Played a tournament match against a good player in an ITF sanctioned masters match.
The fellow was a good player with a solid 2 handed backhand and what seemed like a decent forehand in the warmup.
As the match started I began by serving mainly to his backhand as I usually do and I could see that he had a terrific 2 handed backhanded return. He had great technique, really good racket head speed, and he could rip returns even off big serves.
So, of course, I started testing his forehand and I was shocked to see that he had no set routine on the forehand. Sometines he would open his racket face and try to hit a slice forehand return and sometimes he would try and rip a drive. Either way, he was making tons of errors. I strated going to his forehand about 90% of the time, held easily, and won 2 and 3.
Now, here's the amazing thing. His starting preparation massively favored his backhand return. He began in a 2 handed backahnd grip on his backhand side. This meant he had extra hand movement to position himself for a forehand return. And even though I was killing him on the forehand side, he never tried to start off in a forehand grip to neutralize my tactic!
Until next time,
Glenn Sheiner author of INSIDER TENNIS STRATEGIES the tennis Ebook that can make you a better player immediately.
