Coconut Zest

Three matches, same opponent

Fri, 25 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT

0-6, 3-6 in January. 6-3, 6-4 in September.

Playing different opponents is a good way to learn play styles and variety. Playing the same opponent again is the way to verify my progress over time. Lily is one of the opponents I have played three times in nine months.

	Ladder	Score	Games I won
January	3.0 winter	0-6, 3-6	3 of 15, 20%
August	3.5 summer	3-6, 7-6(7-3), (7-10)	10 of 22, 45%
September	3.5 fall	6-3, 6-4	12 of 19, 63%

The win-loss column says lost, lost, won. The games column says the gap had been closing all year. The biggest jump, 20% to 45%, came in a match I lost.

Just like me, Lily practices almost every day, and between January and September she rebuilt her serve and learned a slice. I solidified my serve and changed my groundstrokes, and the groundstrokes got worse before they got better: I hit the back fence on the ball machine, and some of my first 10 losses on the 3.5 ladder were part of that regression (That's when I started hitting hard).

First meeting

It was a chilly morning in January. I walked onto the court nervously with nothing in my mind. I was about to play my first 3.0 opponent, Lily, who was already #1 on the 3.0 ladder with five wins and one loss. I was prepared to lose.

We introduced ourselves. She then opened her US Open balls, handed me one, tucked one in her skirt — it was still winter — and we began to hit inside the service lines to warm up.

She was nice and soft-spoken. I was still unsettled, explaining that I had only played for a few months and didn't belong at this level yet, blah blah blah, and kind of waited for her to say something nice. She did: from zero sports background to a 3.0 ladder was fast progress. She also said she had been working on her serve toss: when the toss isn't right, retoss instead of just hitting the ball. That probably helped ease my nerves anyway.

She served first. It was quick; she aced the first serve. I stood there waiting, didn't realize it had happened. Then I said "wow" and admired that serve. She did it again a few times during the match. On the other hand, my serves were slow and floaty. I was also tight in this first 3.0 match, felt the playing-up pressure, and made way too many double faults, on about half my serves.

I usually hit the ball long, so I hit conservatively to keep the ball in the court, and ended up handing her tons of short balls, only to realize later those were sitters. She punished every short ball, with much better pace and angles. She could put the ball where she wanted.

On a short ball that landed right behind the service line, she moved in and hit to my forehand corner. I returned it to her. Yes, right back to where she stood. Then I recovered to the middle, and she hit to the same spot again. I rushed, returned it to the same spot to her, then attempted to recover to the middle, and she immediately hit it to the exact same spot again. I missed it.

I "wow"ed again, didn't know what else I could do. I was obviously outclassed. The match finished in less than an hour with the score 0-6, 3-6. She looked like she had just had a light stretch session afterward. She assured me I was definitely a 3.0 player and waved goodbye. I doubted we'd play again anytime soon.

Second meeting

It was hot in the early morning, with brutal sun glare. I was not as nervous this time, after losing more than 10 matches on the 3.5 ladder already. I wanted to see what seven months had done to both of us.

She said she was working on her serves, changing the grip and swing path. Before each serve she seemed to test the toss, then the racquet, then finally hit. Her serves mostly went in, and I don't remember any double faults. But the serves felt slower than I remembered from January. Or maybe my reaction time is shorter? She didn't ace me once.

My spinny second serve is reliable and keeps me from giving away free points, but I had no placement control, and mostly hit into the middle of the service box. Maybe because the serves were too predictable, they got attacked a few times. She simply blocked the serve with underspin and dropped it short. I had no time to get there.

I mostly hit deep middle, or deep cross court if I had an angle. I was not able to create angles and open the court yet. At least I didn't give her as many easy short balls as in our first meeting.

She went to the net on short balls, and chipped them back across the net, just like how she attacked my serves. We had a few net point exchanges. To my surprise, my half volleys weren't bad at all. I remembered to split step before she hit the ball and ended up winning some net games.

She also hit down-the-line shots and finished the points perfectly. I couldn't do anything with them, only clap with my racquet, saying "nice."

We had good rallies, and the result was 3-6, 7-6(7-3), (7-10), much closer than I expected. She let out a long sigh of relief.

Coach's tips after observing the match

My coach later pointed out a big flaw in my match play with Lily. He had watched a few points while coaching on the near court. He asked me why I took the pace off and hit a neutral ball back when I was inside the baseline.

I didn't know there was a why. I said, "I don't know. What am I supposed to do? Isn't the golden rule to hit a defensive shot from the baseline?"

He began to tell me to hit hard. He said there were a few points like that in the match where I could have hit a drive to finish the point or force her errors. I wasted my opportunities so many times.

We drilled hitting hard from no-man's land. When the ball is at waist height, hit as hard as I can. If he had told me this "secret" earlier, would I have won the match against Lily?

Third meeting

I was ready to play Lily again, with my coach's tips built in, and to win this time.

My plan to win:

don't give her serves that invite attacks; serve to her body or backhand; mix up the placement
don't hit groundstrokes that bounce into her strike zone
return all her serves; attack if I can
hit drive groundstrokes to push her back; opening the court is preferred
hit harder if I'm inside the baseline

Since she is a lefty, which I only learned when my coach told me, I'd need to remember not to target her forehand wing.

It was a morning match again. The weather was yummy, cool and cloudy, no wind and no sun glare to bother our serve tosses. The two adjacent courts were empty. I felt calm.

She said she was still working on her serves. I asked what she was working on this time. She said her coach told her to extend her hitting arm more. I sometimes have the same problem, but I guess for me it's just a matter of laziness. I extend my arm when I feel energetic.

She opened her balls, handed me one and tucked one in her skirt, just like before. We hit mini tennis, talking about our common opponents, then moved back to the baselines and hit two or three serves on each side.

She took her time over each toss, just like in our previous match. Her first serve was moderate in speed and straightforward to return. Her second serve had much more spin than last time. When she served from the deuce side, the serve landed near the T and kicked away to my left, my backhand side. That was a solid second serve. I missed a few returns on the deuce side. However, she had a few double faults this time.

My serve went where I planned: her body and her backhand. This time she didn't attack it once. She won a few points with down-the-line shots last time. This time she hit too many of them wide.

She came forward often, practicing her net approach, and I followed in sometimes. I've gotten pretty good at passing shots and dippers in the recent months, and got a few points from Lily by hitting at her shoelaces when she was at the net.

Her groundstrokes weren't deep. They landed just past the service line without much spin. So I moved inside the baseline and hit them hard, the way my coach told me, deep into her backcourt, sometimes with an angle. She missed a lot of my drives.

Then there were the even shorter balls that landed around or inside the service line, mostly from her return of my deep groundstrokes. I whipped crosscourt winners from there so many times. She said later that she should never give me those short balls again.

The match point ended on my groundstroke that touched her baseline. She said she expected it to go out and stopped moving her feet. I won!

After we reported the score, we chatted about our own errors, what we should do better, what the other did well in the match, etc. This time, I was comfortable enough to say we should play again.

That’s when I started hitting hard

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Control first, power will come. My forehand waited two ladder seasons.

After two seasons on my club's 3.0 women's singles ladder, I was admitted to the 3.5 summer ladder. I was excited and nervous, and mentally ready to get my butt kicked.

My first 3.5 match was against a former 4.0 player. I lost 6-0, 6-1 in an hour. She hit deep, flat groundstrokes at twice my pace, and I had no time to set up and return them. She hit winner after winner, wrong-footing me. She attacked my serves, first and second. She forced errors out of me, and she always knew where I was going to hit and was ready for it. I don't even remember how I got the one game.

It was so eye-opening that I came off the court excited, looking forward to challenging her again. "I want a rematch," I told her.

The rest of the 3.5 matches were mostly losses, but less lopsided. Playing up half a level no longer felt out of reach.

After ten losses in a row, I got my first win six weeks into the season, a tight one against a lady who had beaten me 6-1, 6-1 two months earlier, when we were both on the 3.0 ladder. A few more wins followed within two weeks, some by margins that surprised me.

What did I do differently? I hit harder. Why did it take me two seasons to get here? I have to go back to the 3.0 ladder.

3.0 vs 3.5 matches

In the 3.0 spring ladder I won ten matches, and some of them were easy wins on my opponents' unforced errors. My only strategy was to hit high, loopy groundstrokes deep to the center and wait, giving my opponents no short balls. I had no control over serve placement and mostly served into the middle of the box, but my serves had enough spin that returns often went into the net. Fewer double faults, fewer balls long or in the net: I was just more consistent than the other players. Nothing fancy.

In the 3.5 ladder, however, the loopy ball stopped helping. Opponents chipped it, or sent it back high and deep to my backhand, reminding me how short I am. My serves came back deep or got smashed. And the 3.5 players hit their groundstrokes with the pace I had been envying, deep and sometimes at sharp angles, so that I was scrambling to get into position in a way I rarely had at 3.0. When I occasionally hit an angle that stayed in, they retrieved it with ease and put me straight back on defense.

Half of my opponents came to the net regularly, and their net technique was much better than mine. My passing shots didn't get past them, dipping the ball at their feet didn't work, and my lobs got put away. When I attacked the net myself, I lost the points to my own poor net skills.

In most of those matches I was on the back foot with zero control, making forced and unforced errors in enormous numbers. I never got to execute my game plan, if I ever had one. They had a better sense of court positioning, shot selection and high-percentage execution, all of which take time to develop. I forgave myself: 16 months of tennis against their three or more years.

One thing at a time. If I could have changed one thing then, it would have been the pace of my groundstrokes. I didn't want to be a moonballer.

I booked more lessons.

The lessons

My coach happened to catch a few points of one of my 3.5 matches. He pointed out that I could have hit hard when I was inside the baseline, but instead I took the pace off and hit a neutral ball back. I had played it like a 3.0 match, hitting rally balls until someone made an unforced error.

His comment confused me for a second since he had always discouraged me from using power, repeating his favorite mantra: "Control first, power will come." Why was he suddenly telling me the opposite? Did I already have control?

From what he had seen, he thought I was consistent enough at the 3.5 level and could adjust my game a bit to suit 3.5 matches. He pointed out that what worked at 3.0 wouldn't work at 3.5. I shouldn't wait for unforced errors that were not coming. I needed to attack, force errors, and finish points, starting with adding pace to my regular groundstrokes.

As a developing 3.5 player, I needed a shot selection instead of one rally ball:

a high, loopy neutral ball to buy recovery time when behind the baseline.
a driven topspin groundstroke when on or inside the baseline.
if the ball is at waist height and I'm inside the baseline, hit it as hard as I can.

I was pretty good at the #1 shot, sometimes I accidentally hit a #2 shot, and I had no idea how to hit #3.

To drill the #2 shot, I first adjusted my swing path from the old exaggerated 45-degree low-to-high brush to somewhere between 15 and 30 degrees, aiming no higher than 5 feet above the net. I found my sweet spot for the swing path, then swung faster from inside the baseline.

The #3 shot drill was fun. I stood right behind the service line, and my coach fed me high-bouncing balls to smash. That felt so good. I could do this forever.

The regression, and the progression

Changes take time to settle into skills. My coach cautioned that it could take me one to two months to be able to hit groundstrokes with pace consistently. I would inevitably regress before I progressed, and losses were guaranteed. Some of my first ten losses in the 3.5 summer ladder were part of that regression.

I hit on the ball machine two to three hours a week. I exaggerated my swing and hit the back fence a lot. Balls stuck in the mesh fence were my pride. Sometimes I hit into the net when the racquet face closed too much.

It cost me a few matches to realize that I was muscling the ball instead of driving it with my legs. I adjusted: loosened the forearm, transferred my weight from the back leg to the front, rotated my hips without over-rotating, and hit hard with a sense of control.

With more machine sessions and match play, my groundstrokes became more contained. Far fewer balls went long in the following matches. I learned there was no need for 100 percent effort. Why waste energy?

In the last two weeks of the summer ladder, my new groundstrokes became a weapon. I hit hard from on and inside the baseline off either wing. Some were not returnable, and some brought me weak returns that I put away with drop shots. I love drop shots! One opponent said my shots were "powerful like bullets."

The end of the summer ladder

I went back to my coach for a review. He encouraged me to keep the current pace in the 3.5 matches, with one caution: advanced players can simply tap the hard ball back and let me exhaust myself during a match. He demonstrated it by returning all my groundstrokes with sky balls, which were no fun to run down. I'd better learn how to handle those sky balls next time.

The ladder ended with 14 losses and 5 wins, with improving scores on my side. I was happy with the progress in one ladder season. More importantly, the ladder admin approved and let me stay at the 3.5 level for the next ladder despite the record.

After the summer ladder ended, I got to play my first opponent again. This time I lost 6-2, 7-6(7-4). It was the best loss of the summer. She said I'd beat her next season.