DeShaun
Banned
When both have fled you in a match? For me it's the serve. I wander all over the place, in search of a rhythm, when it is not clicking. Instead of sticking with one motion, I trot them all out in various colorful combinations. The search usually ends with me finding an ace after donating three points; then getting the score back to ad a few times, before finally dropping the game. Afterwards, the pressure to break mounts. Riskier shots on my part may not be required, if the set is young yet, but as successive failures to hold or break add up, risks must be taken with ground strokes, and a measure of caution abandoned. Is this true?
It is difficult for me to imagine one finding his serve more easily than his baseline game, because my serve requires greater precision than any, main rally stroke of mine including the backhand side. When my serve's not clicking, (I've held only one of three services) I usually break the opponent within three of his services; that way I can still come back and win the set. I achieve this by attacking his serve, playing respectable defense, and hungering overtly to finish all points my way. Remember, this is when my opponent is leading 5-1, and my serve is not working. Up 5-2, he usually fails to prevent my consolidation. It sometimes seems as though he is rationalizing that he can afford to take this game off, what, with the score still very much in his favor.
Now he has gone down two games in a row. He is serving for the set and the pressure is on him. Most of the time, if I only continue attacking his serve, he falters again. If this doesn't work, I shift my footwork into a higher gear, and steady myself and strokes for longer rallies to come. After I hit winners to end at least three out of four of these rallies, my opponent usually starts to come undone a little, starts getting down on himself. This is where he may double fault rarely, but typically give me a weak serve--it is up to me to do something with it. I tend to play extremely low risk tennis at this point. Here I like coming to the net; feeding him for instance a low, junk, rally ball, on the softer low powered side, that he will have to dig out or respond to by throwing me up a lob. I may have to finish with a volley put-away, or overhead smash, either way I am probably going to make a grip change at this point. My success rate at finishing points by executing one of these two strokes is better than fifty percent. So, the odds are on my side of winning the game right here, at 15-40.
If I miss, my opponent will have a little life breathed back into him, and play more inspired. Then, I usually brace for a short base line rally, waiting for another approach opportunity, only this time, unless the opportunity is a slam dunk, I may feign an approach but sprint back to the baseline and wait there for the next ball, which is often one that I can send deep to a corner, in an effort to run my opponent side to side, to demoralize him if I should finish him off on this point, or at least tire him some if he should finally claim the point. If he wins then it's back to deuce, and all bets are off. But this outcome occurs only a third of the time in my experience, so the odds are in my favor. I usually do win the eighth game, anyways.
So, it's twice in a row, now, that I have broken my opponent. I'm serving up 5-4. Here's where I usually hammer down a love service game. The score now is 5 all. The odds of me winning the next two games stand roughly at thirty-three percent. My opponent usually holds the eleventh game. And though my serve starts breaking down again in the twelfth, I tend to hold it, due to my opponent being overcome by intense feelings of relief for having finally stopped his hemorrhaging back in the eleventh. Now we typically trade breaks but; as my serve is more reliable, I am usually the first to hold again. Usually I am presented with two or three opportunities to consolidate (clinch the set) before I finally do so. I tend to lose in this scenario about twenty percent of the time.
It is difficult for me to imagine one finding his serve more easily than his baseline game, because my serve requires greater precision than any, main rally stroke of mine including the backhand side. When my serve's not clicking, (I've held only one of three services) I usually break the opponent within three of his services; that way I can still come back and win the set. I achieve this by attacking his serve, playing respectable defense, and hungering overtly to finish all points my way. Remember, this is when my opponent is leading 5-1, and my serve is not working. Up 5-2, he usually fails to prevent my consolidation. It sometimes seems as though he is rationalizing that he can afford to take this game off, what, with the score still very much in his favor.
Now he has gone down two games in a row. He is serving for the set and the pressure is on him. Most of the time, if I only continue attacking his serve, he falters again. If this doesn't work, I shift my footwork into a higher gear, and steady myself and strokes for longer rallies to come. After I hit winners to end at least three out of four of these rallies, my opponent usually starts to come undone a little, starts getting down on himself. This is where he may double fault rarely, but typically give me a weak serve--it is up to me to do something with it. I tend to play extremely low risk tennis at this point. Here I like coming to the net; feeding him for instance a low, junk, rally ball, on the softer low powered side, that he will have to dig out or respond to by throwing me up a lob. I may have to finish with a volley put-away, or overhead smash, either way I am probably going to make a grip change at this point. My success rate at finishing points by executing one of these two strokes is better than fifty percent. So, the odds are on my side of winning the game right here, at 15-40.
If I miss, my opponent will have a little life breathed back into him, and play more inspired. Then, I usually brace for a short base line rally, waiting for another approach opportunity, only this time, unless the opportunity is a slam dunk, I may feign an approach but sprint back to the baseline and wait there for the next ball, which is often one that I can send deep to a corner, in an effort to run my opponent side to side, to demoralize him if I should finish him off on this point, or at least tire him some if he should finally claim the point. If he wins then it's back to deuce, and all bets are off. But this outcome occurs only a third of the time in my experience, so the odds are in my favor. I usually do win the eighth game, anyways.
So, it's twice in a row, now, that I have broken my opponent. I'm serving up 5-4. Here's where I usually hammer down a love service game. The score now is 5 all. The odds of me winning the next two games stand roughly at thirty-three percent. My opponent usually holds the eleventh game. And though my serve starts breaking down again in the twelfth, I tend to hold it, due to my opponent being overcome by intense feelings of relief for having finally stopped his hemorrhaging back in the eleventh. Now we typically trade breaks but; as my serve is more reliable, I am usually the first to hold again. Usually I am presented with two or three opportunities to consolidate (clinch the set) before I finally do so. I tend to lose in this scenario about twenty percent of the time.
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