US OPEN TENNIS

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

1 player Justine Henin dominated her Serbian opponent to defeat Ana Ivanovic 6-1, 6-2. Before making predictions about the French Open for 2008, one thing that will not happen is that Justine Henin will win the women’s title. Henin shocked the tennis world with her recent immediate retirement from the sport she has dominated over recent years. Looking at the current women’s tour rankings we see Maria Sharapova is in the no. 1 spot vacated by Henin. Sharapova has a slender lead over world no. 2 Ana Ivanovic. This pair faced each other at the Australian Open earlier this year with Sharapova coming out on top. You would have to say that one of the top two players will be a good chance to lift the women’s trophy on finals day. Ivanovic is of course the losing finalist from last year and is expected to improve on that result. Sharapova if fit should also go close to winning the title. The current no.1 was troubled by a calf injury in the Rome tournament. Looking at other players likely to …

Want to know how to improve your swing? Follow these important guidelines: Step #1: Get Ready For The Hit! Keep your racquet back at all times. Once the ball has left your opponent’s racquet, you must move into position. It’s important to keep your racquet back while positioning yourself to enable a clean shot. But, before heading toward the incoming ball remember to… 1. Recognize that the ball is going to your forehand side. 2. Establish a balanced sideways stance as you begin to position yourself for the stroke by letting go with your non-dominant hand. At this point your racquet should be pointing away from your intended target and positioned about waist high. 3. Move into final position for the shot by maintaining enough space between your body and the ball. This will allow for a more fluent stroke. Position your body to enable you to hit the ball when it is waist high. If the ball happens to be below your waist, bend your knees to lower your waist height. 4. Next, move the ra …

Ace or no ace, if you are just beginning to play the game of tennis, service is a very important part of your game. In the beginning, the service was considered to be a mere initiation of the game, to begin a rally and send the ball across the court without any fault. People served that way for ages - till the concept of ‘power’ was introduced to tennis and the service became a point winner. Today 130 miles per hour serves rip through the court gives the player’s points for an ace shot. For the service to win a point, it should be speedy, accurate and reliable. It involves not just muscle power but also brains anticipating your opponent’s movement and fooling him or her in their own game. A tall person will serve better than a short person. Thus Ivanesevic was a better ace server than Andre Agassi. But it is not just the ace. Let the opponent touch your serve but make it difficult for him to return it. Even if he or she can return it, place your serve such that you can predict well in …

Ace or no ace, if you are just beginning to play the game of tennis, service is a very important part of your game. In the beginning, the service was considered to be a mere initiation of the game, to begin a rally and send the ball across the court without any fault. People served that way for ages - till the concept of ‘power’ was introduced to tennis and the service became a point winner. Today 130 miles per hour serves rip through the court gives the player’s points for an ace shot. For the service to win a point, it should be speedy, accurate and reliable. It involves not just muscle power but also brains anticipating your opponent’s movement and fooling him or her in their own game. A tall person will serve better than a short person. Thus Ivanesevic was a better ace server than Andre Agassi. But it is not just the ace. Let the opponent touch your serve but make it difficult for him to return it. Even if he or she can return it, place your serve such that you can predict well in …

This does not need to be the case if you are willing to try new things. Martina Navratilova at 46 years old once said: “Life. We’re lucky to be here. It’s about learning and our time is limited. I’m still learning, to do better, still studying strategy. I’m technically better now than I was in my heyday.” If you have the basics of hitting a tennis forehand in place and now you want to improve it to another level try these tips: - For a solid compact swing, keep your right elbow close to your tummy at impact. - As you follow through make sure that the racket face is up in front of you and the contact surface is facing your opponent on its extension and rotational movement upward. - Make sure your stroke finishes shoulder high. Your arm at the elbow/forearm and your hand/racket form two 90 degree angles. - If you want to increase the speed of your stroke DO NOT hold the racket throat at the end of the swing with your non dominant hand. Let the racket head speed decrease naturally as you …

Tennis is such a physical game, but as you certainly know, it is even more a mental game. By learning tennis mental techniques and tips that will give you the advantage, you will always have the upper hand in a big match. How to control your nerves You always want to remember that although you may be nervous, your opponent may be just as nervous as you are, if not even more nervous than you. This is especially true if your opponent is ranked higher than you are. He is expected to win and is thrust into the spotlight in this way. So, he has everything to lose, and you have everything to gain. By being aware of this simple mind shift, you can become less nervous and hopefully your opponent’s nerves will go haywire. Remember that your opponent is struggling just as you are. He even might be worrying about things you couldn’t even imagine. You never know when they might be dealing with a nagging injury, or having an off day or whatever else he might be dealing with. Remember that it’s not …

Ace or no ace, if you are just beginning to play the game of tennis, service is a very important part of your game. In the beginning, the service was considered to be a mere initiation of the game, to begin a rally and send the ball across the court without any fault. People served that way for ages - till the concept of ‘power’ was introduced to tennis and the service became a point winner. Today 130 miles per hour serves rip through the court gives the player’s points for an ace shot. For the service to win a point, it should be speedy, accurate and reliable. It involves not just muscle power but also brains anticipating your opponent’s movement and fooling him or her in their own game. A tall person will serve better than a short person. Thus Ivanesevic was a better ace server than Andre Agassi. But it is not just the ace. Let the opponent touch your serve but make it difficult for him to return it. Even if he or she can return it, place your serve such that you can predict well in …

Perfecting your swing may make the difference between being able to handle yourself on the court, and never quite learning how to play a decent game of tennis. Want to know how to improve your swing? Follow these important guidelines: Step #1: Get Ready For The Hit! Keep your racquet back at all times. Once the ball has left your opponent’s racquet, you must move into position. It’s important to keep your racquet back while positioning yourself to enable a clean shot. But, before heading toward the incoming ball remember to… 1. Recognize that the ball is going to your forehand side. 2. Establish a balanced sideways stance as you begin to position yourself for the stroke by letting go with your non-dominant hand. At this point your racquet should be pointing away from your intended target and positioned about waist high. 3. Move into final position for the shot by maintaining enough space between your body and the ball. This will allow for a more fluent stroke. Position your body t …

By and large, there are three types of ’styles’ that players usually fall into, and most players usually adopt a style that maximizes their natural strengths on the court wile simultaneously minimizing their weaknesses. Let’s take a look at the three most widely adopted ’styles’ of tennis. Let’s start with the ‘Baseliner’. A Baseliner is a player that, most of the time, plays from the baseline and utilizes their ground strokes to play their most effective tennis. Most often, this results in long rallies back and forth across the net, with the Baseliner’s main goal being to simply hit the ball back over the net just one more time than their opponent. Strategies of the Baseliner include: - Moving the opponent side to side, wearing their opponent down physically by making them run down well-placed shots. - Keeping the ball deep in their opponent’s court, which reduces the angle from which their opponent may attack. - Hitting a variety of consistently well-placed shots that keeps their …

It really is a beautiful sport. It is the perfect marriage of the body and the brain, physical and mental. I guess that is where I have missed the boat. I would work endlessly on my chops, out on the practice court hitting serves or forehands off the wall and nausea. I work out regularly and stay in shape so I can outlast my opponent on those brutal August afternoons. So when I see programs like Tennis Mind Game I am intrigued. Can Tennis Mind Game be that coach in my head? You remember how Boris Becker said that in a five set match, the fifth set is not about tennis, it’s about heart (i.e. head)? But we cannot fathom just how complex our brain works, and when we interfere in the process is when we induce errors. The mind is clearly the most important part of our game. And if we have issues in our head, they usually manifest during a match, where the pressure of competition exposes our fears, egos, and inner conflicts. Is this a Zen-like approach to tennis? Well, sort of. It’ …

Sure, you could think the same way but, you would be missing one of the greatest tools that can help you improve your tennis game immensely. The key is to make the stats work for you. What do you need to do? Focus on one part of your game only. For example unforced errors. Have your coach or a friend chart the statistics of a full match 2 or 3 sets (practice or tournament play). Whatever the result, if you are playing an opponent of identical level as yours, you will have a number and this number looked at in the overall context of the match can tell you if it was a determining factor or not in your win or loss. Once that is determined the kind of consistency level you are at will also be evident to you as well as the need to work intensively on it or not. This is a simple step to improvement but an important one, because the ability to be consistent on any shot is key to playing higher level competitive tennis. The quicker you find the culprit, be it the forehand or backhand the fast …

My opponent’s constant ‘grunting’ threw me off. God forbid we be honest with ourselves and perhaps admit that we need some training in order to prevent this type of behavior in the future. Training? Yes, training. You see, to some observers, people are either born ‘mentally tough’ or ‘mentally weak’, period. While people do have different personality types, I, for one, DO NOT believe this theory holds any water. Rather, I believe that players can be trained to deal with the dilemma of pressure. So back to the original question: How do you keep from choking under pressure? First, ask yourself what your definition of ‘choking’ is. If you are referring to, let’s say, a second serve that is normally very reliable but is letting you down during key points, then you are dealing with what most people refer to as ‘choking’. (We’ll deal with that in a moment.) However, if you are dealing with shots and strategies that you’ve seldom dealt with before (perhaps you are attempting to serve-and-vol …

The right racquet will allow you to play with more confidence and consistency. There are a few important elements to consider when choosing the optimum tennis racquet for your needs including the size and shape of the head, weight, balance, length, thickness and the material that the frame is made of. If you want increased power, spin and surface area of the sweet spot, you should choose a larger head size of 107 square inches or more. 100-105 square inches will give you even control and a head of less than 98 square inches will allow you to swing freely and aggressively. Beginners and recreational players may choose a longer racquet than the standard 28 inches providing more reach power and a greater capacity for spin. For a little more control, minimise the length. The heavier the racquet, the more power potential and the easier it is to return an opponent’s powerful shot. These heavier racquets however are more taxing on the player so many beginners choose a lighter racquet to cons …

Tennis has a gentlemen’s competitive spirit that brings a ray of light to the sport. Have you ever wondered how your friend all of a sudden started beating a person each time they played after losing many times initially? There are simple explanations of just becoming faster and being more fit, but what comes with that are improved skills and mental recognition during match play to execute shots in certain situations. What you may see is better shot making, what a coach sees is someone who now hits the right shot at the right time, plays the percentages, and knows his or her opponent’s game. Upon recognizing your opponents, weaknesses, you can now start to effectively employ a strategy to win. In the beginning, you may not be able to do this but with repetition, it will improve and you will find yourself winning more sets. For example, if you are losing to a serve and volley player, employ if you can, what world No.1 Roger Federer does and chip or slice returns back “low” to them feet …

Passion for some is that something which they truly love with supreme sincerity, that something which allows them to wake up in the morning with something to look forward to, and above all, that something which gives them genuine happiness in their lives. Passion is defined by many things to many people. In the next few paragraphs though, I will try to show how passion is something which we cannot completely define. Instead, passion is something which defines. “You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing.” - Dale Carnegie A tennis player may consider tennis as the best sport in the world; however Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Mike Tyson may very much disagree. For Michael Jordan, life is about dribbling, passing, shooting, and dunking the basketball with tremendous grace. For Tiger Woods, life is about coordinating with the wind to hit a hole-in-one. For Mike Tyson, life is about striking his arms to the fullest of his strength that he may bring his opponent down a …