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Tennis - General Discussion
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perfectchaos007
Member
Wozniaki just throttling Sloane Stephens. And again, it looks like Sloane doesn't even want to be on court. Its as if she hates tennis now
Continental grip experiment: OVER
1) I injured my thumb by having it sit against the racket while trying to use a continental grip. I think I pinched a nerve and my thumb has been numb/tingly for the last 48 hours. It went numb back when I FIRST decided to try the grip out, and I had only been using it for 10 minutes! I thought it would go away
2) Went back to my normal grip. Beat the guy 6-1, 6-2 (same guy who beat me 6-1, 6-3 on Friday). We played a "best of 5". He won the 3rd set 7-5 and I won the 4th 6-1.
My game was SOOOO on point today. Not only did I serve incredibly well, but my return game was even better.
Serving: when I was down break point (30-40), I hit an ace OUT WIDE. Deuce: I tried to be fancy, and it worked....I hit another ace....OUT WIDE. lol It was hilarious. I was hitting all my spots. I think Federer does that a lot (tries to go out wide 2 consecutive times or down the middle two consecutive times).
Returning: I just realized that I am not the type of person to block or chip returns. I will take a full swing, no matter how fast the ball is coming. And I'm not talking about floating it, either. In one game, I hit THREE return winners. Then he realized that I am going to attack every serve, and he started double faulting (by trying to go for more).
And I hit a lot of circus passing shots, too (where I was way out of position, but managed to hit a forehand DTL)
And this was against this pusher guy. I figured out one of my problems is that all too often, I am out of position and I automacially hit the ball DOWN. When I'm in position, it keeps me on my toes and I'll hit a normal, penetrating shot.
Also, he was getting frustrated because I was kicking his ass so hard, so he started hitting the ball harder (lol). And since I love pace, it really just played right into my strengths.
And we got into an argument about "when" to call a ball out. It was so fucking stupid. I have never in my life debated WHEN to call a shot. What happened was: he hit a shot on the baseline, and I originally didn't know whether it was in or out, so I hesitated and thought about it for a second. But then since it was so close, I said it was in.
Then he goes all "you have to call it IMMEDIATELY; if you have to think about it, just give your opponent the point." And we went at it for like 15 minutes. So fucking annoying. I GAVE him the point and he still wants to argue.
Whenever he's losing, he gets all heated. It is NOT that fucking serious.
1) I injured my thumb by having it sit against the racket while trying to use a continental grip. I think I pinched a nerve and my thumb has been numb/tingly for the last 48 hours. It went numb back when I FIRST decided to try the grip out, and I had only been using it for 10 minutes! I thought it would go away
2) Went back to my normal grip. Beat the guy 6-1, 6-2 (same guy who beat me 6-1, 6-3 on Friday). We played a "best of 5". He won the 3rd set 7-5 and I won the 4th 6-1.
My game was SOOOO on point today. Not only did I serve incredibly well, but my return game was even better.
Serving: when I was down break point (30-40), I hit an ace OUT WIDE. Deuce: I tried to be fancy, and it worked....I hit another ace....OUT WIDE. lol It was hilarious. I was hitting all my spots. I think Federer does that a lot (tries to go out wide 2 consecutive times or down the middle two consecutive times).
Returning: I just realized that I am not the type of person to block or chip returns. I will take a full swing, no matter how fast the ball is coming. And I'm not talking about floating it, either. In one game, I hit THREE return winners. Then he realized that I am going to attack every serve, and he started double faulting (by trying to go for more).
And I hit a lot of circus passing shots, too (where I was way out of position, but managed to hit a forehand DTL)
And this was against this pusher guy. I figured out one of my problems is that all too often, I am out of position and I automacially hit the ball DOWN. When I'm in position, it keeps me on my toes and I'll hit a normal, penetrating shot.
Also, he was getting frustrated because I was kicking his ass so hard, so he started hitting the ball harder (lol). And since I love pace, it really just played right into my strengths.
And we got into an argument about "when" to call a ball out. It was so fucking stupid. I have never in my life debated WHEN to call a shot. What happened was: he hit a shot on the baseline, and I originally didn't know whether it was in or out, so I hesitated and thought about it for a second. But then since it was so close, I said it was in.
Then he goes all "you have to call it IMMEDIATELY; if you have to think about it, just give your opponent the point." And we went at it for like 15 minutes. So fucking annoying. I GAVE him the point and he still wants to argue.
Whenever he's losing, he gets all heated. It is NOT that fucking serious.
perfectchaos007
Member
Tell your friend that's not true! If you are unsure whether a ball was in or out, then you give your opponent the point. If you hit a ball that your opponent out, you technically have until the ball lands again on your opponents side to make the call. Now if your opponent hits a ball passed you and you think it might have been out...what I do is run towards the spot I just saw the ball land, and if I see a mark and that mark is out then I can call it out. If I don't see a mark, then I must call it "in" because I was unsure in the first place. I have had some opponents get frustrated when I make a late call, but what I say in response is "I wanted to make sure I got the call right", and they're usually satisfied with that. In other words, even when I'm darn sure the ball was out, I want to make sure I stare down where I just saw the ball hit before calling it out.
Well, you won that set so it wasn't that bad !
My two cents would be to work on your serve technique first and foremost. After two years of tennis (don't know how often you play), it's probable you don't trust your serve enough, not because you're weak mentally but because your serve isn't a safe shot yet. Under pressure, your weaknesses become a lot more glaring. So from time to time, train only your serve during 30mn/1hour, learn the topspin serve (which, once mastered, is safer than the flat serve), and put a little pressure on yourself during training sessions by trying to serve 10, 15, 20 times in a row in the box. Maybe these are things you do already !
Changing a grip isn't something easy to do, especially if you expect immediate results. If you believe you'd play better with the continental long term, you should maybe practice it a little bit more, without the weird thumb placement ? Then again, I think your initial grip was more natural for a forehand, so that's not a bad thing you went back either. If your shots end up into the net too often, maybe working on your swings, instead of your grips, would be easier ? Hard to say just reading about it unfortunately !
He's basically a jackass....especially when losing. I agree with all of this.
It was basically this. After I went back to my regular grip and focused on getting in the correct position and making sure that I commit to my shots, I rarely hit the net today.
I think one of my main problems was that I didn't commit to the shot. I may have shortened my follow through or not measured it correctly or something.
And yeah, I'm gonna try to see if I can record a match. I don't have a camera and if I didn't strap it to a gate, I'd need a third person to record it. But I'm going home to see my family in April and I may get someone to record me playing against my brother.
My advice would be to practice second serves. It'll become a "familiar" shot, rather than "omg, I hope it goes in this time".
Coldnoodle
Member
Dat Patrick McEnroe effect.
Rafa=FedKilla
Banned
The future of American tennis everyone! I can see her aplitting with her coaxh ow. Both Cariline and Sloane. Lol
Even for the first serve if you need a higher percentage, or finding new angles !
It needs work though. You have to accept to hit the ball as hard as you'd hit a flat first serve, which is not exactly instinctive on second serve. I'm not quite comfortable with it yet but when it works, you immediately see why it's a useful serve.
There are some pretty good tutorials on Youtube, just to know the basics before proper training.
perfectchaos007
Member
Looks like he's in anesthesia heaven.
Rafa=FedKilla
Banned
Rafa=FedKilla
Banned
Wta style bit ot will do.
John Dunbar
correct about everything
was kind of hoping to see federer-ferrer to see if rogi could protect his perfect 14-0 head to head (assuming of course federer beats gasquet), but nishikori winning is nice too.
John Dunbar
correct about everything
kvitova decided to be a sport and not delay interesting matches any more than necessary.
Doubt it. He barely won his 3 hour match against Ferrer and looked seriously tired at certain parts of the match. And this isn't 2013 Federer who could have lost to just about anyone. Good fight from Nishikori, though.
But hey, lets not get ahead of ourselves, there is still Federer/Gasquet to be played.
Last match between them was Madrid Masters and Nishikori won
Last match between them was Madrid Masters and Nishikori won
I know. Did you read my post? 2014 Federer > 2013 Federer by quite a lot or else you wouldn't have seen him win against Djokovic in Dubai or even reach the final of Indian Well and push Nole to a tie-breaker in the third. But if Nishikori does beat Federer now, good for him! But again, I sort of doubt that, simply because Federer is playing much better tennis than Nishikori is by quite the stretch at the moment.
I read your post and it's true that the Federer of 2014 is better than the Federer of 2013, but nobody knows how long it's going to last.
Plus, Federer's worst surface. He often has an unexpected loss or two during the clay season. Stepanek in '08. Stan in '09. Gulbis in '10. Melzer in '11. Etc.
perfectchaos007
Member
poor Wawa. Dogopolov can beat just about anyone that struggles with sporadic style pay.
John Dunbar
correct about everything
that didn't take long. should be in good shape against nishikori.
This is why I don't buy the "Federer was only good because his opponents sucked" notion. If they "sucked", that just means he was better..regardless, him being able to get this far in these recent tournaments at 33, against the likes of Djokovic/Murray prime, says a lot. Sure Nadal may have him beat but Nadal's play has always just been the antithesis to Roger's.
Wafflecakes
Member
Serena up next.... lol.
That's lol-worthy indeed but Masha desperately needed some match practice this year and semi-final in Miami is as good as we could hope for here. And she maintains a record, I think, of never losing outside of the final in Miami, except against Serena.
There were some decent points in the last couple games of the first set as well, but the start was a mess.