Lessons From The Canadian Nationals

At the end of the summer, I watched some of the Canadian Seniors Tennis Mens Championships.

These are the annual summer championships in age groups 35-75.

And, although Canada isn't known as the strongest tennis country in the world, the Canadian champion has also been the world champion in a number of age categories in the past few years.

The final in the 35's was a brilliant example of strategic tennis.

The match pitted a very talented, old school, continental grip player against a modern, fit, semi-western grip, heavy baseliner. To make it even more interesting, the old school player is left-handed, a former satellite pro, and somewhat out of shape. To get a sense of his game think McEnroe or Laver.

The first set was fairly standard tennis with each player trying to see if their basic game was going to be enough to win. And, as the set went on, it became apparent that the more fit, topspinning, modern player was controlling baseline rallies.

The match was on clay, so it was quite difficult for the lefty to attack the net successfully. The first set went by pretty quickly, 6-2 to the baseliner.

Many observers, including an- ex Davis Cupper, left thinking the match was over.
Some of us hung in there to see what new tactics the talented lefty would try in the second set.

Lefty started to hit heavy, short slice landing somewhere around the service line.
This forced the modern player to move and to have to hit up from the service line with his semi-western grip.

Immediately, it became apparent that the modern player didn't know what to do with this ball. He certainly couldn't dominate rallies from here, didn't want to attack himself, and actually missed many shots into the net.

The savvy lefty smelled blood. He kept at it and added in some incredible drop shot returns off of first serves.

The rest of the match went smoothly with a 6-2 win in the third for the old school lefty.

For those of us watching, it was a brilliant example of changing tactics in the middle of a match to turn a losing situation into a winning one.

The key is to realize what grip you're opponent is using and what advantages and disadvantages that grip leads to. Semi-western or western forehand grips are excellent on high balls but weak on low balls.

So, try slicing to the forehand of your next opponent who's killing you with his semi-western forehand.

Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies How Top Tennis Players Win Big Matches guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
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