10 October 2006

How to piss off a power baseliner

I was playing doubles last night and having a lot of trouble serving to this one guy. He fed off pace and had limited north-south speed, so I was fine using a lot of spin and off-pace junk (ie: really slow, no power, the way I always hit,) but I couldn't take enough pace off my serve.

He was a righty playing the deuce court, so when I kicked him wide, he'd rip a forehand cross. To get a serve into his much weaker backhand, I had to hit the T which required me to stand at mid-court. That worked alright when I was accurate, but if I was just a bit off target, I'd left half the court wide open. Finally, I figured how to manage him - and piss him off as a bonus. I spoon served him. Ace.

He was flabbergasted. "Was that a serve?"

"Yep. Just like Michael Chang at the French. I'm not above trickery."

I only pulled it once, late in the match, but if I ever play him again I'll be sure to keep him off-balance with that early, late, whenever I think it'll piss him off most.

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