TWI,
I said I COULD have lost this match. The vid didn't show game one and most of game two... where I did most of the work to get her to not look as good.
The video shows some signs and you picked up a good number of them... but you really must be there live to understand pace and spin in real time. The vids never fully show my spin. Some were very heavy, some were next to no spin, the vid did show location though... Maybe one can pick up on tactics a bit too.
The vid looked like I was angry, but I was silly happy having fun all the way. You could see me clapping for many of her shots smiling. I was pretty focused, about as calm as focused as anyone ever saw me in a meaningful match. This match win we had pretty much eliminated Facebook from directly qualifying for playoffs... we also needed the win to help our chances, we were pretty much in the same boat - we lose and our chances go down.
As for the short game, neither of us played that much, we both were not reading spin well enough to go for that consistently. You got it right, I played better pushing than her pushing, but you have to understand, this is a player way better than me who crush kills a long push... and I was giving her long push after long push. There is a reason why her percentages were so low. You would think so different about her if you saw her live practicing vs her high level partners of playing matches vs players 2+ levels better than me.
Why I spin the ball heavy 200%, I need every rpm to scare her, mess up the timing, and discourage her from blocking in position. I made more than 75% of my opening topspins and many were blocked out or were winners. it was my most consistent weapon to apply pressure on her along with my varied push.
This lady was super consistent vs our No 1 player making opening BH topspins and BH to BH counter topspins... you didn't see her play so many of those. Some she made, some I slapped by her, some she missed, there is a reason for this, even if she is 1.5 levels better player than me.
This lady regularly plays with players 3-4 levels better than me, and she is 1.5 levels better player than me. This class of player would normally have enough playing skill and tactical weapons to make me look like a silly school boy not knowing TT. When you see her live in practice and matches, you would think she is almost elite... and she isn't that far from being an elite female player in this area - only a few levels. She eats 2000-2100 male loopers for breakfast like you would eat cereal.
To really see what was going on (why her strengths were not a strength) (and why I could use my strength) you have to understand what strengths are there for the stronger player and what would possibly take them away. Her strengths were a serve that gives a long return, usually to BH, then she opens up with spinny super consistent topspin, then goes bang bang on BH until you submit. She has a step around FH too. She has an opening FH topspin, but she prefers to do a power FH to finish it right away. She does all that, very consistently. Very few apparent weaknesses.
Sow how to I neutralize her strengths, get her to play out of time at my slow or changing pace, and get her to give me chances to play my strong shots?
A player that much better knows how to take away strengths of opponents, knows how to force the game to her pace, knows how to play to her strengths, knows how to get me into going for low percentage chances.
My first number one idea was to get her out of rhythm with slow topspins. This is a time warp. She is accustomed to play close to table very fast - high quality shots. No way I will be more quality or at that speed consistently. That is her strength. Problem is HOW would I get long underspins to open heavy and have a chance to hit it by her or spin it too heavy to counter (her intuition - she doesn't train to block in a match, she trains to counter)
I could get underspins long from my serves. I have good short serves, so she missed a couple and gave me long pushes to be safe, I opened heavy and often won the point. Problem is how to get a long push back for 4th ball when she serves, she wasn't going to serve very long very much. The idea for me was to show very heavy underspin, try to take it as early as I can and still get heavy spin medium pace. I didn't care where the ball went, I waned to show her I was heavy. She missed the first few of those. When she showed she could adjust a little, I started to give her different light spins, she looped a good chunk of those long. I would continue to try to go between heavy and light deep to her BH or middle, sometimes FH... until she loses confidence in her BH opener - her money maker. I was lucky in that the ones she made, more than half, I either blocked or power hit by her. I player my level isn't supposed to do that.
Once she tried to play safer, I got the long pushes, she knew she was giving away points attacking a ball that she isn't reading correctly or seeing in time. Once I got long pushes, I knew I had an even playing field, possibly an advantage... as long as I can stay consistent and keep landing the shots. My early good blocking and power finishes from the BH openers she did land really set the table for later.
I got lucky, I made a number of shots back that she directed to my extreme wide FH, I only won points on these from surprise or a net on one. If I missed those, there would be a game 5.
The vid didn't show my tactics, as I had already done what I needed to do... all the vid showed was long pushes. This is a difficult enough task vs an equal level player, but doing all the tactical things right to get a better player to look not so good is not so easy. You do not see that very often. The other singles match I played, my opponent handled everything I gave him, and troubled me with enough stuff of his own, he was the better player. He did that number on me not even 20 minutes before that match.
