Wow. What a performance

[Chairman3]

Nice winner!

Tough opponent looks like a classic pusher, very pusher-y stroke, don't think his racquet ever gets over his shoulder/behind his back on a forehand. (No follow through)
Slice/block backhands primarily as well.

Your main issue seems to just be confidence to swing out due to the new racquet and string setup. Been there many times myself. This wasn't a blunder, just something to be aware of and try to keep swinging normally and trust the racquet. The latter is very hard to do

 

[kevin qmto]

Nice winner!

Tough opponent looks like a classic pusher, very pusher-y stroke, don't think his racquet ever gets over his shoulder/behind his back on a forehand. (No follow through)
Slice/block backhands primarily as well.

Your main issue seems to just be confidence to swing out due to the new racquet and string setup. Been there many times myself. This wasn't a blunder, just something to be aware of and try to keep swinging normally and trust the racquet. The latter is very hard to do

Like I said in the post further down the page, the next match was far more competitive and I’m determined to win the next encounter. Hopefully my wrist heals up soon.

 

[Chairman3]

Like I said in the post further down the page, the next match was far more competitive and I’m determined to win the next encounter. Hopefully my wrist heals up soon.

Sorry didn't read the whole thing
Also sorry to hear about the wrist injury, heal up quickly!

 

[dannyslicer]

You have a great game.
This is a great video.
I can see your frustration rising as the match progressed.
Blue guy is a great example of a high level pusher.
Sort of blocks and guides his FH and BH
He also has several serve speeds
He has great control. Is he 4.0 or 4.5?
You need to reduce unforced errors.
You can learn from blue guy

 

[dannyslicer]

Idk. Once my wrist feels better I want to play him again. I’m telling the world right now, I will beat this guy eventually.

You will beat him with variety and IQ, not with power.
Do not try to blow him off the court. You will lose that game

 

[mcs1970]

You have a great game.
This is a great video.
I can see your frustration rising as the match progressed.
Blue guy is a great example of a high level pusher.
Sort of blocks and guides his FH and BH
He also has several serve speeds
He has great control. Is he 4.0 or 4.5?
You need to reduce unforced errors.
You can learn from blue guy

Other post said he is a low to mid 4.5. Terrific control plus he attacks the nets once he pins you on the bh side. I wish I could play like that. Smooth and effortless. Judicious attack with superb control.

I really loved watching this video just like all of Kevin’s videos though this time unfortunately for him he was on the receiving end.

 

[kevin qmto]

Tonight I relapsed a bit. I had actually been playing decent tennis recently. On a small winning streak, even won a doubles wood classic event last weekend.

And tonight I lost to an ex-D1 college player from a dozen years ago but still 5.0 player. And became a horrible sore loser as I grew enraged I simply could not return their fast spinny lefty serve on the ultra fast indoor carpet courts.

In a BO3 match, I think I successfully put 5 returns of serve back into play. The whole time. I was only aced maybe 5-6 times. The rest I just couldn’t hit cleanly to save my life. And though I was able to win 2 games, by the time I was trailing 2/5 in the 1st set I’d essentially checked out.

I completely and obviously intentionally tanked the 2nd set, basically just pushed my serve into play then swung out on any ball that made it back into my court. Most going into the back fence still rising. I didn’t resort to my lowest point of trying to bean him as 1. I couldn’t work the point long enough to get him to the net to even put myself into a position to try and bean him. And 2. He did nothing wrong and was clearly just a way better player than me and I was just mad at myself. Any previous matches where I’ve intentionally beaned guys, they did at least one act that really pissed me off so I could attempt to spin beaning them as retaliation.

I broke the first racket I wanted to use for the night framing a ROS, and likely damaged my backup from the 50+ shanks it endured over the 52 minute 2/6, 0/6 match.

Sadly there’s video evidence of tia travesty.

 

[onehandbh]

Tonight I relapsed a bit. I had actually been playing decent tennis recently. On a small winning streak, even won a doubles wood classic event last weekend.

And tonight I lost to an ex-D1 college player from a dozen years ago but still 5.0 player. And became a horrible sore loser as I grew enraged I simply could not return their fast spinny lefty serve on the ultra fast indoor carpet courts.

In a BO3 match, I think I successfully put 5 returns of serve back into play. The whole time. I was only aced maybe 5-6 times. The rest I just couldn’t hit cleanly to save my life. And though I was able to win 2 games, by the time I was trailing 2/5 in the 1st set I’d essentially checked out.

I completely and obviously intentionally tanked the 2nd set, basically just pushed my serve into play then swung out on any ball that made it back into my court. Most going into the back fence still rising. I didn’t resort to my lowest point of trying to bean him as 1. I couldn’t work the point long enough to get him to the net to even put myself into a position to try and bean him. And 2. He did nothing wrong and was clearly just a way better player than me and I was just mad at myself. Any previous matches where I’ve intentionally beaned guys, they did at least one act that really pissed me off so I could attempt to spin beaning them as retaliation.

I broke the first racket I wanted to use for the night framing a ROS, and likely damaged my backup from the 50+ shanks it endured over the 52 minute 2/6, 0/6 match.

Sadly there’s video evidence of tia travesty.

Lefties with a good serve are my achilles -- espcially ones that have both a good slice serve and kick serve. Just takes me so long to get used to their serves' spin being the opposite of a right-hander.

 

[WYK]

Kevin - put away those service line over heads like your life depends on it
Love yer nearly behind-the-back slices. Good shots.
Thanks for the vids!

 

[dannyslicer]

Did you try to step in for the ROS?
Before it slices way off the court

 

[Jono123]

This match was played in a 4.0-4.5 league called Nightowls. Usually played on weekday evenings, but this match was a spillover into the weekend, and was played at 7am! (I'm not a morning person, I don't usually even get up before 9am any day...) This match I decided to try a new old racket (Wilson Pro Staff 4.2si with full bed nat. gut at 55lbs). I have NEVER played with fresh natural gut before warming up this morning. And here's the results.

Anyway. I think this is probably the worst match I ever recorded, but its such a performance in bad tennis decisions that I feel it needed its own thread. So bad it comes back around to being good again. About the only positives from this match were my Lendl bean-ball attempt, and the carefully constructed point starting at 5:25. Someone get the speed gun out for that forehand winner!
Me: Green shirt, white hat

I don't know what I was expecting with this frame. It's very stiff, stiffer than the 6.1si that I've used before, but about 20 grams lighter. Launch angle always seemed a bit lower than I expected, unless I scooped too much and everything sailed... I'm not sold on natural gut, sure it has lots of power, but so many forehand approaches were going long as I just couldn't get the spin I was used to with poly. I really expected to like this setup a lot more than I did. Right after the match I played for another hour with my usual Adidas Barricade with Yonex PolyTour Rev and was blasting the cover off the ball and guess what, it was magically staying in now.

So yeah, feel free to tell me the best (by which I mean worst) blunders of this match. Enjoy!

I love multi setup and its powerful as you can see from your forehand spraying. The launch angle is lower so your shots will flatten out a little.

 

[kevin qmto]

Well every time I play this guy in the OP it’s like the worst tennis day of my life. And every new match is somehow worse than the rest. You know last time I played him in a park outside the league we only played one set and he had to leave before it concluded. And I was up 5/1. And he couldn’t just let me try and seal it. Couldn’t let me finally get a set off him.

Today I played and lost 3/6, 3/6 and I’m surprised I got that many games since I resorted to my rage tactic of “well nothings going right with my game anymore, time to junk ball and draw him to the net then try and bean him with the next ball.” Never drilled him this day in about 10 attempts but I did nail his racket which he’d brought up to his chest in self defense more or less.

After the official scored match was done, I picked up my 1976 Yamaha YFG50 and started another set. He had to leave before it finished but I won more games there than in the real match. It was 4/4 when it was abandoned.

 

[dannyslicer]

Well every time I play this guy in the OP it’s like the worst tennis day of my life.

That's no coincidence.
Did you take the advice I posted last time?

 

[Grafil Injection]

When I play pushers like this guy, who refuse to do any full strokes, rather than going for the powerful shots which they can just bunt back using your pace, I go for the mix-it-up shots with lots of angles and drop-shots etc. Then they have to play more feel shots on the run, which usually are more difficult with a power-bat like his (FX-500?). Possibly that's why your YFG worked well, as you would have had to be more precise with that, I assume. Perhaps a similarly low powered stick is the one to use against him, as it doesn't look like he is going to be troubling you with pace on the serves etc. Take your Black Max or something similarly low powered and try some precision tennis on him.

 

[dannyslicer]

You will beat him with variety and IQ, not with power.
Do not try to blow him off the court. You will lose that game

!

 

[Max G.]

Well every time I play this guy in the OP it’s like the worst tennis day of my life. And every new match is somehow worse than the rest. You know last time I played him in a park outside the league we only played one set and he had to leave before it concluded. And I was up 5/1. And he couldn’t just let me try and seal it. Couldn’t let me finally get a set off him.

Today I played and lost 3/6, 3/6 and I’m surprised I got that many games since I resorted to my rage tactic of “well nothings going right with my game anymore, time to junk ball and draw him to the net then try and bean him with the next ball.” Never drilled him this day in about 10 attempts but I did nail his racket which he’d brought up to his chest in self defense more or less.

After the official scored match was done, I picked up my 1976 Yamaha YFG50 and started another set. He had to leave before it finished but I won more games there than in the real match. It was 4/4 when it was abandoned.

He's been playing well. He beat me for the first time recently, I'd never lost to him before but he finally pulled one out in a supertie a few weeks ago.

 

[PMChambers]

I'm a bit confused by the BH.

Used slice BH a lot and it wasn't good, weaker than rest of your game. Low %, not consistent not enough in-depth, spin and positioning.

Early on used 2HBH and it was sound. So much better than the slice. Decent depth, control, etc.

Late in match used 1HBH, it was average. Better than slice but no where as good as 2HBH. Kind of a loopy keep it in shot.

Maybe nerves caused poor choice but the 2HBH is so much better than 1HBH or slice. That needs to be your go to BH. Any ball you can get to in position to double fist, use it.

I think the slice was suffering from nerves as it was a bit of a push. There where a few which had good side spin but too many had no enough spin and consistency.