The big names took the time after Wimbledon to rest, get used to hard courts and prepare for US Open while the rest of the tour still fights in various tournaments. They want to get as many points as possible.

Some are looking to be seeds at bigger tournaments and thus avoid playing a seeded player in the first rounds while others look to get enough points to avoid qualifying rounds and enter the main draw.

I'll be attending two tournaments in the next two weeks but more about that later...

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1. What's new?
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a) When you're looking to improve your game of tennis, it's important to remember that in tennis you get no points for correct technique. You only get a point when you play better than your opponent.

Therefore it's important to work on tactics; how to outplay the opponent, what is the right decision at a certain situation, what type of shot to play in defense and so on.

I use this progression of drills to quickly teach the players the options they have when playing from the baseline.

When they practice this drill a few times, they also develop excellent ball control and know which direction to choose at specific position on the court.

Basic Tactical Tennis Drills - Improving Accuracy And Decision Making Skills

b) Patrick is having some troubles with nerves and anxiety in USTA matches and is looking for some advice. If you have managed to control your anxiety, please share what worked for you.

Scott on the other hand is looking for advice on serves and volleys as he cannot find the right combination of pace and spin to make a good kick serve. His volleys also often land short or in the net. Any ideas?

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I didn't blog last week, but will post my thoughts on various matches that I am going to see live. First I am off to Portoroz to check the Slovenian Open WTA tournament where Dinara Safina is the main attraction.

After that I am off to Umag in Croatia which is around 160 km from where I live where the men's ATP tour continues on clay courts. Davydenko, Almagro, Ferrer, Ljubicic and others are going to fight it out on one of the last clay court tournaments in this season - the ATP Umag Open.

So check my tennis blog often and in case you miss some of the posts, I'll let you know of the most important ones in the next newsletter on the 5th of August.

Talk to you in two weeks!

Best, Tomaz

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