Thread for all things tennis, whether it’s watching the slams or our own exploits.
I’ll go first.
Enjoy watching the majors mostly. Currently watching the Aussie women’s final I recorded overnight. I grew up on Borg-McEnroe-Connors and Evert-Martina.
We moved to a neighboring town at the beginning of the summer before 9th grade. I didn’t know anyone so made my own fun including the big hitting wall at the nearby courts.
Area teachers would play during the day and sometimes would take pity on me. Even got some instruction. My Dad had played a little in college and soon he and I were hitting which turned into an almost daily game. He was 50 and had just stopped smoking. He is now 91 and credits tennis with recovering his lungs. He only gave up the game due to poor eyesight when he was 84. Hard to believe I’m 56 -older than he was when we started.
Today I captain a men’s 40+ 3.5 USTA travel team. I play about twice weekly usually singles once and doubles once. I’d like to play more but I’m nursing a wonky Achilles.
All court player. Heavy top spin for my level and I like to come if I can push my opponent behind the baseline with it. Pretty fast for an old guy.
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As teenagers two schoolfriends and I queued up and slept overnight on the pavement outside Wimbledon back in the days when you could do that, to see the Borg v Tanner final.
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Wimbledon is on my bucket list.
I was #1 varsity my senior year after picking up a racquet for the first time as a sophomore. Needless to say our team was quite bad!
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Also killed a bird with a serve once 🤷
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Wish DJoker lost to that unknown Russian guy
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My school was too small for a team. I was a founding member of the Clare Tennis League at age 17. I wrote the rules which are still largely the same almost 40 years later.
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He always gets easy draws while Rafa gets a guy that got a bye it’s unreal
Starts at 10:30e tonight. Will watch a set then record. I have doubles at 9am.
I’m not going to be happy when Djoko gets the majors lead. He has earned it but too much of a jerk by half.
I play a lot but don’t watch much
I have team playoffs today and then singles matches in two different leagues this week; it’s starting to pick up more now; not nearly as many matches in January as the rest of the year with the way the league schedules are
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My bad. Starts at 3:30am eat. The earlier time is a women’s replay.
Just started playing again due to Covid ending all the team sports I played. Hadn’t played regularly in 12 years. Taking lessons and joined a league (currently 2-6). Probably a 3.0.
Anyone have any good tips or videos to improve my game. Weather permitting the goal is to do serves practice at least once a week, go to hitting wall at least once a week, and then play one match a week, plus my lesson.
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I tried to make the transition from racquetball to tennis last covid summer. Transition didn’t go well. Was a good racquetball player, now I’m a really shitty tennis player.
Will take some lessons once the vaccinations kick up.
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My main piece of advice is on the serve. Keep your toss shoulder high and let the rest of the swing and turn rotate it down. Do not pull it. Make sure your weight goes forward and you’ll get a little pop without much effort.
I’ve used some random YouTube’s over the years to correct some things but just Google them every time.
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Thanks - any tips for fixing a waiters serve? I’ve been watching videos and doing some of the drills suggested and it feels better when I practice, but often in matches find notice that I’m reverting to my old bad habits.
I learned to serve pretty young so the basic motion is fairly natural. The thing I see if people worrying about it getting it in and not even trying to put anything on the first serve.
I’d toss out front a little further and try to be more aggressive in going to get the toss at or near the apex. I think that waiters serve people will toss the ball way high and then push up under the ball. For practice smack it hard without worrying where it goes. You should be reaching. Once you can get some pace on the ball then work on the rest.
I am no instructor.
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Thanks - I think you’re right about the issue being focusing too much on getting it in. In practice when I don’t care, I’m often able to let it rip and will hit it with quite a bit of pace (at least for me), but once I start a match, I’m so afraid of double faulting that I subconsciously take a lot off it and revert to my bad form.
Probably just need to up the serve practice till the swing feels more natural.
You can always powder puff in the second serve.
If you struggling to get it in, try rotating your grip about 1/8 clockwise. Don’t change anything else at first. That will natural impart a little spin which will make the ball start a little higher and also fall faster after clearing the net. But to get the action you need some swing speed. Think fluid and firm not something violent.
If your serve is completely flat you don’t have margin for error. Since I had to stop jumping to save my knees I’ve had to focus on a little more spin.
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I used to play a lot but haven’t picked up a racket in years due to some back pain. Didn’t get into the game until my mid 20s, so I never had good fundamentals to build on. My main hitting partner was a USPTR-trained college player that helped me with technique, but I would have benefited a lot from formal lessons and someone brute forcing me with repetition to groove consistent strokes. I could crush forehands (semi-western) and flat serves but not consistently and with erratic placement.
My other strokes are bad, so I would try to end points quickly with power and athleticism. Hit 1hbh which felt natural to me but is just really tough to execute in modern tennis, so I’d mostly hit slice then attack with 1hbh on favorable balls. Could never get the feel for a 2hbh. Could never get a consistent spin serve going. Volleys were substandard. I despise doubles and refuse to play it. Tennis was more an exercise activity for me than a competitive game, so the thing I liked was hitting hard with someone who could send it back hard and make me work.