Club night (18) losing with style!

Club night attendance was down again last night, possibly because of the football. I played a mixture of singles and mens doubles for two hours which was enough for me as my foot starting hurting towards the end (sore toe, don't ask).

Although I was hitting the ball and moving well, I didn't win any of my singles matches. The problem was that despite hitting good shots and covering the court quite well, the ball kept coming back! Time to learn how to play tennis rather than just hit great shots.

It reminds me of the time Agassi dropped back into the Challengers in an attempt to recover his game after a slump in the mid 90's. I saw him on TV play Becker on one of his first regular tournaments when he was regaining some of his form, and trying to re-establish his ATP rankings. Agassi was playing great, with the terrific groundstrokes he has and pounding Becker. But Becker kept getting the ball back, and sometimes with more than he had received. Then Agassi would pick the wrong shot, still terrific stroke and technique mind you, but the poor shot selection was enough for Becker to finsh it off.

In other words, you can have great shots and technique but you need to learn the tactics of the game of tennis and how to exploit your opponents weakness. Just what Brad Gilbert says in Winning Ugly. I've been concentrating a lot lately on improving my groundstroke technique, and worrying about injury niggles, and I've let that side of my game go a bit. Except in doubles where I like to think am still very tactically astute.

Tags: tennis, Agassi, Becker, Brad Gilbert