Magazine Sep-Oct 2016

adapts his own unique style to his opponent’s to beat him.

For example, when faced with an aggressive opponent, an excellent tennis strategist might up his consistency and reduce his number of unforced errors to push his opponent into making mistakes. He might also exploit his opponent’s fast ball to counterattack or simply use that speed to his own advantage while saving energy for the rest of the match. Alternatively, when facing a player with a more defensive approach, a great tennis strategist would pressure his opponent by going more often to the net and hitting more aggressive shots from the baseline. Naturally, most tennis professionals are known to be masters of tennis strategy and tactics. They are able to adapt their style of play and successfully deal with any approach that their opponent decides to take on them. Before a match, a professional tennis player spends hours watching his opponents’ past matches – spotting his patterns, preferred shots, aggressiveness, and performance in moments of pressure. One prime example is current world No. 2, Andy Murray. Known for being one of the most intelligent players on the court, with professional tennis coach Paul Annacone stating that he “may be the best counter puncher on tour today”, Murray’s tactics often involve passive exchanges from the baseline. But to keep his style of game from being too predictable, the 29-year-old frequently injects sudden pace into his groundstrokes to surprise his opponents who are used to his slow rally. At the same time, Murray is also quick on his feet; he is regularly one of the top returners, with the ability to block fast serves with his excellent reach and capacity to anticipate. It is precisely Murray’s mental strategies that allowed him to emerge tops in the recent Wimbledon Championships, over favorites including world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and world No. 3 Roger Federer. The former is faster, has a bigger serve and better ground strokes than Murray, while the latter has more Grand Slam tournament titles (17) than any other men’s single players and is regarded by coaches and past and present players as the greatest tennis player of all time. Indeed, all brawn and no brains can win you a couple of matches – but with excellent strategy in the chess game of tennis, you’ll have a better chance of taking down faster, stronger and technically-better players than yourself!

50 THE AMERICAN CLUB SEP / OCT 2016