Last week. Although it was to a 4 year oldās rules, and really I was just standing about holding a tennis racket and being shouted at. Must be 15 years since I played actual tennis.
Heās done 12 albums. Heās a massive pop star & charity activist in France though heās retired now
He retired once before and then he sold out Stade de France on his comeback tour
I was listening to āCharangoā from 2006. As French pop music goes itās decent. Lots of different musical influences & good socially conscious lyrics
played my friend Rik in November before he moved to Berlin
played quite a few times last year, actually. Iām not really very good, but Iām getting better + am better than I thought Iād be.
think this is the most fun part of trying something, where you surprise yourself with how good you can be and arenāt expecting anything of yourself.
About 10 years ago probably. I used to be moderately good at tennis, average at badminton and pretty handy at squash. Should try and find someone to play with again really.
my playing style?
BIG serves, occasionally in. whippy forehands (reliable), suspect backhands - working on my Federer slice. net game? streaky, but coming on.
Iām good at badminton
I had a series of games against my friend Dean, and I hadnāt played for maybe thirteen years, so I started off losing heavily.
buuuut I very quickly moved through losing scrappily, nearly not losing, to winning, like some dormant badminton animal had been awoken.
Iāve started serving from wider and taking power off them cos theyāre so inconsistent. should go on my own and practice serving some time, obv wonāt though
I tried this, but I just kept getting passed as I couldnāt cover the rest of the court. It worked in doubles though.
Perhaps this is why doubles specialists become doubles specialists.
played quite a lot last summer. annoyingly its the sport Iām best at (used to play for my county up until I was about 15/16ish), but donāt really enjoy playing compared to football or basketball. always found it too stressful and dislike the British tennis ācrowdā.
got a consistent and powerful serve, good forehand, but not a great backhand (mostly hit it one handed). I also gamble too much and go for winners and drop shots regularly because I get bored.
2003, we had a park court just down the road from where I lived at uni. Playing style best described as wristy, in that my wrist used to hurt after playing. Strengths: court coverage, backhand slice like a mutha. Weaknesses: most other aspects of the game.
Goes over the net most of the time nowadays, but not always in the court. Canāt serve for toffee though
Grew up playing tennis relatively seriously (not @profk serious, but competitive serious), club member, training, all that. Havenāt played in ages but have played a lot of swingball over the easter holidays and now we know itās something our kid is into weāre gonna track down some racquets and use the courts in the park.
My style as it was, and hopefully will return: - Serve flaky, occasionally good, strong forehand with decent topspin for tape-cutting passes, solid backhand but lacking a little in control, deft short game with good slice, snappy volley but lacking killer instinct (thatās a personality trait more than anything else). Used to play against my mum a lot whoās a power player drawing entirely from her own massive rage, her smash from 20 years ago is still something Iām a bit scared of now.
You played for your county and still hadnāt settled on a backhand style? What a maverick
always hit it one handed when I was a kid and then decided to change it to double handed right before I stopped playing because it was obviously shit unless youāre in a long rally. now Iām stuck in backhand purgatory.
Last played two days ago.
My style is fairly topspin heavy with a bit of a whippy serve. Try to come into the net occasionally but sometimes find it hard to pick the right moment. Decent two-handed backhand but I have a tendancy to lean back which puts the ball up short for my opponant
gonna go Monica Seles and hit double handed forehands too from now on.
Not sure my left wrist is even stable enough to play one handed. Quite like how two handed feels though, really satisfying when you guide it down the line
Oh in terms of playing style:
Good:
- When my first serve is working itās fast and skiddy and difficult to deal with
- Forehand is generally pretty consistent and powerful
- I cover the court well
Bad: - Because Iām short thereās not much margin for error in my first serve, when itās not working Iāll get less than 50% in.
- Donāt do enough with my second serve, good players can punish it
- Backhand is really inconsistent
- Slightly heavy handed at the net. Getting better at this by just playing doubles all the time
I was playing doubles. My partner served the ball into the back of my head. It hurt.
I havenāt felt the need to play since.
My serve is my downfall, which means that Iām likely to lose 50 per cent of all points! Yay! Once a point is in play Iām okay, but I need to work that serve big style.