Anyone for tennis?

Starting this up to see how many tennis players we have.

I played a lot of junior tennis back in Atlanta (which has one of the best grassroots tennis programs in the country), but Scotland is not the best place in which to play tennis, and my local club - located near a clifftop and completely exposed to the wind - isn't even a particularly good place to play in Scotland. Nevertheless, I've entered a casual county-wide tennis competition of sorts here to try and get back into the swing of things. I'm not very good, but I can beat better players than me principally because my game annoys the heck out of a lot of people: pretty much every shot I play is a low slice, and I rarely get the ball very high over the net, and as such I hit quite a few inadvertent drop shots. (Which have the advantage being very well disguised, in that I don't even know I'm hitting them until they happen!) I've never been able to master topspin ground strokes; recently I've found that by taking the ball earlier and further in front of me, I can actually hit some topspin shots, but I just don't have the confidence to try them in matches. Yet.
 

mauidano

Mai Tais for everyone!
SoSH Member
Aug 21, 2006
35,627
Maui
Tennis is one of the few sports where you can play with the opposite sex on a level playing field until you just can't walk anymore. A great social sport. Been playing off and on since my teens and the wife kicks my ass in singles and gives me the business while playing doubles. Probably a 3.0 at this point. Just can't get out there enough to continue to improve. But yeah, love the game!
 

thestardawg

Member
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Jul 30, 2005
862
Section 38, Row 13
I’m a 4.0. I’ve been involved with Usta tennis for about 8 years now. I play men’s 18+ and mixed 7.0 and 8.0.

I really enjoy the competition but man some folks I’ve played are insufferable morons.
 

thestardawg

Member
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Jul 30, 2005
862
Section 38, Row 13
I’ll give you the basics

2.5 you are fucking terrible. You can get the ball over the net sometimes

3.0. You can rally. You might even have a stroke approaching average. You had clear and obvious weaknesses. This is where most people start on the ranking level.

3.5. You can rally on both sides but you might lack depth and/or pace. Your serve might get you points but you’re inconsistent with it. Volleying is generally not strong. You are a decent hacker

4.0. You have ability on both strokes and your volleys are stronger. Generally you either can place your serve well or you can crack it. Your on the court strategy is still an issue and you generally still ha e a good weakness a better player can exploit. You are a good hacker

4.5. You can watch 4.5and 5.0 and their tennis approaches what you see on tv. Now the 1000ranked pro will rout this person 0 and 0 but it’s difficult to spot a weakness by just observing a few points

For me personally I have a reasonably powerful serve 90-95mph and I can place it or spin it. I have a very good backhand, my forehand is inconsistent. And my volleying ranges from McEnroe to just picked up a racquet yesterday.....sometimes in the same match.

I’ve been fortunate to play on a few teams that made usta national championships mostly because I surround myself with better players
 

ernieshore

Member
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Aug 24, 2006
2,283
The Camel City
I really enjoy the competition but man some folks I’ve played are insufferable morons.
I played for a few seasons, starting at a 3.0 and ending as a 4.0. I was playing just to get some fun exercise and to maybe meet some new people (I like to play, but none of my friends do). But I quit because of all the jerks I encountered - cheating, yelling, taking it so seriously, dropping down a level and making us hacks look bad. For rec tennis, I couldn’t believe it. I played mixed doubles thinking that might be better, but it was maybe even worse. I wish I could have stayed a 3.0 and just play with the old retired dudes - they were nice.
 
I’ll give you the basics

2.5 you are fucking terrible. You can get the ball over the net sometimes

3.0. You can rally. You might even have a stroke approaching average. You had clear and obvious weaknesses. This is where most people start on the ranking level.

3.5. You can rally on both sides but you might lack depth and/or pace. Your serve might get you points but you’re inconsistent with it. Volleying is generally not strong. You are a decent hacker

4.0. You have ability on both strokes and your volleys are stronger. Generally you either can place your serve well or you can crack it. Your on the court strategy is still an issue and you generally still ha e a good weakness a better player can exploit. You are a good hacker

4.5. You can watch 4.5and 5.0 and their tennis approaches what you see on tv. Now the 1000ranked pro will rout this person 0 and 0 but it’s difficult to spot a weakness by just observing a few points

For me personally I have a reasonably powerful serve 90-95mph and I can place it or spin it. I have a very good backhand, my forehand is inconsistent. And my volleying ranges from McEnroe to just picked up a racquet yesterday.....sometimes in the same match.

I’ve been fortunate to play on a few teams that made usta national championships mostly because I surround myself with better players
Thanks. How do you get these ratings, though? Who assigns them to you?
 

thestardawg

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 30, 2005
862
Section 38, Row 13
I played for a few seasons, starting at a 3.0 and ending as a 4.0. I was playing just to get some fun exercise and to maybe meet some new people (I like to play, but none of my friends do). But I quit because of all the jerks I encountered - cheating, yelling, taking it so seriously, dropping down a level and making us hacks look bad. For rec tennis, I couldn’t believe it. I played mixed doubles thinking that might be better, but it was maybe even worse. I wish I could have stayed a 3.0 and just play with the old retired dudes - they were nice.
Yup. The cheating is unreal. There was a woman who played on a mixed team I was on. I played one match with her. During a point we were both at the net, and the other team hit a great shot down the middle. Neither of us saw it land, but I have no doubt it was in. She looked at me and said "well one of us has to call it out." True story.

I've had people call shots I've hit in by a foot out. I've had people yell at me for feinting a poach at the net. I've had people deliberately recite the wrong score (always in their favor of course) deliberately enter in wrong scores etc etc etc. I used to get pissed but now my attitude is if you need to win that badly then good for you. Life is too short. At least I'm getting some exercise and some stress relief, and if I get hooked over and over again, I'll just make a mental note never to deal with that person again.
 
Meanwhile, I played a league match the other evening against a Scotsman of Asian extraction - possibly Iranian? He was definitely muttering to himself in a language other than English throughout the match. He was also much better than me, particularly as I had no feel for my ground strokes at all, and I think he said this was his eighth day playing a match in a row, whereas I doubt I've played a total of eight competitive matches in the last 25 years. But I proved to be the better match player on the day: he just couldn't cope with my assortment of slice shots and, after he won the first set 6-2, he kept hitting error after error. I went 4-0 up in the second, faded to 4-3 (on serve) but broke back and held to win the second 6-3, and then the third set went with serve to 4-4 before I broke him and held to win the match. He was *pissed*; at one point he tried to throw his racket into the net but missed and sent it down as far as my baseline, over and over he threw his racket down at his end or banged balls into the fences around the court in frustration, and several times he basically screamed that I had only one shot and no offense (which was true) and why wasn't he killing me? Talk about life being too short...I was happy to get the win and get off the court, and hopefully he'll never darken my tennis path again. (In my defense, I did serve very well by my standards; I double-faulted three times in the seventh game of the second set, but I only double-faulted two other times in the match even though I was putting more pace than usual particularly on my second serves.)
 

ernieshore

Member
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Aug 24, 2006
2,283
The Camel City
Yup. The cheating is unreal. There was a woman who played on a mixed team I was on. I played one match with her. During a point we were both at the net, and the other team hit a great shot down the middle. Neither of us saw it land, but I have no doubt it was in. She looked at me and said "well one of us has to call it out." True story.

I've had people call shots I've hit in by a foot out. I've had people yell at me for feinting a poach at the net. I've had people deliberately recite the wrong score (always in their favor of course) deliberately enter in wrong scores etc etc etc. I used to get pissed but now my attitude is if you need to win that badly then good for you. Life is too short. At least I'm getting some exercise and some stress relief, and if I get hooked over and over again, I'll just make a mental note never to deal with that person again.
I needed to adopt that attitude. I miss playing. The final straw for me was a mixed doubles match. My partner was a 65-year old retired woman who lived for tennis. She called a ball out that was admittedly close - but one of those calls that normal people don’t really argue in rec tennis. Our opponents argued it and I just shrugged my shoulders - it was her call and I really wasn’t sure. A couple points later I hit a ball that was like 2 feet in and they called it out. I just laughed, but my partner went ballistic. The male opponent replied “if you are going to cheat, we will cheat too!” My partner continued yelling with them back and forth and stormed off the court. And don’t get me wrong, I’ve gotten into arguments playing soccer and basketball, but tennis was the worst I saw. I would still see that male opponent out at bars times later and laugh again (and kind of wanted to punch him).
 

southshoresoxfan

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Jul 15, 2005
5,249
Canton MA
I played for a few seasons, starting at a 3.0 and ending as a 4.0. I was playing just to get some fun exercise and to maybe meet some new people (I like to play, but none of my friends do). But I quit because of all the jerks I encountered - cheating, yelling, taking it so seriously, dropping down a level and making us hacks look bad. For rec tennis, I couldn’t believe it. I played mixed doubles thinking that might be better, but it was maybe even worse. I wish I could have stayed a 3.0 and just play with the old retired dudes - they were nice.
Nice to hear this is no different than golf.
 
Are you incapable of googling this?
Sheesh...I did Google it before, and I've now Googled it again. "How do you get a tennis handicap?" returns a lot of results about handicap betting, and although other searches suggest the rating is self-administered, I thought maybe someone with actual experience of tennis handicapping could, y'know, let me know from their personal perspective how the whole thing works.
 

Verryfunny2

Member
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Jul 22, 2005
708
Leeuwarden
On ratings. We got a whole other system in the netherlands. You get a fluid rating, 9 being worst, 1 being pro. Every match you play has a direct influence on youre rating and in tournaments and competitions you are playing acording to youre ranking.

I played heavily during my teens till about 30, and just started again. Couple of points i noticed, heavy topspin is dead, everybody thinks they are federer and have to be heavy hitters. So most rallies are about 4/5 shots before somebody makes a fault. People like doubles more than singles. Im a singles player.

Personaly its been tough to get going again. I was a slender fast topspinner. Im not slender or fast anymore, so adopting a new style has been a challenge. Played some tourneys and some competition. The bad attitude and cheating is a rampant as in the olden days. I try not to let it bother me.
 

MrsYost

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Jun 16, 2016
112
Sheesh...I did Google it before, and I've now Googled it again. "How do you get a tennis handicap?" returns a lot of results about handicap betting, and although other searches suggest the rating is self-administered, I thought maybe someone with actual experience of tennis handicapping could, y'know, let me know from their personal perspective how the whole thing works.
You don't want to use the word handicap when you google it, try "tennis rating". As far as I know, no one official really gives you a tennis rating, it's self rated for the most part. You can get rankings in different programs through tournament match play, which might help you determine your rating, or you can ask a pro who has seen you play what rating they think you are.
 

wiffleballhero

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Mar 28, 2009
4,530
In the simulacrum
It is self rated until you get fixed into a rating. By all means, sign up for a 5.0 tournament and get slaughtered. Also, you'll get one shot at sandbagging a 3.0. I don't play any of these USTA events now but I play constantly with people who do and so you can get a pretty quick feel for the range even though the ratings have a fair amount of elasticity to them.

I am a good 4.0 (or was, pre shoulder injury) but will never, ever be a 4.5. I can play, and get beat by any honest 4.5. I can give them trouble for a little while with all my lefty nonsense but eventually I am doomed. That will never change either, or it will only get worse. I've peaked.

But 5.0 players are like another species to me and 3.5s are like playing kids -- or grandparents.

The biggest difference between 5.0 and, say, tour level players is the obvious suspects: power, consistency, court speed. But that adds up. Those are the differences between city league and major league baseball players too.

Tennis is funny in how unbendable it is vs someone weaker or better. It is one-on-one and includes next to no luck and has very few sneaky moves you can make to overcome significant differences in skill. That is why it is so nice to find a group of players right in your skill level. You can thrash on each other for hours. Somebody just a tick up or down, not so much.

With cheaters, you just have to eat it and not play with the person again.
 
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wiffleballhero

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Mar 28, 2009
4,530
In the simulacrum
One thing to add:

Racquets and Strings:

I quit tennis for a very long time before taking it up again about ten years ago and I could not believe how accommodating the equipment had become. Racquets are amazing now, but more than that, the strings are just incredible. I took to stringing my own racquets once I figured out that it really is not the stick, but the string set-up that controls much of the feel and power. If you get into tennis at anything resembling a serious level (meaning you play with real frequency and you care about your shot placement) I'd strongly suggest getting a stringer.

It will pay for itself quickly -- even if you spend the big bucks -- and it allows you to screw around with tension and string style to genuinely figure out what you want and what works.

I never would have found my string set-up paying someone to do it. I just would not have restrung as frequently and I would not have even known what to play around with, let alone been willing to drop $35 on a guess about strings.

The risk with stringing your own racquets is that you will not be very good at it and thus do inconsistent string tensions between racquets, but my experience has been that it is not that hard to essentially get into a norm with the tension (if I am screwing it up, I am screwing it up the same way every time).