Situation :

The other day I played against an adult player who was technically less accomplished than me, lower ranked than me and yet he beat me 6/4 6/3... and he didn't steal his victory.

He was a guy who ran everywhere, I play to the right he puts the ball back, I play to the left he puts the ball back, I make him run right to left... Everything comes back... and I often end up making a mistake. 6/4 6/3 for my opponent. My father plays this same opponent and the bottom twice consecutively... Yet I systematically beat my father... we try to understand why I can't beat him and why he succeeds...
Analysis of the game shows that my father exploits the depth of the field more than me... Basically he doesn't just make the opponent run to the right and left, he also makes him move backwards and forward in the field ( And the funny thing is that he almost does it by mistake)...

Currently I play a lot by sending good pistachios,
balls well stretched to the right and left... a game that suits a guy who knows how to run from right to left and deliver everything from his baseline.... I need to learn to exploit depth ground :

• Force my opponent to move back behind his baseline.
• Force my opponent to advance in the course (suck him in) without giving him an attack ball, in short without putting myself in danger.

This is in order to put this type of opponent in more difficulty.

So here is an exercise that we put in place to work on exploiting the depth of the terrain.

Phase 1 :

My partner/opponent (B) stands on his baseline.
We initiate the exchange and...
I play a rounded topspin ball while trying to find a good length of ball (1): I thus try to make the opponent move back behind his baseline and that can put him in a bit of difficulty.

Phase 2 :

If I obtain a favorable ball (on which I feel good) then I give a short ball (2) (Shop / Cushioned / Ball placed) being careful not to provide too easy a ball to my opponent who could attack: I thus try to make my opponent enter the field without allowing him to attack: I want to suck him in.

NB: Depending on the situation I choose to place my ball on the right or left and I prepare for the next shot.

Phase 3 :

If I negotiated my phase 2 well, my opponent entered the course, he did not have time to return to the baseline and I will be able to finish the point by playing behind him (3) / and pass him the ball....

Tennis is actually easy.... 😉

Conclusion :

Repeating this exercise allows me to better manage the use of the depth of the ground.
It also allows me to set up certain game automation.

I am good at training because I am specifically focused on this exercise, but I will have to reinvest in a real situation...
As with all this, it will certainly require testing, doing and redoing, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing, then adjusting parameters, improving until you have a good mastery of this sequence of play and reinvesting it naturally and successfully in real situation.

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