Thanks for sharing your story! Yes, “hurting” is the key to keeping opponent under pressure and avoiding unforced errors…

In preparation for our fourth meeting, I decided to re-think my strategy and tactics employed in the previous 3 matches. Having read comments from Tomaz Mencinger, I decided to do most of my thinking off court, rather than do too much thinking on court. Therefore, while off court I decided to change my mind-set to playing a game designed to hurt my opponent, rather than “killing” him. I thought about which would be my best shots in typical situations – when I have a short ball, when I rally from the baseline, when I defend. Once that situation happened in the match, I wouldn’t think about it, the answer would already be stored in my memory.

One of my objectives for the match would be to aggressively look for opportunities to force my opponent into uncomfortable situations from which he would either miss or give me a short ball, which I could attack. I wanted to think about playing the ball back, think about hurting my opponent in any way – either moving him or playing faster. If that proved to be impossible, then I had to think about NEUTRALIZING – preventing the attack from my opponent. My ball had to be DEEP and FAST enough so that my opponent wouldn’t have enough time to set up. The more time he has, the more accurate he can play. Therefore, I had to take time away from him and give myself more time. I had to take time away with faster shots and making him move (so he wouldn’t have the time to set-up). I had to give myself time by playing the ball deep so that it will travel longer to me when my opponent hits it.

Well, to make a long story, short, acting on the advice of Tomaz proved to be very beneficial. After three disappointing losses to this one opponent, I finally won my fourth match against him in a grueling, two-hour, third set tiebreaker. Soon, he’ll make another trip to the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch. Our next match should prove to be interesting.

Like Gilles Muller, I’ll endeavor to remain loose before and during the match by believing and behaving as if I have nothing to lose. Well, at my level, I really don’t have much to lose, except for bragging rights and that’s never been of much value to me. I mainly want to build consistent confidence in order to produce consistent, desireable results and enjoy the experience each time I’m on the court.

Actually, I think Muller was pretty loose against Federer too since Roger couldn’t do much against that serve. It’s just that Roger can take his game to one level higher than everyone else…

http://www.tennismindgame.com/quit-and-get-loose.html

I was struck on how Gilles thought he had nothing to lose and from that point on, he was getting his play better and start kicking some (serious) butt in the end.

I think the moral of this is just stay calm, be composed and loosen up a bit, without too many things to worry about. Just focus on the ball and let good nature guide you.

Another lesson in life learned.

But how come the same mantra didn’t work against Federer? Well, I think if the mystery of life is as simple as 1+1=2, then everyone is a Federer