Only One

by Bruce Gullikson
(Burnsville, MN USA)

Years ago I was entered in a clay court tournament. I had a heavy teaching schedule and was not an accomplished clay court player but was young, had good court coverage and excellent touch and good counter punching skills.

Being from Minnesota there are a lot more indoor courts than clay courts but I expected to get a rhythm in my first match by being patinet and getting a feel for the clay and working my way into the tournament.

My opponent was someone I felt I should beat although I had never played him before. The match started and my opponent caught me off guard by playing serve and volley and chip and charge tennis.

I was unable to get a rhythm and lost the first set handily. My opponent was quick with a good volley but not over-powering.

As the second set began I knew I had to do something soon or the match would be over shortly.

The weather was hot and I felt myself to be a bit younger and in better physical condition than my opponent I decided to focus on one thing.

I felt his backhand was considerably weaker than his forehand and so I was going to either win or lose by making him hit a backhnad every shot.

As he started to tire and stay back more my tactic started to wear on him mentally as even when I had shots that I probably should have hit to his forehand I did not but rather make him hit one more backhand.

The second set was close but I eeked it out and I won 6-1 in the third as I had completely broken down my opponents backhand and confidence.

By focusing on one thing I kept my strategy simple and just executed instead of trying a lot of different strategies for a few points.

I feel that by just focusing on one thing I was able to relax and execute better myself and it had a toll on my opponent not only physically but mentally as his backhand which was average at the start of the net was feeble by the end of it.