Also let cord dribblers should count as winners. If you drill an opponent in the chest at the net does that count as a winner?
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Hit two net cords dribbler winners today. No apologies against my friend tbe energizer bunny.
Sadly the energizer bunny would not be denied. He stabbed at a pretty decent smash and it ballooned off his strings in a perfect parabola over my reach and onto the baseline that would have give me a two break lead. Went down 4-6, 2-3 when our time expired (had to go indoors with all the rain here).
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What’s your current string/stick setup?
Thank god Cheatsipas is out.
Hurkacz has to be bummed that he’s held serve against Novax for 12 service games and is down two sets to zero. Guess it’s to be expected with his sort of game but man it still sucks.
Stevie Johnson won the Challenger I was following. Apparently all points earned from ATP events, Challenger events, and Futures events count for the Wildcard Challenge.
The US Open Wild Card Challenge, which utilizes hard-court pro tournaments to award an American man and woman a main draw wild card into the US Open, will kick off the week of July 3 for the men and July 17 for the women, with the men’s window lasting six weeks and the women’s window lasting four.
Both wild cards will go to the American with the highest cumulative total of ATP or WTA singles ranking points earned from their best three results during their respective windows. Both the men’s and women’s Challenges will include results from any professional hard-court event at the 25 level and above around the world. Both main draw and qualifying points earned count toward each player’s Challenge total.
Going through Live ATP rankings, here’s the players who are eyeing that wildcard:
101 Jenson Brooksby, did not play
103 Maxime Cressy, lost in Wimbledon 1R, 10 pts (why the fuck do you get points for losing in the first round?)
115 Michael Mmoh, Lost in Q3 Wimbledon, Lost in Wimbledon 2R, 61 pts (I think?)
120 Aleksander Kovacevi, Lost in Q3 Wimbledon, 16 pts
121 John Isner, lost in Wimbledon 1R, 10 pts
144 Nicholas Moreno de Alboran, Lost in Q1 Wimbledon
162 Denis Kudla, Lost in Wimbledon Q3, Lost in Bloomfield Hills QF 32 pts
OK time out this one is interesting. These are both 16 point results. The way the challenge is worded, Kudla can count BOTH of these results as a separate tournament and now is the only player with two tournaments after one week of the challenge. Top three count.
168 Emilio Nava DNP
194 Steve Johnson, Lost Q1 Wimbledon, Won Bloomfield Hills, 75 pts
209 Tennys Sandgren, Lost Bloomfield Hills SF, 30 pts
213 Brandon Holt, lost Q1 Wimbledon
223 Zachary Svajda, Lost Q2, 8 pts
Current Leaderboard:
Steve Johnson, 75 pts
Michael Mmoh, 61 pts
Denis Kudla, 32 pts (maybe, I don’t know)
Tennys Sandgren, 30 pts
Alexander Kovacevi, 16 pts
Oh shit hard court only! Wimbledon doesn’t count. Sad!
So Johnson in first and sandgren second
ProStaff97 from 2015. I have the regular version which is about 11-6 vs 12-6 for the Fed version. I added 4g min frame and 4g in the throat.
NRG17 strings. Arm friendly. Mid 50s. I forget the exact.
Old school forehand grip (no west for me). Two handed back hand. Groundies are topspin with a fair bit of slice off both wings. Like to come in. Best Dan can mix things up but I too often fall in love with the slice.
USTA 3.5.
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How many pounds?
Mid 50s lbs. I forget exactly. I’ve had the same guy for several years. I just give him the stick and some strings and Venmo him.
I have three sticks. Two are equal. One is strictly a backup, it feels a little different.
One of the good ones has a small crack. My guy is aware and stabilizes it before he puts in under tension. It’s going to go eventually. But I cannot tell the difference in terms of feel.
I will say that once you have tennis elbow and you find a setup that causes no problems, you are loathe to try something new. A couple of times I’ve hit with a different racquet I last just a few minutes or just poked the ball. I was so afraid of re-injury.
Remind me-you play?
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I used to play but haven’t hit “for real” in over a decade due to a nagging back injury. Trying to find my bat collection but only seeing a few here: Head Classic Mid Plus (102" sq), Wilson nCode nSix-One 95, and an ancient Prince graphite. I have a few others I liked more but they must be in storage: Babolat Pure Storm, Head Pro Tour 630, Head Prestige Mid Plus.
When I first started I was stringing them with synthetic at about 60 pounds. My stringer was my playing partner (former college tennis player) and it took us a while to realize we had to take a lot of tension off the poly strings. That was back when poly was just starting to take over ATP. This guy was old school, went to Bollettieri academy every year as a junior, and fairly set in his ways. I remember he was completely reluctant to believe that stringing below 60 lbs or using a grip smaller than 5/8ths would work for serious tennis. He was still hitting with those tiny Head Prestige Mids (93" sq closed) which feel great but are equivalent to rotary telephones today. No margin for error when I’d spin it back with a Head Radical strung with Big Banger Rough @ 50 lbs and he was way better at tennis than me.
This nCode 95 is such a weird frame. Do you all remember this? Had that really weird bulge on four or five of the crosses. Almost positive I bought it for dirt cheap on clearance. It was like the manufacturers were in an arms race to see who could invent the dumbest non-functional gimmick each year, and you could pick up the previous year’s model for peanuts. Head Liquid Metal was a great stick and paint job but the Flexpoint was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.
I’ve been lucky with my back. I used to have spasms but thankfully it was all muscle and PT and chiro/sports med have done wonders. Once I learned how to work the small muscles and to do so at the first sign of pain/stiffness (vs laying down and resting).
Shoulder impingement, tennis elbow, biceps tendon, torn hammy (prp injection, no surgery) and jumpers knee all “recovered”. I have to wear a sleeve for the knee and minimize jumping on serve or it acts up. Played through everything but the hammy and tennis elbow. Hammy was right before Covid so didn’t miss much playing time.
Worst right now is my right Achilles. Gets weak and then stiffens. It’s getting better. Watching the Bob and Brad videos and using massage gun with transverse action. I can go all out for most of a normal match length. After play care super important.
I play 3x per week on average. Prolly 50:50 singles and doubles. As mentioned, singles vs the energizer bunny is a war of attrition that I almost always lose but I get a ton of fun, hit a ton of balls, and a heck of a cardio workout.
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I’m digging through old sports equipment and pulled this one out. It’s 102" sq 18x19 which always felt a bit odd. I ultimately settled on a 98" as the sweet spot for taking huge rips while not feeling like I was wielding a trampoline. Babolat Pure Storm and Head Prestige MP / Pro Tour 630, somewhere between 11.5 and 12 oz I think, slightly different beds. The Babolats didn’t feel quite as good but were much cheaper and easier to get at the time.
Well if you get to play again get a new stick and strings. Your setup I think is in the ballpark in terms of weight and liking some plow through without it being a club. Can’t stand the 10 ounce lightweights.
Poly and the new frames are great. I get a significant amount of mis-hit winners. I just got remember to stay aggressive.
As much as I’d like to play for real, the last time I reaggravated my back wasn’t promising in terms of recovery time. I went to physical therapy for two months and it lingered for another year or two afterward. I’ve hit practice sessions lightly a few times since then and seemed to do alright, but that’s swinging between 25% to 50% full effort. I’ve had several ankle and foot problems too and am basically just trying to avoid injuries now. If I enjoyed playing doubles then I’d be out there, but it simply doesn’t interest me. I like hitting hard against someone who can also hit hard, so I’d need to find someone who could do that and is only interested in trading ground strokes for practice.
Well don’t take up pickleball. We could no longer speak if you did.
I was forced to play it in high school decades ago by our massive scumbag PE teacher. I’ve hated it ever since.
bro be careful cardio is dangerous
Don’t worry. I’ll make an error well before I keel over.
The only person I’m related to that only made it to their early 80s was my grandfather when they caught prostate cancer late 45 years ago. Everyone else at least has gotten close to 90. My Moms one of 12 and her dying at 88 was below average.
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