90+ Serve experts in World Tour

[ItaStallion]

i managed to beat him so it's not impossible...

he is insanely slow and cannot rally with your player....

run him round the court on your serve and he will never take a point off you

and then as i said on the tiebreak guess right once on his serve and get the ball back into play and you have won the set.

once people figure this out people will stop being the big servers but instead make a more balanced player

[andman666]

I did have a mini-break in the super tie break but he had some good returns to break me
I don't care that I lost, I just think its terrible to have players on the tour like these people

[Rob ITST]

once people figure this out people will stop being the big servers but instead make a more balanced player

That's exactly what I'm thinking. People say "I know I can beat them, but it's so boring", etc. But the people who use these setups are doing it to win. When the winning stops, they'll try something new.

[jayl0ve]

If this game is any good AT ALL, we will know nowhere near everything about it in these first couple weeks.

People are still figuring out new crap in Street Fighter 2 games...some of those are now 20 years old.

[Zeriurs]

Just beat a 98serve 98 power guy
3-1 4-2

1serve 85%
1serve win 80%
2serve win 60%
12 aces
Total points won:19

Break him clean at 3-2 to 4-2:lol:

Next one i won 4-3 (7-1) 4-3 (7-2) some other guy with same setup
He was 0-40 in his serve. and then made 3 aces in a row

[tigerofintegrity]

Stupid Robin Soderlling

That stupid Robin Soderling would be me.

Firstly, you messaged me after the match asking whether I can 'play normal tennis'. Since when was the serve ruled as an abnormal part of tennis? Serving well is as much a skill as moving well or being able to manouvre your opponent around the court well with top spin shots. Obviously it can be a frustrating strategy for the opponent because one shot can snuff out chances but hey, it's just as frustrating for me when someone rallies well and no matter what shots I hit, I end up losing them. Everyone plays a type of player and there will be matchups you're good against, some you're bad against, some that you like, some that you dislike but at the end of the day, nobody is really unbeatable. There are nightmare matchups for me that are unfavourable but if I get beaten, well then too good to the other guy. You still need a good player on the other end of the controller to pull it off.

Secondly, I'm not sure why you're complaining. Everyone has the same amount of stats to distribute, if I'm good at serving then I don't do so well when it comes to moving or rallying. That's the trade off. If my type of player bothers you that much then either you should create a player that matches up better or you learn to find a way to exploit my weaknesses with your player. I mean, I'm hardly unbeatable. ItaStallion beat me and others have too.

Thirdly, you want everyone to be a 'balanced player' in the game. That would make it uniform and boring. There would be little diversity. Playing the same player over and over would be a drag. Imagine we cloned David Ferrer 30 times and put all of him at the top of the game. How interesting would that be? In fact, I notice that at the top of the Top Spin 4 rankings, the dominant player type is the Top Spin Invasion/Monster Defense build, the type that beats my player. 50%+ up there are currently sporting that combination. If anything, I think my player type brings a good change up and helps mix things up well. It'd be a shame if the large majority end up being this build, not because they beat me but because I think it's always healthy when there are a wide range of different builds out there to play against. You think it's terrible to have players like me on the tour, I think it's terrible to not have some players like me on the tour to add to the diversity and depth of the game.

Fourthly, my volley stats are not 70 something but 50 something. It also does not affect your ability to do drop shots, it affects your ability to do volleys like it says.... As for drop-shotting every shot, that's something I don't do because one thing that I try never to be is predictable. A predictable opponent is an easy opponent. I can serve so well because I know how to mix it up well. I've played people who serve harder than I do but they're relatively easy for me because they are predictable with their serves. Drop-shots are high-risk shots in this game, easy to get wrong if you don't time it well and easy to counter if you don't do them at the right time. If I managed to soften you up with power shots and get a short ball, then I may drop shot. If you defended well and returned a shot to near the baseline, I'm unlikely to drop shot from there because it's clearly a losing position. The reason your drop shots are high is because you're playing them from deep and from high-bouncing shots. You want to play drop shots when you're inside the baseline and from lower trajectory balls.

Fifthly, I'm not all about serve. I know how to play tennis and I can play the rest of my game perfectly fine. I may be outplayed because my other stats are weak but I can play well with what I've got. It's not like I just hold every game and wait until tie-breaks to beat opponents. Most of the people I beat I can break. Usually only the defensive build of a top player I struggle to break. You said yourself I made some good returns in the super tie-break, so obviously I can play other aspects of the game well and hey, if I got some good returns in then that sounds to me like I earned my win.

Sixthly, I wouldn't compare my playing style with that of Ivo Karlovic. More like Robin Soderling, who I made... I serve well, I rarely come into the net to volley, I mostly play a power game from the baseline, I move slowly, if I'm not hitting winners then all I can really do is try to hit harder because other game plans won't work, I hit backhands hard and don't slice them 9/10 shots... sounds a lot more like Soderling than Karlovic to me.

And lastly, a point that you'll probably find comforting, I'll likely never make it to the very top echelons of the game simply because my player matches up so poorly against the very popular build at the top of the rankings. So that you don't have to worry about. I may make another character with a completely different style sometime and enter him but I doubt I'd ever stop playing with this character. I find it fun and enjoyable to play as Robin Soderling. It doesn't really matter that much to me that I can't beat a lot of the guys at the top with this character, I can still win matches and have fun doing so. Ironically, I'm not a huge fan of big servers who serve a lot of aces irl but the nature of the game forces me to do that. If I wanted to be a pure big hitter without being able to serve extremely well, I wouldn't stand a chance in this game. Robin Soderling moves slow and in this game, pure power will not make up for that against defensive players. So I have to resort to learning how to serve really well too. Besides, many tennis fans thought like you do. Then they watched last week's Indian Wells match between Karlovic and Nadal and I was surprised to see how entertaining the match was and how many people warmed to Karlovic's style afterwards. I think what you should be more concerned about is making sure Top Spin 4 doesn't become a monotone, one-dimensional game jam-packed with identical players but that it ends up being a great game with tonnes of diversity and interesting matchups.

That's all in defence of myself though I am flattered I got an entire thread dedicated to me.

[ItaStallion]

Stupid Robin Soderlling

I mean, I'm hardly unbeatable. ItaStallion beat me and others have too.

oh how i like that part of your long wall of text lol

[Oscarzero]

i managed to beat him so it's not impossible...

he is insanely slow and cannot rally with your player....

run him round the court on your serve and he will never take a point off you

and then as i said on the tiebreak guess right once on his serve and get the ball back into play and you have won the set.

once people figure this out people will stop being the big servers but instead make a more balanced player

I originally think like that too. But later on I found out this may not be the case - the opponent can also take a guess and make a great return. So in the end this method probably just give you about 50% chance to win.

[Oscarzero]

That is a solid defense essay tiger

[Sherlock 117]

Nice post Tiger. I agree with you 100%. I would just be afraid that everyone would have a setup like yours. But obviously that would never happen since your setup is beatable.

[TomBs]

Totally agree indeed. Overall many people are still stuck with the ts3-paradigms.

[andman666]

Stupid Robin Soderlling

That stupid Robin Soderling would be me.

Firstly, you messaged me after the match asking whether I can 'play normal tennis'. Since when was the serve ruled as an abnormal part of tennis? Serving well is as much a skill as moving well or being able to manouvre your opponent around the court well with top spin shots. Obviously it can be a frustrating strategy for the opponent because one shot can snuff out chances but hey, it's just as frustrating for me when someone rallies well and no matter what shots I hit, I end up losing them. Everyone plays a type of player and there will be matchups you're good against, some you're bad against, some that you like, some that you dislike but at the end of the day, nobody is really unbeatable. There are nightmare matchups for me that are unfavourable but if I get beaten, well then too good to the other guy. You still need a good player on the other end of the controller to pull it off.

Secondly, I'm not sure why you're complaining. Everyone has the same amount of stats to distribute, if I'm good at serving then I don't do so well when it comes to moving or rallying. That's the trade off. If my type of player bothers you that much then either you should create a player that matches up better or you learn to find a way to exploit my weaknesses with your player. I mean, I'm hardly unbeatable. ItaStallion beat me and others have too.

Thirdly, you want everyone to be a 'balanced player' in the game. That would make it uniform and boring. There would be little diversity. Playing the same player over and over would be a drag. Imagine we cloned David Ferrer 30 times and put all of him at the top of the game. How interesting would that be? In fact, I notice that at the top of the Top Spin 4 rankings, the dominant player type is the Top Spin Invasion/Monster Defense build, the type that beats my player. 50%+ up there are currently sporting that combination. If anything, I think my player type brings a good change up and helps mix things up well. It'd be a shame if the large majority end up being this build, not because they beat me but because I think it's always healthy when there are a wide range of different builds out there to play against. You think it's terrible to have players like me on the tour, I think it's terrible to not have some players like me on the tour to add to the diversity and depth of the game.

Fourthly, my volley stats are not 70 something but 50 something. It also does not affect your ability to do drop shots, it affects your ability to do volleys like it says.... As for drop-shotting every shot, that's something I don't do because one thing that I try never to be is predictable. A predictable opponent is an easy opponent. I can serve so well because I know how to mix it up well. I've played people who serve harder than I do but they're relatively easy for me because they are predictable with their serves. Drop-shots are high-risk shots in this game, easy to get wrong if you don't time it well and easy to counter if you don't do them at the right time. If I managed to soften you up with power shots and get a short ball, then I may drop shot. If you defended well and returned a shot to near the baseline, I'm unlikely to drop shot from there because it's clearly a losing position. The reason your drop shots are high is because you're playing them from deep and from high-bouncing shots. You want to play drop shots when you're inside the baseline and from lower trajectory balls.

Fifthly, I'm not all about serve. I know how to play tennis and I can play the rest of my game perfectly fine. I may be outplayed because my other stats are weak but I can play well with what I've got. It's not like I just hold every game and wait until tie-breaks to beat opponents. Most of the people I beat I can break. Usually only the defensive build of a top player I struggle to break. You said yourself I made some good returns in the super tie-break, so obviously I can play other aspects of the game well and hey, if I got some good returns in then that sounds to me like I earned my win.

Sixthly, I wouldn't compare my playing style with that of Ivo Karlovic. More like Robin Soderling, who I made... I serve well, I rarely come into the net to volley, I mostly play a power game from the baseline, I move slowly, if I'm not hitting winners then all I can really do is try to hit harder because other game plans won't work, I hit backhands hard and don't slice them 9/10 shots... sounds a lot more like Soderling than Karlovic to me.

And lastly, a point that you'll probably find comforting, I'll likely never make it to the very top echelons of the game simply because my player matches up so poorly against the very popular build at the top of the rankings. So that you don't have to worry about. I may make another character with a completely different style sometime and enter him but I doubt I'd ever stop playing with this character. I find it fun and enjoyable to play as Robin Soderling. It doesn't really matter that much to me that I can't beat a lot of the guys at the top with this character, I can still win matches and have fun doing so. Ironically, I'm not a huge fan of big servers who serve a lot of aces irl but the nature of the game forces me to do that. If I wanted to be a pure big hitter without being able to serve extremely well, I wouldn't stand a chance in this game. Robin Soderling moves slow and in this game, pure power will not make up for that against defensive players. So I have to resort to learning how to serve really well too. Besides, many tennis fans thought like you do. Then they watched last week's Indian Wells match between Karlovic and Nadal and I was surprised to see how entertaining the match was and how many people warmed to Karlovic's style afterwards. I think what you should be more concerned about is making sure Top Spin 4 doesn't become a monotone, one-dimensional game jam-packed with identical players but that it ends up being a great game with tonnes of diversity and interesting matchups.

That's all in defence of myself though I am flattered I got an entire thread dedicated to me.

I just want to be clear that it is my personal opnion that I think the tennis play style you preform is not normal tennis. I've never liked Karlovic so when I see people that have similar stats, it makes me sad that people have to win tennis matches by just serving aces and waiting for that 1 hole to break the opponent. I have nothing against you personal, just don't like the play style. I never said it was not beatable, I did break you, so obviously the play style is beatable.
Yeah, I hope that everybody will have different play styles at the ITST tour, otherwise it will get boring
To be honest, you say that the nature of the game demands you to play the style Soderling, but I think it's more the nature of TS4.
I have to admit, I wish I had such a great serve like you, it would be a hell lot easier

No hard feelings bro, if you would like to add me for a game, add and630 to PSN.

[NickZ3535]

There is only one Karlovic in the ATP. He makes up about .01% of the players. I guess you could throw Isner in if you wanted.

But Ivo makes up about 50% of the TS4 World Tour.


Just my 2 cents

[andman666]

Just played another 90+ serve expert, but this time with a new character that I made. (14 def, 6 off, 0 s&V) I won 4-2, 4-3 lol i literally sliced him all over the court, I made him run for hours

[JJ_DUBZ_87]

can somebody condense that?!?

I find the best setup for me is defensive baseliner or all-around. With the right coach, my all around guy (6 per with either the remaining 2 on offensive or defensive baseline play) can lean toward either style. I like how all around gives me more options in terms of coming to net, attacking, or defending.

I had a problem with the power players before (there's a couple of threads I started to prove that lol) but the more I play the more I appreciate the challenge of doing something to break ppl out of the TS3 power game syndrome. My control shots are becoming much more effective in this regard.

Even the lame-o topspin cross-court battles are easy for me to end and win.

Keep in mind guys there are supposed to be patches and updates soon...which I can't wait for. And anybody know of the DLC on PS3?? I haven't checked but that's a total sidebar