Southern California Tournament Day 23 (July 25) Gabriel and Curtis played against an opponent who had a strong topspin when the opponent would serve the ball would bounce, causing the ball to go high in the air and disabling Gabriel and Curtis a strong return. Because they were mainly able to give weak returns their opponent would attack the ball and Gabriel and Curtis were unable to return it. However, the boys were able to win a few of their games today because of Gabriel’s spin serve. Their opponent was unable to give a strong return to this serve and this allowed a perfect set up for Curtis to kill the ball. Score: 2:6-0:6 Michelle and Bethany had an opponent composed of a doubles team who were taller and more powerful than them. Their opponents had strong serves and were generally consistent. In the first set their opponents hit mainly to Bethany and they aimed for her weaker backhand. In the second set they changed their strategy by always hitting the ball to Michelle and then out of the blue hitting to Bethany. This caught her off-guard and their opponents were able to finish the point using this method. Score: 2:6-0:6 Ethan and Lucas lost their first set easily because their opponents were bigger and stronger. However in the second set, Ethan hit a few good forehands that turned the match around. Lucas was also more consistent in the second set and they won 6:3. In their super tie-breaker, the other team was just more experienced in match play so they were able to attack Ethan and Lucas’s weakness. However, Ethan and Lucas fought like no tomorrow. Although they were much younger than their opponents, they didn’t show any fear and played hard. Score: 1:6-6:3-5:10 Terence and Kai played against some American players from California Tennis School, which resulted in a highly competitive game. In the first set both teams played aggressively with Kai setting up with a big serve and Terence finishing the point. In the second set Terrance and Kai struggled more because their game was more defensive due to their opponents’ change of strategy: they went for more rallies and would not kill right away. Terence and Kai responded by placing the rally cross-court and suddenly played down the line. In the end they worked hard and were stronger than their opponent Score: 6:3-6:4 Alicia and Jennifer played against two girls who were strong but not consistent as a team. Alicia and Jennifer rallied cross-court and Jennifer volleyed to finish the point. This strategy along with the girls’ teamwork skills in setting each other up was successful and they won their match today. Score: 6:4-7:6 Darren and Paco had strong volleys but they were not as consistent as they could have been. Their opponents had an almost unreturnable killing shot but a few times the boys got lucky and were able to return the ball. Though Daren and Paco worked well as a team, their baseline plays were not consistent enough against their opponents, today. Score: 0:6:1:6 Ian and Lafite played two doubles matches today: in the first set of the first match they had an easy win, but in the second set their opponents began to attack more and play offensively. Ian and Lafite knew that one of their opponents had a weak volley: therefore they would lob the ball to the weaker player, he would return, and they would kill the ball and finish the point. Score: 6:1-6:3 In their second match they played against better opponents composed of two players who’s skills complemented each other perfectly: one boy was a strong baseline player and the other good at volleying. The baseline player would attack the ball from the baseline, which the boys could not return, and the other would volley. Ian and Lafite tried to use the same strategy as the previous match but Ian was struggling with his lob. Though they did not go down without a fight, Ian and Lafite lost their second match. Score: 4:6-4:6 William and Bryan, who had never before played together, initially had trouble establishing a rhythm, and in their first match and kept missing easy balls. They realized that one of their opponents hit a weak forehand and they began to target this, thus switching places with their opponents in making frequent unforced errors. Score: 7:6-6:4 In their second match, today, in the first set they couldn’t break their opponent’s serve until the score became five-all. After this point, William and Bryan excelled and strategized by having William return cross court and Bryan finish the volley. In this way they were able to win the first set and ultimately, the match. Score: 7:5-6:2 Eric played quite well although he lost today. His groundstrokes were good and he was able to win many points using his forehand. The coaches think if Eric would play more tennis during off season he could have won his match today. At the end his opponents pace was a little bit too fast for Eric today and he is not used to the pace. What really obvious today was Erics opponent had better physical fitness and bigger confidence. Erics got some talent but he needs to work much harder during off season in Hong Kong. Tomorrow is our LAST day. Most of the kids are quite sad that they have to go home tomorrow. They are having such a good time here and everyone gets along really well like a big family. Time flies when you are having fun!
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 05:58:59 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015