night.
We agreed to play indoors at 8pm at my opponent’s home club.
He’s about a decade my junior.
His UTR was in the 6.xx, but doubles UTR 7.xx. This is unusual in these UTR leagues, as most guys I’ve encounter are better at singles.
It turned out that I should have paid closer attention to that UTR split. Day before, in sparring session with my old hitting buddy to choose my weapon for flex league, I was winning more points with my extended juice pro. But that was because my friend plays a grinding passive style with netphobia.
This opponent last night was the opposite. He was very good at pressuring the net. And I was not good at passes or chip lobs. Couldn’t hit a paaa yo save my life. And opponent kept slamming my lob attempts for winners.
I grabbed a 2-0 lead to open. But he won next 3 to put me in 2-3 hole. Then I recovered to win first set 6-4.
Second set didn’t go well. I fell behind. Came back from 2-4 to tie. Then had game points to get to 5-4 before our session ended. But I gifted him a questionable call on his sideline (when he couldn’t see it well enough to call it). And I wasn’t sure myself, that would have given me 5-4 lead. Then I ended up losing the game.
6-4, 4-5.
I’m not feeling very good about my level right now. Really this felt like a guy I should crush, and I let him play me even. Feeling like an old guy on the way down.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
Opponent this morning showed up with a pair of Head Speeds.
Sunny day no clouds. He wore no hat, with ATP style samurai man-bun on top of his head, so I knew he could play. wrist watch plus extra weighting on left wrist.
He said he grew up playing junior tennis, was ranked Top 100 in US in the 14s* (* unconfirmed ). He was 36 years old, same age as Djokovic. And well established as career teaching pro.
I furiously built a racquet last night but didn’t get time to test it properly. BLX 6.1 95 18x20. I set it up about 55g lighter than the bloody zebra, hoping that the lighter racquet with denser pattern would be better for passing shots, which I had been poor at. It weighed in at a svelt 406g.
I showed up in brown cotton denim widebrim to protect myself from sun, even though I hate playing in widebrims. I have trouble serving, playing the net, and hitting overheads outdoors in the sun with widebrim hats. So today’s conditions were not travlerajm conditions….
Sunny day no clouds. He wore no hat, with ATP style samurai man-bun on top of his head, so I knew he could play. wrist watch plus extra weighting on left wrist.
He said he grew up playing junior tennis, was ranked Top 100 in US in the 14s* (* unconfirmed ). He was 36 years old, same age as Djokovic. And well established as career teaching pro.
I furiously built a racquet last night but didn’t get time to test it properly. BLX 6.1 95 18x20. I set it up about 55g lighter than the bloody zebra, hoping that the lighter racquet with denser pattern would be better for passing shots, which I had been poor at. It weighed in at a svelt 406g.
I showed up in brown cotton denim widebrim to protect myself from sun, even though I hate playing in widebrims. I have trouble serving, playing the net, and hitting overheads outdoors in the sun with widebrim hats. So today’s conditions were not travlerajm conditions….
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
We start the match. He’s S&Ving His kick serve and net game are his strengths.
He holds and breaks me to go up 2-0. He was very polished at net and was automatic on overheads and kept making excellent low volleys. He liked to approach the net early in the point.
He had a smooth 1hb. And clean technique on his NextGen style forehand.
But I was pretty scrappy today, despite not having my A game and broke back. We both held serve next 5 games. Then I broke to get to 5-4 and closed it out 6-4.
Early in the match, he lined up to return in ad really close to center. Why do that? It clued me in that he didn’t fully trust his fh. His forehand turned out ti be streaky.
Second set, things didn’t go as well. I fell behind 0-4. With excessive use of the fruit ninja serve. I was thinking this could be a good thing if second set went fast, as my legs would still be ok enough to finish the super.
But then I started playing better.
I broke to get to 1-4. Held for 2-4. At 3-5, I was still looking forward to the super.
But I started playing even better, and started ripping passing shot winners and got all the way back to 5-5.
But unfortunately, I was starting to feel my left Achilles acting up, and I didn’t want to mess with making it worse.
I retired with 6-4, 5-5 lead.
He didn’t seem as disappointed by my retirement as the body breaker, happy to get the surprise W just when it seemed he had lost all his momentum.
He holds and breaks me to go up 2-0. He was very polished at net and was automatic on overheads and kept making excellent low volleys. He liked to approach the net early in the point.
He had a smooth 1hb. And clean technique on his NextGen style forehand.
But I was pretty scrappy today, despite not having my A game and broke back. We both held serve next 5 games. Then I broke to get to 5-4 and closed it out 6-4.
Early in the match, he lined up to return in ad really close to center. Why do that? It clued me in that he didn’t fully trust his fh. His forehand turned out ti be streaky.
Second set, things didn’t go as well. I fell behind 0-4. With excessive use of the fruit ninja serve. I was thinking this could be a good thing if second set went fast, as my legs would still be ok enough to finish the super.
But then I started playing better.
I broke to get to 1-4. Held for 2-4. At 3-5, I was still looking forward to the super.
But I started playing even better, and started ripping passing shot winners and got all the way back to 5-5.
But unfortunately, I was starting to feel my left Achilles acting up, and I didn’t want to mess with making it worse.
I retired with 6-4, 5-5 lead.
He didn’t seem as disappointed by my retirement as the body breaker, happy to get the surprise W just when it seemed he had lost all his momentum.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
I’m a Bo1 specialist!
I’m getting older, and I don’t play enough singles, 2 to 3x a month if I’m lucky with my current busy work sched. I seem to be able to last an hour on the singles court playing decently, and then my legs start to feel fragile like my hammies and calves are going to tear. So I stop moving as...
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