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Love Means Nothing in Tennis : October 2007

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Wow, hats off to Jimmy and Melissa (and her friend Lauren, who ran the drills) for organizing a nice little tennis clinic for beginners last Thursday. And every feedback so far emphasized the FUN those new players had, and the desire for more social tennis. Hey, it can't get any better than that, folks. And as soon as those players realize that tennis is a sport that can be competitive or just social, or both (it's up to the individual), and that you can play the sport until you are super senior level or beyond, a whole new world of fun is opening up for them.

My suggestion: Start a mentoring program where experienced players mentor a beginner.

I have a few words of wisdom for all of you. But not from me, of course, rather from people who made a name in tennis and know (or knew) what they were talking about. Go ahead and smile when you see players like Suzanne Lenglen and the seemingly yesteryear but obvious advice she gave. But this woman really knew what she was talking about. I'll quote from WIKIPEDIA:

Suzanne Rachel Flore Lenglen (24 May 1899 - 4 July 1938) was a French tennis player who won 31 Grand Slam titles from 1914 through 1926. A flamboyant, trendsetting athlete, she was the first female tennis celebrity and one of the first international female sport stars, named La Divine (the divine one) by the French press.

Here it goes:

Your feet are the point from which the footwork is done. You must be easy upon them. Do not allow them to hold the ground flatly, for then movement in any direction will not be instant - never run too fast, run with short steps.
Suzanne Lenglen (The Right Set)
31 Grand Slam titles 1914-1926

A good player never misses easy ones. Remember that if you do miss a simple shot you should have made, you are giving your opponent two points. The difference between plus one and minus one.
Bill Tilden (Big Bill Tilden)
24 Grand Slam titles 1913-1935

Your game is only as good as your second serve.
John Newcomb (Ken Rosewall: Twenty Years at the Top)
17 Grand Slam titles 1953-1974

There's always more to learn in this game, no matter how long you've been playing.
Roy Emerson (The Tennis Lover's Book of Wisdom)
28 Grand Slam titles 1960-1971

A tennis match is a thousand little sprints.
Biorn Borg
11 Grand Slam titles 1974-1981

You must come on the court with five game plans and be prepared to use all of them.
John McEnroe (Winning Tennis)
17 Grand Slam titles 1977-1992

In a match, visualize the times you were on the practice court in the same situation. Remove all the other elements. Then hit the ball the way you did in practice when there wasn't any pressure.
Chris Evert (Tennis)
21 Grand Slam titles 1974-1986

It boils down to watching the ball and executing.
Andre Agassi
8 Grand Slam titles 1992-2003

Sometimes you must make errors in order to make progress.
Justine Henin
7 Grand Slam titles 2003-2007


And finally I want to repeat a word of wisdom from my good friend and teacher Vic Braden, spoken when he visited us at Active.com in San Diego:
I've never seen a tennis player bend his knees too low!

:-)

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Club membership in Tennis can be expensive or not, as evidenced by the following examples:

  • La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club (La Jolla): Initiation for a full membership: $50,000, annual dues $4,650
  • La Costa Resort & Spa (Carlsbad): Initiation for a Tennis/Fitness membership: $16,500, monthly $195
  • Rancho Valencia Resort (Rancho Santa Fe): Initiation $2,400, monthly $120
  • San Diego Tennis & Racquet Club (San Diego): Initiation $990, monthly $135
  • Bobby Riggs Tennis Club (Encinitas): Initiation $300, monthly $70
  • Balboa Tennis Club (San Diego): $155 per year, no court fees
  • Kit Carson Park (Escondido): Free

What are you getting for your money? Well, La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club (with a 10 year waiting list!) and La Costa Resort, as well as Rancho Valencia provide matches with members for you. Rancho Valencia is the prettiest facility (Top 5 in the country) but doesn't have lights. SDT&R is extremely busy all the time, but has a nice big swimming pool. Bobby Riggs, with only 7 courts, is either very busy or totally empty, depending on the time and day of the week. Balboa has 25 courts, and somehow dim lights at night, but you can play pick-up tennis and use the challenge courts there every day. Kit Carson is known for its pick-up games on the weekends, but you have to be at least good intermediate level, otherwise you don't get to play much.

But, don't let your heart be troubled, there is another alternative for San Diego tennis players, especially for those who don't know any other players: San Diego Tennis Network and San Diego Tennis Exchange. Two groups that provide organized doubles and mixed doubles match play on many weeknights and on the weekends, at different facilities, and they are affordable! Another good news: they co-operate with each other and you find many of their members at both organization's events.


San Diego Tennis Network (TN) http://www.tennis-sandiego.com/
Operates mainly in North County. Plays at different facilities, such as Surf & Turf (Del Mar), San Dieguito (Encinitas), Rancho Valencia Resort (Rancho Santa Fe), Morgan Run Resort (Rancho Santa Fe). The mixers are all levels from 3.0 to 4.5 and they match up the levels pretty good. TN has 3 Social Directors arranging all sorts of activities from regular parties to ski trips, dancing, race track and Padres, bowling, softball, etc.

San Diego Tennis Exchange (TN) http://www.sandiegotennisexchange.com/
Operates mainly in San Diego. Plays at different facilities, such as Barnes Tennis Center, Lake Murray, Downtown Marriott, Surf & Turf in Del Mar, University City Racquet Club. Their mixers are well organized, the owner has been doing this for 29 years!

Both organizations charge about the same. Annual $150, then there is a court fee of usually $5 per night. TN provides new balls. In October, both organizations do a few mixers together, plus a big weekend trip to fabulous Shadow Mountain in Palm Desert, and the popular annual Halloween Party in Encinitas.

If you want to have tennis always organized for you, want to play with and meet new people, want to see different facilities and save some money, and like the idea of social networking, TN or TE are the way to go, for sure. Check them out and say hi from Rich. I play with both regularly once or twice a week. I don't know if they will give you a discount when you mention my name, but it can't hurt, right? :-)

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I had the pleasure to work with a USTA staff member at the 2.5 Nationals on Thursday. Boy, if you've never been to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, you've missed out. These are easily the most beautiful tennis courts I have ever seen. I know, La Costa Resort & Spa is nice, Rancho Valencia Resort is even nicer with all the citrus trees and the beautifully landscaped facility. But the courts at the Tennis Garden are just perfect. They are newly surfaced, it seems, and large, many with stadium seating attached. Too bad they only have 21 courts, so they can only accommodate the 2.5's and the 4.5 seniors. For the bigger National events (3.0's, 3.5's, 4.0's) a facility needs at least 25 courts because of the sheer number of players.

Tennis is the only sport I know where people come together like this, for several days of competition in a team. All friendly and social, ready for playing during the day and partying in the evening. The women are all dressed in the latest tennis fashion, most teams with team colors or identical outfits. Even the men, who nomally couldn't care less what they look like on court, are beginning to come dressed in some uniform fashion. Bravo!

The level of tennis is a expected, only teams with players at the top of their level can come to the Nationals, and many are a little above 2.5. All in all a great event, very well organized by the USTA. It left me with a feeling that being part of this tennis community is worth it. I am looking forward to Oct. 18-21, when I'll be working the tournament desk at the 4.5 Senior Nationals. The quality of tennis should be outstanding!

Come out to the desert that weekend, if you have time. You won't regret it. Maybe we can set up some tennis together?

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Although I'm not a tennis pro by any stretch of the imagination, I want to share some of the strategies that work for me playing singles tennis. I thought tips like these might come handy for our compadres playing the new Active Tennis Ladder...

Over the years I found that my best strategy for winning singles matches is to HAVE A PLAN. Unless I am totally outclassed by my opponent from the get go, having a plan puts me one step ahead of him or her already. The same is true for doubles tennis, of course. Talking about a plan with your partner, developing it together, sharing observations about the opponents' game and habits, sticking to the plan and adjusting it as necessary - very powerful tools to win a match regardless of individual abilities! All my plans are designed to exploit my opponents' WEAKNESSES.

Here are my steps to developing such a plan

1. The warm-up lays the foundation for The Plan. Observe your partner thoroughly. It's amazing how much you can learn about your opponent during warm-up. And if you know your opponent and have played against him already? Learn what his present form is. Are his shots right on the mark or is he spraying bullets all over?


2. Still during warm-up, feed him (her) balls to both sides. If you have the feeling you see a weakness on the back hand side, feed some more balls there. See what he does with wide shots. Is he using two-handed back hand returns? Does he like forehand shots? The last thing I want is to trade forehand ground strokes with a guy who is a human back board. He'll wear you down and you'll be on the court for hours. Not my preference. I want to win a ladder set as quickly as possible.


Don't forget to throw up some lobs to see the overheads. If he doesn't want them, he probably doesn't like to do overheads. Make a mental note to give him some during the match! Next are the volleys. Observe how he reacts to both forehand and backhand volleys and make mental notes. The last thing you can expect to observe is the serve. Is it fast, does he know how to spin a serve? Much information to be exploited later.

3. So I observed my opponent enough to develop a plan. And I'll work this plan from the first shot in the match, adjusting it only if I see further weaknesses or if he improves certain aspects of his game. In this example, my opponent loves forehand ground strokes, has errant shots on his back hand because he tries to power everything in, does so-so with overheads. His first serve is hard, and, as I learned soon, the second serve comes in much slower with no spin. He's just trying to get it in. And he loves to run!

4. I work the plan. Most of my shots will go to his back hand. I'll throw in a couple of lobs when he's looking into the sun. I move in on his second serve and attack it with an attempt for an outright winning shot. When I have him running a lot, I'll send some fluffy spin shots and drop shots his way, see what he does with them. When I see him trying to rush the net I'll hit a hard shot flat over the net to his feet - he's not comfortable with running volleys and puts them in the net.

I love net play and volleys. Since his returns from serves to his forehand are very good and hard, and I can't always control serving to his backhand too well, I'll stay back after most of my serves and decide to come in as often as possible in two situations:
a) when his returns land short on my side of the court
b) when my shots drive him way back behind the baseline or way out to the side

Two habits of mine pay off most of the time, and I learned them from Rod Laver during a clinic at La Costa Resort a few years ago:

  • Watch your opponent's racquet on all his shots. If a shot comes in with heavy slice you can always see that by judging the angle of the racquet head. Make sure you change your own reply to shots like this. Taking off some speed maybe, and/or lifting the ball up a little seems like a good approach here.

  • When you have to stretch sideways to reach a shot, regardless if it's on the forehand or backhand side, the ball often needs extra lift to clear the net. Taking off some power is a very good idea, too, but the lifting up of the ball is always burned in my brain.


As I said above, this works for me. No guarantee it'll work for you, but it'll definitely improve your chances... Good luck playing the ladder - maybe we'll meet one day?

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I was reading the September issue of the AZTEC Tennis Reporter newsletter (San Diego State Tennis coverage), which has an interesting debate on the pros and cons of recruiting foreign players into collegiate tennis teams. Born and raised in Germany, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1985, I can relay to this issue and tend to be more a pro guy. One of the many reasons for me: Foreign tennis players leave some funny quotes behind and I thought starting off the week on a humorous note with some quotes from foreign players may be an excellent idea. Sorry for the language in Thomas Muster's quote, but I personally think it's hilarious!

Quotes:

An otherwise happily married couple may turn a mixed doubles game into a scene from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
(Rod Laver)

Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row!
(Vitas Gerulaitis on finally beating Jimmy Connors)

Boyfriends have to understand my needs. I shower four times a day.
(Anna Kournikova)

The trouble with me is that every match I play against five opponents: umpire, crowd, ball boys, court and myself.
(Goran Ivanisevic)

I won't be watching the women's final, that's for sure. I'm not into women's tennis anymore.
(Leyton Hewitt after his separation from Kim Cliisters)

I really am tired a little bit of making comebacks.
(Marat Safin)

I was thinking that if I hit his nuts, maybe he would serve like a woman.
(Thomas Muster on Greg Rusedski)

I lost because the draw was fixed.
(Jelena Dokic at the 2001 Australian Open)

On the coin toss Martina said: Do you want me to break your serve first or hold? The umpire looked shocked. But we just both cracked up.
(Lindsay Davenport on a match she played with Martina Hingis)


But one of my all time favorite quotes comes from an American player, Bobby Riggs. Years ago, while I was working in the aerial photography/digital imaging field, I was commissioned to create all the displays for the Bobby Riggs Tennis Museum at the Bobby Riggs Tennis Club in Cardiff. The biggest job was to make larger-than-life size images of the most important players in Bobby's life, mount them on display board and hang them on the walls of the museum. I recall those players to be Jack Kramer, Pancho Gonzales, Margaret Court, Pancho Segura and Billie Jean King. That's when I started to become a BR fan and collector of his memoribilia.

BJK was the subject of his famous quote, which goes like this:

"I'll put Billie Jean King and all the other Women's Libbers back where they belong - in the kitchen and the bedroom."

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