PS3 Barclays ITST World Tour Finals MS

[coke4]

coke4 battles past brgerflipr, 6-4 6-7(3) 6-4, to top blue group

A really fun and close match with some great rallies. I felt i played very well but also brgerflipr played the best he has ever done against me.

1st SetFirst few games went very much to serve, with a couple of 30 alls but not huge pressure on each others serve. Then at 4-4 i carved open a 15-40 lead on his serve, he saved the first with a big Forehand down the line of my nervous return. At 30-40 we had a long rallies, with both nervous play and great play, i managed to take it with a Forehand down the line. I then served it out with ease.
2nd Set It was similar to the 1st set, at 3-3 i got 0-30, but failed to do any better than that. It went to a breaker and he won his first point on serve, then got a double minibreak with aggresive play, first was a winner then was a BH forced error. I managed to get them back tho, after a return winner and a double fault, it was 3-2, but he made another minibreak with a FH minibreak and it was 4-3, he then held for 6-3 and got another minibreak to take it 7-3.
3rd setI was fustrated and played the 1st 3 points aggresively, but then at 15-30 i relaxed a bit and managed to get 30-40, i got him to the net and after he got a couple of passing shots back into play, he hit a volley long and i broke and then held for 2-0. After this i relaxed a bit and i failed to do aswell on his serve, but he was doing better on mine, getting to 30 or duece every time. I managed to make it to 5-4 and with a backhand crosscourt winner make it 40-0, 3 m.p, i took the first with a service winner.

Stats
brgerflipr | coke4
65% 1st serve % 80%
70% win on 1st serve 75%
75% win on 2nd serve 78%
0 Aces 7
1 Double faults 0
42 Winners 60
9 Unforced Errors 2
0/0 Break Points 2/3
86 Total Points won 93

[brgerflipr]

The match went pretty much as Mr. Coke said. Really fun match but 2 loose games against a player like Mr. Coke is all it takes. Unfortunately for me, he put so much pressure on my serves and eventually i crumbled (like a house of cards in the wind).

And on top of that, to serve 65% first serves is an absolute, to quote Jimmy Connors, "abortion". I need to find a way to time my serves better when my stamina is down.

Any serving experts out there have any pointers? How do you serve w/ both triggers and your stamina in the red. I find it so difficult.

[djarvik]

Congrats Coke!


As for serving when in red....that is why I never go below 50 in stamina It is usually enough to keep me in red, but not flashing red....so serve still goes where I want it to. One thing I can suggest you is strategy related:

- Serve with L2 only at least 2 times per service games. I have noticed that the biggest stamina drainers are the L1 and R2. They drain stamina like nothing else. L2 doesn't seem to drain so much, that is my favorite button.

- If you involved in a 3 setter and stamina is in red and your serve starting to fail, start risking 2x times more then usual. It is better to take a chance when you involved in a rally then give points away by double faulting or weak serves.


As for timing, what happens is that your time window for acceptable serves shrinks. So, your problem is that you are timing it wrong to begin with....it is just that while stamina is in full that window is large and you don't notice the timing mistakes as the serve always goes in....but when stamina goes in red, you can clearly see that you have been using the wrong timing. Make sense? I am trying the best I can to explain it, but it is not easy for me in English.

Example:

Timing window when not in red:

---X---X---

Timing window when in red:

X---X


"X to X" represents perfect timing for power and direction. "-" represents less perfect but acceptable timing. As you can see, the perfect timing never changes.....its the "allowed" mistiming that does.

SOrry if this completely confused you, I tried.

[brgerflipr]

I have noticed that the biggest stamina drainers are the L1 and R2. They drain stamina like nothing else.

FRAK FRAK FRAK!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding me?????? I did not know this, i use L2 & R2 on every first serve.

I am trying the best I can to explain it, but it is not easy for me in English.

SOrry if this completely confused you, I tried.

Makes perfect sense, thanks dude.

p.s.- your english is better than most of the idiots in this world who use english as a first language.

[Chederer]

do you guys ever risk? apparently not

[brgerflipr]

i hardly ever do. maybe 10% of the time.

[coke4]

Thanks brgerflipr, djarvik, and you know, i quite like this Mr. Coke thing

I manage with 40 stamina and R2 L2 all match, i use to not be able to last, but now am fine

[coke4]

do you guys ever risk? apparently not

No, but im trying to add L2 to my game, is working on sim, didnt really have the balls to try it today tho

[djarvik]

I manage with 40 stamina and R2 L2 all match, i use to not be able to last, but now am fine

...then you nailed that X---X window perfectly. At this point stamina for serve is irrelevant.

[coke4]

I manage with 40 stamina and R2 L2 all match, i use to not be able to last, but now am fine

...then you nailed that X---X window perfectly. At this point stamina for serve is irrelevant.

Now i just got to hope the window doesnt shut while im nailing it

[brgerflipr]

i use to not be able to last, but now am fine

you're young, shouldn't you be "lasting" just fine these days? when you get above 30 is when "lasting" becomes a problem.

and you know, i quite like this Mr. Coke thing

When someone whips your ass regularly and you take as many beatings from them as i have, you just gotta give the man his due. doesn't mean that i don't secretly hope your ps3 blows up tho.

[djarvik]

you're young, shouldn't you be "lasting" just fine these days? when you get above 30 is when "lasting" becomes a problem.

I dunno, I still last as long as when I was 18.....I just need a bit more recovery time between sets.

[djarvik]

are we talking about tennis?

[coke4]

are we talking about tennis?

Yes of course, nothing to see here Q.

[brgerflipr]

I dunno, I still last as long as when I was 18.....I just need a bit more recovery time between sets.

what the hell is this '"recovery" you speak of???? you can play more than one set these days? i'm one and done man. and my first serve definitely isn't as deep and penetrating as it used to be. damn it, hate aging.