Earlier today, I played my first match of the Tennis UP Members tournament against Nesty. Nesty is a lefty who plays a consistent game on both wings, often with an excessively “relaxed” motion (some of us call his style as “tamad” style). Don’t get me wrong, even with such a simple motion (i.e. without the “flair” much of us casual players like to achieve), Nesty has a very clean contact with the ball which results in very well placed shots with good enough pace. What I especially like about his game is his relatively flat single-handed backhand, which he places quite well.
The match started out with me breaking Nesty’s serve. Serving on the second game, I didn’t have much success with my serve and eventually got broken too. For the next couple of games, both of us were breaking each other’s serve. You see, ever since I switched from using my Babolat Pure Drive Cortex (which has a 100 sq in head) to a Prince NX Graphite Mid (which has a 93 sq in head), I had been having trouble with my serve, especially my second serve. The smaller head size and tighter string pattern of the Prince keeps me from putting more spin on the ball, making me instead go for flatter and riskier shots. I am currently working on improving that, and now, even if it may cost me a some matches, I try to serve with more spin (even with my first serve) so that I can get more consistent second serves. For the whole match, I believe I had more double faults than my opponent. What I did learn with the serve, however, is that with the Prince, even though you want to serve with spin, you still have to “push” the ball more than when using the Babolat. The racquet requires me to play with a minimum level of “flatness” in order to get the most out of it.
Eventually (I think it was at 3-3), I broke Nesty and held my next service game. I was having a little bit of trouble with my groundstrokes (it has been like this for the past month or so, which is also due to the racquet change). It lacked the depth and pace which I usually played with, as I always hit my groundstrokes flatter than most of my peers when I am in my best form. Still, I tried to aim for the lines and create angles to open up the court. I was quite surprised to see Nesty return a lot of my shots well. Even if I hit it with sharper angles, making Nesty run for the ball, he was still able to return it. What’s more is that he even returns it with a sharper angle! This is true for both his service returns and his serve. I think he wrong footed my at least thrice on his serve, playing a wide serve, then me returning it down the middle, and then him returning it back to where i hit it on the return (wrong footing me because I was naturally moving towards the center). He also had several brilliant backhand returns when I served wide on the deuce court, returning my angled shot with an even more angled shot. He broke back eventually, and at 5-5, I was at a loss on how to win the match, since the more I played with angles, the more he returned brilliantly.
With Nesty serving, I tried to change my game. Instead of going for angles, I played the middle of the court. I played mostly safe shots, trying to return all the balls he gave me. The rallies went with middle to middle. I didn’t even think of making a move for an angled shot, let alone a winner. Eventually, my opponent changes direction. Lo and behold, he makes an error! In playing the Nesty who brilliantly returns angled shots with more angles, the key was just not to give him any angle at all! I served most of my shots towards the middle and returned in the middle. When pulling the trigger, my opponent almost always made the mistake. I broke 6-5, and served out the match. Good thing I was able to solve the “Nesty riddle” before losing the match. I play on to meet the winner of tomorrow’s match between Diego and AJ. I really hope to get more depth and consistency with my groundstrokes, since Diego (which I predict would win the match) plays with a lot of topspin.
P.S. I won the match point with Nesty making an error off a two-handed backhand return of mine! It was the only two-hander I played in the match!
