Trained Tennis Players And The Rest Of Us
I just played in the National Tournament (for club players) in the over 50s age group.
I had the bad luck of playing the #1 seed – who is actually one of the top 3 players in the world in this age group.
But I am a 3.5/4.0 player and my opponent beat me easily. She made few mistakes. My best serves were not good enough & there was no apparent way to get to the net. She won 0 & 0.
I am not sure what I learned from this experience. It felt humiliating? Embarrassing? Playing the top seed in front of a crowd of her friends and other players etc.
So tomorrow I have a consolation match against a mortal – someone I might normally be competitive with.
Any advice on recovering from the shell shock of playing the #1 seed and pulling together an aggressive game for tomorrow? I am trying to remember why I was excited to enter this tournament.
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A: There are two types of tennis players: those who trained tennis seriously and those of us who didn’t.
We cannot compare.
Any thinking about how you played against someone who trained tennis is useless and pointless.
You are a club player.
When you play such big tournaments you might play against someone who trained for years.
There is no match.
They play in their world and we play in ours.
Sure, if they play really very few times per year then they may lose their timing and fitness and you have a chance.
But if they play regularly, then simply put – tennis is much easier for them than it is for you.
Hence you’ll make more mistakes and they’ll take advantage of opportunities without many mistakes.
So feeling bad about such a loss is pointless.
You were unlucky to get such a draw but sooner or later you would play with someone who trained for years and you would lose easily.
So perhaps you learned what kind of tournaments to attend and what to expect when you play against those who ate, drank and slept tennis for years.
Matches like this are not important for you as there is nothing to learn and nothing to improve.
I am exaggerating slightly since you can learn what to work on – but in reality you cannot win the match against that player if you play her again.
Erase this one from your memory and keep replaying points from your last match against a “mortal” that you played well.
Then approach your next match in the same way!
P.S. If you do play a match against someone in another league, then your goal should be to win a game or two. In that case you shouldn’t play your normal game as it is too easy for them.
You need to RISK, RISK, RISK.
Go for your shots, serve & volley, chip & charge, drop shot & lob, take the ball on the rise and simply attack like mad.
With two lucky shots in and one or two mistakes by your opponent you can get a game or two. The score will look much better and you’ll actually achieve something…
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July 21st, 2011 at 9:42 pm
Well stated Tomaz,
I would humorously add this, that 0 and 0 against someone in your own playing category (no tennis training) and and 0 and 0 against someone who is a trained player is still the same in the end ……………! Federer would get me 0 and 0 every time, if I got a point it would likely be his error that allowed it and well winning an entire game forget it!. Consolation is just that 0 and 0 is the same come what may, it is the worst kind of loss but gets no worse than this. 7-6 (5) is the best kind of loss, if you catch my meaning my old tennis teaching friend from Slovenia
Richard
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Tomaz Reply:
July 22nd, 2011 at 12:57 am
Hey Richard, good to hear from you!
Yea, well, what I meant was that if you lose 0 and 0 against someone in your category, there surely was some tennis played – but eventually you were outplayed.
But when you play against a former pro, there often is no tennis played. It’s just one or two shots and you have to pick up the ball.
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July 25th, 2011 at 1:56 pm
I just faced the same situation. I played a former college player who won 6-1, 6-1. I tried to play good smart attacking tennis but had a very hard time holding my own. So then I backed off a bit and tried to increase my percentages. It was no better. I never went on the full attack. It is an interesting approach. I have tried it in the past but never against a really good player. However, I have turned matches around by attacking in the past so there is no reason to think that even a really good player can be pressed into errors. Look at what Tsonga and Del Potro managed to do with aggressive high risk tennis against Federer. Tsonga did the same with Nadal at the AO. He has no guarantee that he will win but for him it might be the best approach. Tomaz has an interesting story about his own experience.
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Tomaz Reply:
July 25th, 2011 at 2:16 pm
I once beat someone who trained tennis for many years. I didn’t train tennis but I did play a lot – so I am a club player, although a dangerous one.
Anyway, I knew that I had about 10-20% chance of winning rallies from the baseline. So for me playing it safe (meaning that my shots were safe) means a huge risk actually – as there was a 80% probability of losing the point.
So going full attack was the logical choice. I served and volleyed and played chip & charge most of the time.
If we happened to rally, I would go for an attacking shot on the first half chance I got or I would play a drop shot or simply slice and approach the net.
If he was going to pass me, he would need to do that over and over again until the match was over.
Of course, when you come to the net, all sorts of unexpected things can happen. There’s little time and the ball can go in any direction and it’s hard to read that.
I hit some good volleys and some lucky volleys and even some luckier half volleys. That alone would not win me the match – but it did upset my opponent.
He was under a lot of pressure because he wasn’t supposed to lose to a club player.
So once he got upset, he wasn’t such a good player any more.
And that’s the lesson everyone must learn: your opponent may NOT play their best tennis all the time. And when their level drops, you may actually be a better player on the court. Now the opponent is beatable.
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July 26th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Yes, the trained player cannot be beaten physically by the club player but anything can happen mentally. The trained player has the pressure of being the overwhelming favorite which can increase the mental chatter if things aren’t going as well as he/she thinks they should. Especially if they have alot of friends watching.
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