Match with Marty Kooper

1/10/09  Saturday 1:00pm.

Lost 0-6, 4-6

 

 

This was the forth or fifth time that I have played Marty Kooper.  He is a fairly strong 3.5 level player.  He is very good defensively.  He gets a lot of balls back.  His first serve is fair.  His second serve is weak; one can step up on it and put him on the defensive or at times just put the ball away.  Marty’s forehand is definitely better than his backhand.  Marty is not real strong at the net.

 

I entered the match today with an attitude that I was going to play my game and work on strategy.  By play my game I mean hit some penetrating shots and move forward.  For the most part after we finished playing I felt that I had succeeded in my objective.  The hardest part may have been ignoring the score throughout the match because behind it all the basic point of the game of tennis is to beat your opponent and I didn’t.  Anyways, my basic thing was to try to hit my strokes more like I do in practice, that is to hit harder and with more pace.  And I did this much of the time.  It’s just that with some frequency my shots went wide down-the-line or long.  But hey, maybe that’s better than in the net!

 

What follows are my observations about what was going on in this match.

 

1.)        I noticed I was still standing up on my backhand ground strokes at times and netting the ball.  I believe these were shots where I was inside the baseline and trying to put some pace on the ball.  So I don’t know exactly why this is happening.  Maybe it’s due to overexcitement on my part in knowing that I am going to put pressure on my opponent and move forward to finish a point.  I remember one time I reminded myself to stay down through the shot and I drove the ball three feet deep past the baseline.  I think on that shot I took too big a backswing because I was inside the baseline once again.

 

2.)        At times I didn’t come up to low short balls very well.  The pMartylem here is I should have been moving into the court sooner and not expecting the ball to come to me.

 

3.)        I’m not watching the opponent’s reaction to my shots well enough.  Now this is a big one.  I know I watch some of the time, but I don’t watch all of the time and that needs to improve.  If I don’t watch more closely how can I know when to move forward?

 

4.)        This is another big one.  In general I felt that I was often setting up the point correctly, but I didn’t execute the finish!  I think that will come with experience.  I’m starting to see better my openings for taking advantage of my opponent’s weaknesses and play on the court.

 

5.)        I did bring Marty to the net successfully a few times with a short ball, but I didn’t always finish the point.  This is definitely the right idea since Marty is weak at the net.  He doesn’t particularly volley well nor does he have great lateral movement. 

 

6.)        I felt like I was playing my game most of the time, especially the 1^st set.  I just kept hitting hard regardless of whether my shots were going in.  As I mentioned earlier this isn’t easy because of the pressure of wanting to win.  I think it must be necessary, though, because one has to try to bring his practice game to the match.

 

7.)        I have to say in general I didn’t step into the court soon enough with Marty.  He returned a lot of short balls.   I really didn’t take advantage of what he was giving me as much as possible.

 

8.)        On the positive side I was very pleased with my serving.  I only double faulted twice today.  My toss was very good; it was high enough.  I also really liked my knee bend.  That knee bend is giving my serves more action.  It’s also giving me more confidence that I can get my serves in.  I noticed my 1^st serves were kicking up more and some of my 2^nd spin serves even had a sideways movement today.  That knee bending allows me to hit up at the ball more.  It’s taken a while to get this, but I think it’s finally starting to come around for me.

 

9.)        I returned Marty’s serve well.  His 1^st serve seemed slow today.  I felt like I was waiting for it.  I returned deep and at times with good placement.  I think I need to take more advantage of this in my next match with Marty.  I think I can move forward into the court after returning Marty’s 1^st serve.  I’ve been doing this with his 2^nd serve since it is so shallow and rather a dink serve.  I really should be breaking Marty’s serve with consistency.

 

To rap it up:  I can beat Marty easily once I start to execute my ground strokes with more precision.  I need to bend my knees thru my shots and to keep my backswing compact, especially on balls that are inside the baseline.  I can take control with penetrating ground shots that Marty will return short.  I can move in and end points.  I did this at times today.