Topic: Pawan's Tennis Journal

[pawan89]

What's this you've been wearing running shoes for tennis?????
I'd have 2 broken ankles if I did that!

If you're commited to the game and can afford it, I'd say get some tennis sneaks and wear them only for that.  If budget permits, buy 2 pair and wear 1 for practice and one for match play.  Be sure and break them in if necessary prior to hitting the courts.

TW has some good reviews on shoes!

Yeah, I'll give it another shot. All I know is I tried them once before - and this was like before I was half the player I am now. They weren't all that amazing or anything at all, they were just normal and they wore out really fast. and I was disappointed cuz as I said good tennis shoes are like around twice the price of decent running shoes (which also have a greater choice since they are more readily available and have more sales and promotions). I mean even foot locker or even sports authority which is supposed to be your good shoe store barely offered any variety. And I am just as comfortable with running shoes, if not more - I dunno why that is
But i'll give it a shot. I'll order them online this time.

[monstertruck]

You should be able to pick up some decent tennys for $60 or less.
Just go for last years model (same as with racquets! ).

I know what you mean by the lack of availability at most brick & mortar stores.
We've got the same problem here.  Basically it's hit or miss ordering online as you don't know how they're going to feel until you've tried a few different pairs....

[pawan89]

Caution: Long and boring post ahead. Just read until the dotted line if you want to keep it short

So.. I haven't actually posted anything on these forums for almost 4 days now. That's a record I believe, or very close to one.
Recent activity..
 Been running a little bit, not quite enough and very sporadically. Played racquetball twice (despite your advice.. believe me I need some kinda physical activity and I am willing to risk what disruptions it may cause with my tennis stroke. I do play very much like tennis though, I  don't think I play the way racquetball is supposed to be played).
Played tennis both days of the weekend. Both average days I must say, pretty satisfactory. Got a better workout on sunday when we hit around for more time.

It's always really inspiring and if taken the wrong way, disappointing when someone's playing very well on a court near you - very well to the point where you feel you can play but know you just might not be able to do that. Beyond that I mean you just gotta watch and admire it. This was the case on sunday. This girl was hitting with this lady (who apparently was/is a coach for college teams) and they were good. I mean consistency and solidity of strokes, of course they were just hitting around and I'd probably favour myself in a real match situation, but it was just inspiring to watch.

I also realized that its been a while since I have played serious tennis. Hard to explain, I always play for real, not just to get on court and waste time but just in general not the same thing as a competitive schedule. Its always been, espeically with the huge breaks in between, its always been more about getting my touch back, or playing light to avoid injuries and soreness, or working on minor things here and there (and realizing i am not fit enough to really do anything properly anymore) etc. I expect to turn the seriousness back to normal levels this summmer.
-----------------------------------------------
So just to recap I was going through my journals first few pages (that's the point of recording stuff right?) And I'll comment on a few things.

My first post was

Age : 18 
...
Weight: 145 lbs


Playing style: Yet to be determined. Like to think of myself as an all court player with a strong baseline game and the ability to mix it up.
Forehand: went from two handed to one hand, right hand.
Backhand: went from two handed in the beginning to one.

Skill on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being horrible and 10 being where I want to be by the end of this summer, i.e the best that I think I can achieve in a decent time frame. So its pretty relative. Just shows how I would analyze my game.
Forehand: 8
Backhand: 3
Volleys: 5
Half Volleys: Yes this deserves a special place because I love this kinda stuff best. uhh.. 7
Serve: Ranges from 4-8
Speed 7:
Fitness: Don't ask. probably -10 now.
Mental game: how can one rank one's own mental game? like the ability to hold serve on breaks.. or play good points when you are down and convert breaks when received - tie breaks.. like that right? I would say 6.5

I want to rate myself now. Again this is the same scale, and its relative to where I want to be this summer end, and so of course its a a higher level than my expectations a year ago but I thing its a pretty comparable distribution.

Age : 19
Weight: 150-160

Playing style: I haven't really played the way I would like (see above about seriousness) but I have become more of a counterpuncher and a little agressive baseliner. But I am not a defensive player though, I am still very much susceptible to UFEs and just plain crappiness when extended in rallies or pushed back, and a winner is still the only way I feel comfortable winning points, no way can I actually counterpunch myself to win points. I have basically been watching more and more of Murray. I expect to return to my all-court ways soon enough.

some changes from the above quotation are entirely due to this being a new year and higher expectatins. The smiley face indicates if I have gone up or down despite the number.

Forehand: 7
Backhand: 5.5-6.0
Volleys: 3
Half Volleys: 5
Serve: 5-9
Speed: 6
Fitness: Don't ask. probably -10 now ( note I wrote this about the same time of the year last year too)
Mental game: 7

So overall, not too shabby. I really need to work on volleys since I have lost touch with them  quite a bit and still go up a lot and miss easy volleys.

I'll add
depth control: 6
pace control: 7.5
return of serve: 7 and getting better

When most pros play "baseline" rallies, they stand well behind the baseline. At least 2 feet or so. And then they move in on short balls. For some reason I don't know exactly but I don't think I ever (literally) move behind the baseline... Clearly this is bad when opponents hit deep and make you run. From behind the baseline you have extra time to prep your stroke and get to the ball too. I can see how this can drastically improve my consistency. That said I still don't want to always be behind the baseline and especially I don't want to get into this habit and keep moving further back.

I have overcome this pretty well. I still stand pretty close but its good enough a time for me to react to deep balls as well


Finally I have class in a few minutes so I'll redo one more post. For now. Expect me to continue this tonight cuz its actually pretty good and tells me a lot about myself.

Serve -
what I can do: a decent slice serve, a good topspin serve. put pace on it when I am in the groove. steady serving motion. controlling the direction.
what I need to work on: bolder second serves. placement of second serves. get into the serving groove more often. use my legs to add power and control the ball with the power.
what I should do: work big time on second serve.

Serve follow through -
what I can do: follow to net and finish a point on the ad court. finish short balls. half volleys.
what I need to work on: getting right back into position after an all-out serve. volleying from a duece court serve.

Return of serve -
what I need to work on: backhand return deep. against s&v people. high serves. consistent and aggressive returns. proper technique and routine.
what I should do: focus on solid block back of serves deep. attack second serves. anticipate the serve better so i can prepare better for my two handed backahnd return. Split step.

Footwork -
what I need to work on: taking a split step more often at the right time. making a constant effort to bend my knees and stay low to ground on groundstrokes. stability at net (firm split steps and step through on volleys). open and closed stances.
what I should do: focus on taking many more steps setting up for shots. focus on split steps.

Strategy (singles only) -
what I can do: rely on my forehand and backhand to keep me in a point. change of pace and sping styles to throw opponent off.
what I need to work on: fighting off strong attacks to my backhand and keep me in the point. being too predictable most of the times.
what I should do:poaching an opponents one or the other side and wrong-step them more often.  pull opponents off wide to set up winners. hitting balls a little higher and deeper (like a mini-lob) to disturb pace and give time.

Forehand -
what I can do: topspins, slices. dropshots. directional control. pace control.
what I need to work on: taking the ball at its peak or on the rise. flat shots.
what I should do: focus on height and depth when i need time to recuperate.

Net Game -
what I can do: volley back into play. dropshots.
what I need to work on: be bold and go for the angles to finish points. overheads.

Backhand -
what I can do: slice deep. drop shots.
what I need to work on: topspin/flat drives
what I should do: use both hands to prepare ahead of time. bend knees. focus on good solid contact and follow through.

Mental -
pros: good approach to most errors and winners. no temper.
what I need to work on: I usally play better when I'm not in the lead and I am trying to catch up, when I am in the lead I'm always more tentative and overall not myself.
what I should do: think more about the opponent and exploit his weaknesses mentally and game wise and use his game to my advantage. basically concentrate on strategic plays more often.

Surprisingly, with improvements of course, a lot of this still holds. Signficant betterments have been in Return of Serve.. Strategym, Forehands and most importantly, the backhand. In fact I have completely satisfied the backhand section of the above quote.
I'll make a new list nonetheless this night.

[dmastous]

Very good idea to reasses after a year.
I'll reasses my game.
Worse than it was last year. 
Oh well.

[Tennis4you]

I dig the idea too, I will see if I can come up with something to throw down.  I bet mine hasn't changed much.

P - I always enjoyed watching the men's and women's local college team play tennis when I was in high school.  Right out of college I had to play a girl who played #1 for Dennison University.  She was good and I thought I would have a serious match on my hands.  6-0, 6-0, I toasted her.

[mdshahid20]

Caution: Long and boring post ahead. Just read until the dotted line if you want to keep it short

So.. I haven't actually posted anything on these forums for almost 4 days now. That's a record I believe, or very close to one.
Recent activity..
 Been running a little bit, not quite enough and very sporadically. Played racquetball twice (despite your advice.. believe me I need some kinda physical activity and I am willing to risk what disruptions it may cause with my tennis stroke. I do play very much like tennis though, I  don't think I play the way racquetball is supposed to be played).
Played tennis both days of the weekend. Both average days I must say, pretty satisfactory. Got a better workout on sunday when we hit around for more time.

It's always really inspiring and if taken the wrong way, disappointing when someone's playing very well on a court near you - very well to the point where you feel you can play but know you just might not be able to do that. Beyond that I mean you just gotta watch and admire it. This was the case on sunday. This girl was hitting with this lady (who apparently was/is a coach for college teams) and they were good. I mean consistency and solidity of strokes, of course they were just hitting around and I'd probably favour myself in a real match situation, but it was just inspiring to watch.

I also realized that its been a while since I have played serious tennis. Hard to explain, I always play for real, not just to get on court and waste time but just in general not the same thing as a competitive schedule. Its always been, espeically with the huge breaks in between, its always been more about getting my touch back, or playing light to avoid injuries and soreness, or working on minor things here and there (and realizing i am not fit enough to really do anything properly anymore) etc. I expect to turn the seriousness back to normal levels this summmer.
-----------------------------------------------
So just to recap I was going through my journals first few pages (that's the point of recording stuff right?) And I'll comment on a few things.

My first post was

Age : 18 
...
Weight: 145 lbs


Playing style: Yet to be determined. Like to think of myself as an all court player with a strong baseline game and the ability to mix it up.
Forehand: went from two handed to one hand, right hand.
Backhand: went from two handed in the beginning to one.

Skill on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being horrible and 10 being where I want to be by the end of this summer, i.e the best that I think I can achieve in a decent time frame. So its pretty relative. Just shows how I would analyze my game.
Forehand: 8
Backhand: 3
Volleys: 5
Half Volleys: Yes this deserves a special place because I love this kinda stuff best. uhh.. 7
Serve: Ranges from 4-8
Speed 7:
Fitness: Don't ask. probably -10 now.
Mental game: how can one rank one's own mental game? like the ability to hold serve on breaks.. or play good points when you are down and convert breaks when received - tie breaks.. like that right? I would say 6.5

I want to rate myself now. Again this is the same scale, and its relative to where I want to be this summer end, and so of course its a a higher level than my expectations a year ago but I thing its a pretty comparable distribution.

Age : 19
Weight: 150-160

Playing style: I haven't really played the way I would like (see above about seriousness) but I have become more of a counterpuncher and a little agressive baseliner. But I am not a defensive player though, I am still very much susceptible to UFEs and just plain crappiness when extended in rallies or pushed back, and a winner is still the only way I feel comfortable winning points, no way can I actually counterpunch myself to win points. I have basically been watching more and more of Murray. I expect to return to my all-court ways soon enough.

some changes from the above quotation are entirely due to this being a new year and higher expectatins. The smiley face indicates if I have gone up or down despite the number.

Forehand: 7
Backhand: 5.5-6.0
Volleys: 3
Half Volleys: 5
Serve: 5-9
Speed: 6
Fitness: Don't ask. probably -10 now ( note I wrote this about the same time of the year last year too)
Mental game: 7

So overall, not too shabby. I really need to work on volleys since I have lost touch with them  quite a bit and still go up a lot and miss easy volleys.

I'll add
depth control: 6
pace control: 7.5
return of serve: 7 and getting better

When most pros play "baseline" rallies, they stand well behind the baseline. At least 2 feet or so. And then they move in on short balls. For some reason I don't know exactly but I don't think I ever (literally) move behind the baseline... Clearly this is bad when opponents hit deep and make you run. From behind the baseline you have extra time to prep your stroke and get to the ball too. I can see how this can drastically improve my consistency. That said I still don't want to always be behind the baseline and especially I don't want to get into this habit and keep moving further back.

I have overcome this pretty well. I still stand pretty close but its good enough a time for me to react to deep balls as well


Finally I have class in a few minutes so I'll redo one more post. For now. Expect me to continue this tonight cuz its actually pretty good and tells me a lot about myself.

Serve -
what I can do: a decent slice serve, a good topspin serve. put pace on it when I am in the groove. steady serving motion. controlling the direction.
what I need to work on: bolder second serves. placement of second serves. get into the serving groove more often. use my legs to add power and control the ball with the power.
what I should do: work big time on second serve.

Serve follow through -
what I can do: follow to net and finish a point on the ad court. finish short balls. half volleys.
what I need to work on: getting right back into position after an all-out serve. volleying from a duece court serve.

Return of serve -
what I need to work on: backhand return deep. against s&v people. high serves. consistent and aggressive returns. proper technique and routine.
what I should do: focus on solid block back of serves deep. attack second serves. anticipate the serve better so i can prepare better for my two handed backahnd return. Split step.

Footwork -
what I need to work on: taking a split step more often at the right time. making a constant effort to bend my knees and stay low to ground on groundstrokes. stability at net (firm split steps and step through on volleys). open and closed stances.
what I should do: focus on taking many more steps setting up for shots. focus on split steps.

Strategy (singles only) -
what I can do: rely on my forehand and backhand to keep me in a point. change of pace and sping styles to throw opponent off.
what I need to work on: fighting off strong attacks to my backhand and keep me in the point. being too predictable most of the times.
what I should do:poaching an opponents one or the other side and wrong-step them more often.  pull opponents off wide to set up winners. hitting balls a little higher and deeper (like a mini-lob) to disturb pace and give time.

Forehand -
what I can do: topspins, slices. dropshots. directional control. pace control.
what I need to work on: taking the ball at its peak or on the rise. flat shots.
what I should do: focus on height and depth when i need time to recuperate.

Net Game -
what I can do: volley back into play. dropshots.
what I need to work on: be bold and go for the angles to finish points. overheads.

Backhand -
what I can do: slice deep. drop shots.
what I need to work on: topspin/flat drives
what I should do: use both hands to prepare ahead of time. bend knees. focus on good solid contact and follow through.

Mental -
pros: good approach to most errors and winners. no temper.
what I need to work on: I usally play better when I'm not in the lead and I am trying to catch up, when I am in the lead I'm always more tentative and overall not myself.
what I should do: think more about the opponent and exploit his weaknesses mentally and game wise and use his game to my advantage. basically concentrate on strategic plays more often.

Surprisingly, with improvements of course, a lot of this still holds. Signficant betterments have been in Return of Serve.. Strategym, Forehands and most importantly, the backhand. In fact I have completely satisfied the backhand section of the above quote.
I'll make a new list nonetheless this night.

yo i should do this as well. in the meantime i hope u dont mind me adding my own opinions. as the person u play with most often i sort of want to give up some of my own input. alright here goes:

Serve: much better than it first appears. you have a lot of spins and place it real well. to be honest i think its only a shade worse than mine on most days (unless i'm having an amazing serving day)

Return game: much better as of late (idk what uve been doing but its been working very well)

forehand: consistently very good stroke but u (as well as i) need to tone our forehands down and pick our spots to go for winners.

backhand: much better- its very flat so ud think it'd be inconsistent but so far its working very well

movement: i think this is the single most striking weakness in both our games. i guess when ur fitness is back we can focus on improving it.

volleying: pretty good when ur up at net but u sometimes need to come in more strategically.

[dmastous]

yo i should do this as well. in the meantime i hope u dont mind me adding my own opinions. as the person u play with most often i sort of want to give up some of my own input. alright here goes:

Serve: much better than it first appears. you have a lot of spins and place it real well. to be honest i think its only a shade worse than mine on most days (unless i'm having an amazing serving day)

Return game: much better as of late (idk what uve been doing but its been working very well)

forehand: consistently very good stroke but u (as well as i) need to tone our forehands down and pick our spots to go for winners.

backhand: much better- its very flat so ud think it'd be inconsistent but so far its working very well

movement: i think this is the single most striking weakness in both our games. i guess when ur fitness is back we can focus on improving it.

volleying: pretty good when ur up at net but u sometimes need to come in more strategically.

If you want someone to read you post, it's probably not a good idea to quote such a long post, and make people scroll down 2 pages.
Just a thought.

[pawan89]

yo i should do this as well. in the meantime i hope u dont mind me adding my own opinions. as the person u play with most often i sort of want to give up some of my own input. alright here goes:

Serve: much better than it first appears. you have a lot of spins and place it real well. to be honest i think its only a shade worse than mine on most days (unless i'm having an amazing serving day)

Return game: much better as of late (idk what uve been doing but its been working very well)

forehand: consistently very good stroke but u (as well as i) need to tone our forehands down and pick our spots to go for winners.

backhand: much better- its very flat so ud think it'd be inconsistent but so far its working very well

movement: i think this is the single most striking weakness in both our games. i guess when ur fitness is back we can focus on improving it.

volleying: pretty good when ur up at net but u sometimes need to come in more strategically.

If you want someone to read you post, it's probably not a good idea to quote such a long post, and make people scroll down 2 pages.
Just a thought.

excuse me Dmast, but my quote was only a page and three quarters 

and mdshahid- I very much appreciate your input, after all my game has grown a good amount due to people like dmast and osu and monster and such and you know my game better than anyone else. you should definitely do something like this, even though I don't think you have anything officially recorded on here for long since you only joined recently.
I agree with movement, we both need to actually work on fitness.

[pawan89]

I seem to have lost my volleys. I was never a great volleyer but I did take pride in the fact that I could volley better than a lot of people and could rely on it to win points. Even serve and volley was a decent and nowadays i feel like doing it more. But I think I have lost it. Not good news. I netted half the volleys and wild ed half the volleys and got passed on the other half.

This is a little funny, I wrote this on April 21st 2007. Exactly a year ago. And unfortunately every word of it is probably still true today.

[pawan89]

I dig the idea too, I will see if I can come up with something to throw down.  I bet mine hasn't changed much.

P - I always enjoyed watching the men's and women's local college team play tennis when I was in high school.  Right out of college I had to play a girl who played #1 for Dennison University.  She was good and I thought I would have a serious match on my hands.  6-0, 6-0, I toasted her.

You beat her 6-0 6-0!? Or you got destroyed 0-6 0-6? Either way that's pretty impressive from at least one of you.

You should do something like this too, except you have about 75 pages of posts to go through  so it'll take you quite a while. At least you have got it better than OSU 

[mdshahid20]

yo i should do this as well. in the meantime i hope u dont mind me adding my own opinions. as the person u play with most often i sort of want to give up some of my own input. alright here goes:

Serve: much better than it first appears. you have a lot of spins and place it real well. to be honest i think its only a shade worse than mine on most days (unless i'm having an amazing serving day)

Return game: much better as of late (idk what uve been doing but its been working very well)

forehand: consistently very good stroke but u (as well as i) need to tone our forehands down and pick our spots to go for winners.

backhand: much better- its very flat so ud think it'd be inconsistent but so far its working very well

movement: i think this is the single most striking weakness in both our games. i guess when ur fitness is back we can focus on improving it.

volleying: pretty good when ur up at net but u sometimes need to come in more strategically.

If you want someone to read you post, it's probably not a good idea to quote such a long post, and make people scroll down 2 pages.
Just a thought.

my bad, i didn't realize how long it was

[pawan89]

Ok. I haven't really read anyone's journal in a while and haven't played in a while. Usually I make up for my lack of playing by reading others' playing updates. I went hit against the wall twice recently. That's it.

I haven't even done anything physical of late besides that. I am just becoming fat and out of shape. And the last two weeks have been mega hectic. Seriously. I have been getting home at 4 in the morning last two days only to get back to college by 8. And finals. And labs. And more projects due. And work, speaking of which, so there might just be a chance, if i can get my professor to send me and if my parents allow it, that i'll be up by chicago for almost two months.

Also, this saturday was our catapult competition. 5 teams entered, 4 of them made trebuchets, we were the only ones who made a catapult. There were two objectives, one distance, and one accuracy. We came in second in distance (if you saw the huge trebuchet that won that, you'd have thought we were going to war all mediveal style. Ours was a manageble size about 8x4x3 feet and surprisingly powerful because we used a 140lb garage spring to propel our launching arm. and then we came in first for accuracy cuz we actually built it for accuracy - and trebuchets just suck at short distance stuff, they are built for long distance . the accuracy contest was 80 feet. Our longest launch was something close to 200 I think.  here's a picture or two:

this is the two big ones, the one in the middle was the distance winner. It was definitely scary looking.



and then this is ours, very small compared to thiers but just as lethal and most violent for sure. it's a human mousetrap if that thing ever collapsed.



finally, I realized why Fed's playing horrible..look at this, he has just one leg!!

[OSU Buckeye]

Ahhhh, but the shadow gives it away........Fed does in fact still have 2 legs!?   

I love me some trebuchet's............I saw a special on them where they were building a huge one for testing to see what it was like to use them...............very cool!    Congrats on your catapult!   

[pawan89]

Thanks, it was pretty sweet

so summer's almost here and my final exam ends like the 14th or so. After which its all tennis. And work. Its going to be pretty hectic actually. So today my cell phone completely discharged, and I was planning on being up at college pretty much all night, in fact I just got home and its almost 4 now. A few short hour and I'll be headed back again but that's not the point. The point is, in order to call my parents to let them know, I decided to run to my car to charge up my phone with the car charger for a few minutes to make the call.

That's not the point either.
Point is I ran the green mile, so called because its very green and sorrounded by beautiful soccer fields and golf courses and lots more practice feilds for sports and a nice one lane road through the middle of all this. It's roughly 3/4 of a mile unless you walk the extremes in which case its well over a mile. So I have been complaining of getting out of shape and all.. and wow it hit me pretty hard today. I ran at a very comfortable almosts jogging like pace and I was pretty much out of breath and barely able to run all the way to my car. It was really disappointing. And when running all I could think of was how messed up I have become pretty much  in terms of not caring for my health/physical well being at all. I was surprised I wasn't all cramping up. And till now I never looked too fat, now I am even beginning to look fat. Like.. now's the time I am supposed to impress the girls right?

So anyway, I have set out a plan for the summer. I am going to start running for serious again on the same roads I used to run for cross country back in highschool. They are very good, peaceful roads through lot of greenery and residential areas. I laid out the map just for anyone interested and because I had nothing better to do and really don't feel like sleeping for 2 hours.



There are some really good things apart from the relaxing running area about this place. First my high school is the vertical oval and is only 2 miles from my house. I'll most likely be driving there with water and shoes and such because until there its just highway and such. The horizontal oval are the tennis courts I used to play on. 16 tennis courts. Yes, the most in the county. be jealous. so already you can see.. I could take time to practice serves, hit against people etc.

That'll be my starting point and ending point.

The coloured paths are the paths I'll be taking. The paths are very well spaced and so will help me get my timing down properly. The blue path is exactly 1 mile. most beautiful thing ever, through the woods, very peaceful and then it has a winding curved uphill path that leads to the library which is the turn around point. There's another good thing, a library is one of the coolest places to be near. The red path is exactly 2 miles.
The green path is around 3.25 miles. and the yellow path around 3.8 miles. not too much, but just enough to get back in shape. There's also a track right by my school that I can use if I want to do sprints and such.

So I am thinking the blue path will be a nice warmup and one of the bigger trails will be the main workout with maybe half the blue path later as the cooldown. there's also many little shortcuts and other combinations i can take but the ones i highlighted are even distance so it really helps nail the timing and mentally be prepared at any point of the run.

final goal: I want to get back to doing 3 miles under 21 minutes. I really doubt I'd be able to last the whole 3 miles at this stage, if I did it'd easily be like 30 minutes. pretty embarassing, but i am confident enough to get back on track.

I was considering using Rutgers' awesome weight room when I am up there but I am really not a fan of lifting weights. It really bothers me. I can do it for fun but I don't actualy want the effects of weight lifting. I'll stick to core exercises and such to get stronger and running.

that's it, there was a just for funzzies post. i'm sorta making up for not having played in so long by posting random things.

[OSU Buckeye]

Sweet map!   Good luck with the running.............I was never able to sustain exercise by running...........I would tire of it by week 3 or 4!   

[pawan89]

exams and all, I forgot to update. I hit against the wall twice in the last two weeks, and last time I was at the wall this dude asked me if I wanted to hit. Naturally I did. And it was nice to play against a human again. I did pretty well for not having played in a while. This guy played the lowest slices, I haven't played anyone with real good and low slices in a looong time, and I personally haven't done that in a long time either since I have been working on my topspin backhands for the last two years. It was tough, especially when I couldn't read it, it was very tough getting those low slices back. But it was fun.

That's two things the wall can't do - put pace on the ball and control where it goes and put slices on the ball. That's three.

[pawan89]

so even withaa exams and all, i have been hitting the wall () frequently. Working on my backhand mainly but also getting a good workout. a few 50 shot rallies against the wall really tests your movement and its been pushing me physically. I spent around half an hour yesterday and today on my way back home at the wall. I like it. I am liking my game this summer. Three more days, three exams and I am free, and I am going to destroy all in my path this summer. Enough of working on specific aspects of my game all the time, time to put it all together and roll from there.

[OSU Buckeye]

Exciting time for those of you finishing school and looking forward to alot of tennis!   Amidst all of your destruction of others this Summer, you should make your way to Ohio to meet up with us so we can give you a lesson!   

[pawan89]

6-4 6-2 6-7 (2) 6-2

Not a bad start for my first real tennis after ..what, 4 months? Looking forward to more good tennis, the way things were rolling today, its going to be a good summer. Fitness is my first priority.

[OSU Buckeye]

No details on who you played, was it MD?