Towards better Tennis

The Outdoor tennis season is more or less done and i havent accomplished much. I played very little this season and wanted more. So i joined a tennis league/ladder at a local club.

I was looking forward to playing in the Tennis ladder for quite sometime. I wanted to play some competitive Tennis and play against varying styles. I have never played in a singles league and wasnt sure how it will be. The format was confusing until it became clear. Basically you play 3 matches against 3 diff players and each match consists of 7 games. At the end of the day your score is the number of games you won against all opponents.

My preparations werent optimum. I am not Match Fit. I havent done weights or cardio in months.

My goal tonight was to make a realistic assessment of where my game is and formulate a plan for future. My ultimate goal is to Demonstrate measurable improvement in my Tennis game before next outdoor season.

A little note on my game. on my own assessment, i have a decent serve and a decent forehand. My backhand is a little suspect but it is underrated. I consider myself as a master tactician and have a decent record in pulling out matches from no where. I dont mind being break points or match points down (aka Rafeal Nadal , David Nalbandian).

My first match was against a guy who was a substitute for another player. As it turned out, this guy is a seasoned campainger. As we were warming up i watched for some signs to see if i can read anything. I wasnt trying to hide my backhand from him . On a knock out tournament i would have pulled out some tricks. But in order to be realistic to gauze my level, i wanted to play positively. He has a topspin crosscourt forehand, decent backhand (better than mine). His serve wasnt great but is reliable.I thought i can pick on his serve. As the match started, he was attacking my backhand and he won first game easily. I started my serve and held it comfortably. He was up 2-1 and i was quickly down 15-40 due to two net calls and lost the serve. I began playing more aggresively and immediately broke him. Eventually the score board read 6-3 but they would only consider first 7 games and hence 5-2 in my opponents favour.

There are lot of positives for me in this game. I played positive fearless tennis.My first serve was very potent and i won 100% of the points on my first serve whenever i got it in. My second serve was spinning very well and i probably won 40% of points. My forehand was more powerful than his and he had a lot of trouble whenever i exploded into the shot. What let me down was my backhand. I lost majority of the points. This opponent had a biting slice, that he used effectively against me. These matches are too short for me to recover with a tactical solution once you fall behind. My personal feeling is that in a best of 3 set match, i can push this guy for 3 sets and i can win in tie breaker. However i need to improve a lot on my backhand.

The second match was against a different opponent. I had no scouting report (ie no warmup) and we started the match. He had a very weak serve but with lots action on the ball. He held his serve as i was trying to get bearings on his game. He also has a confusing action on his shots which makes it difficult to read. I started serve and was really hitting high gear and he had no answer. To cut the long story short, this guy couldnt match up with me. I dominated with Serve and forehand and won the match 4-1. I didnt knew at that time that they only count the games and not matches and hence as played for 7 games, i was trying out new things and triyng to get some extra practice. (In the hindsight, this didnt help my tired legs).

The third match was against a friend from work who is also playing in the league ladders. We both played so many times before this season with me having a winning record against him. He is consistent and improving. He doesnt have much offense yet but has great defense and can keep the ball in play.probably not the best opponent to play if you are tired and not ready to run. Its almost 21:45 hrs and By this time, my fitness issues were showing up and my legs started giving up. Playing against this guy in the last match of the day with my conditioning is very punishing. Even before we started i knew my fitness will become an issue and it did. I was spinning serves in instead of hitting them hard. I was Pushing the ball instead of hitting. Very quickly i went into 0-2 hole. with some gritty play i managed to pull it to 2-2. my game was real ugly with no Serve , no forehand , no backhand and i didnt like one bit of it. My opponent , as expected is consistent and using conditions better. I held serve to make it 3-2. I was ready to close out the next game when i made some unforced errors trying to be aggressive. It became 3-3. In normal scenario, i would favor myself to win the next game and match as it is on my serve and against an opponent i am very familiar with. With no energy left in my legs, i fell into a 15-40 hole. I managed to "push" and get myself to deuce (second time in this short match). Since we play in No ad format, the next point is pretty much the match point and winner takes it all. I spun a serve in and tried to lob a net ball that went long and wide.

Though fitness played a big part, the real reason why i ended up with a 3-4 score is because i was neither aggressive nor defensive. I played a no mans game.

I finally finished the evening with 9 points.

My immediate goal is to improve my fitness. I am going to start a fitness regime that will help me to get fit sooner. This is something i tried before and know that it works. However i expect that it will take 2 weeks before i see any tangible results. It gets worse before it gets better. My hope is that by November , i can probably remove fitness as an issue unless it is a very long match.

Improve the damn backhand. This wasnt an issue against my 2 and 3 opponents but clearly was an issue against the first guy. Not sure how i can do this as i been trying this for past 3 yrs. Fact of matter is if i have a better backhand and remove my fitness excuses, I am a tough opponent for anyone at this level. I was wondering what would have happened if i played opponent 1 as my last match. Either i would have gone for broke (as i wouldnt be able to match his consistency with tired legs) and hit few good serves and hard forehands to win games or bury myself in a pool of unforced errors.

On the plus side, my serve is proven today against good opponents and gives me the confidence that it can win easy games for me. My forehand is also looking crisp.

Shot of the day : Down a break point against Opponent 1, on my second serve we engaged in a baseline rally. After 4-5 shots, he hit a backhand cross court to my backhand and expected a backhand cross court from me. I ran around my backhand and hit an Inside out forehand Winner to his backhand. He stood right there as the ball whizzed past him!.

Serve of the day: Against opponent 2, 4 first serves and game. each of them to a diff corner in the service box.


I am working on a mini goal and a plan for next Monday and will post it soon.


Until then......