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    What type of tennis player are you?

    Think I'm like a very, very, very shit Gael Monfils. Quite tall and gangly and I used to be a good sprinter (British League level) so I pride myself on good court coverage and will occasionally make a last ditch dive for shots, especially at the net. But serve inconsistent, too prone to getting too passive with my groundstrokes and mentally weak with the finish line in sight.

    #2
    What type of tennis player are you?

    I look like Boris Becker used to (same height, same weight, same hair colour, same age). I've got quite a hard serve. I can dive around the court (normally because I've either slipped over or because my feet are too slow to get me there in a dignified manner).

    Apart from that, I'm indescribably, embarrassingly, mothers-covering-their-children's-eyes-to-stop-them-having-bad-dreams rubbish.

    Well-meaning people tell me it's because I took up tennis at a late age (I was 35), but I'm not hiding behind that excuse. I often hear it from people on football pitches. "I didn't kick a ball until I was 28" - yes, that as maybe, but it doesn't make you any less shit now, though.

    If Boris Becker took to the court now -hungover, with his belly hanging over his belt and with his recently installed artifical hips playing up again - I'd still not get a point off him, even if he were holding the racquet upside-down in his wrong hand.

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      #3
      What type of tennis player are you?

      "I didn't kick a ball until I was 28" - yes, that as maybe, but it doesn't make you any less shit now, though.
      It can frankly only be bollocks as well. Everyone at least tries football when they're a kid unless they're severely disabled.

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        #4
        What type of tennis player are you?

        From the back of the court, I'm either out of control or tentative. I have trouble putting enough spin on the ball to bring it down into court if I hit it as hard as I can.
        Sylistically, I want to be a serve-volleyer, as I still remember the service motion form junior coaching hence it is quite useful (usually good for a handful of aces per set) and my volleying reflexes/control are good, basically from Squash. However, I can't do it, as my judgement of the flight of a ball is terrible, so I get lobbed all the time. Much better at doubles than singles, then.

        Oh, and my movement is usless. Probably due to the same issues of (mis-)judging the flight, meaning the spot on the court I'm trying to get to is completely the wrong one!

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          #5
          What type of tennis player are you?

          On the very rare occasions when I play now, I am Bobby Riggs, all ridiculous spin and mind games trying to mask my profound lack of movement.

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            #6
            What type of tennis player are you?

            ursus arctos wrote: On the very rare occasions when I play now, I am Bobby Riggs, all ridiculous spin and mind games trying to mask my profound lack of movement.
            Ha, yes, I can throw in the odd ill-judged wild card shot like that. Which still makes me a shit version of Monfils.

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              #7
              What type of tennis player are you?

              Seeing as likely interest levels mean this doesn't merit it's own thread, I'll add it here.

              If the question was What type of Squash player are you?
              Attacking. Best shots are my kills, especially drops and volley-drops. Or counter-attacking, if I'm playing against power-players. I like playing against power players, the ball coming fast doesn't intimidate me and I'm quite happy scraping attempted kills off the deck and popping them back above the tin for a counter-drop.
              Weakenss is again movement, or more accurately flexibility. My knees aren't great and my hamstrings have always been very tight (I don't remember ever being able to touch my toes without bending me knees, even as a kid). This means I don't stretch into the ball properly, and to cover for this I end up moving too far into corners to retrieve shots, leaving me out of position for the next.

              I would pass the ageing hungover, Boris Becker-equivalent test, though. I might, might even take a rally of a current top player. As long as it didn't last too many shots and I got to try a kill early on.

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                #8
                What type of tennis player are you?

                The last time I tried to play tennis, when I was fifteen, I was too short to server properly, so I had to serve underarm. And even then I couldn't usually get the ball as far as the net.

                So there's a post-Murray UK-Davis Cup spot for me...

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                  #9
                  What type of tennis player are you?

                  I've only really started playing semi-regularly, against my wife, in the last few months. Never had any training, never knew what I was doing. Younger me, on the rare occasions I had a racquet, I couldn't get a serve over the net.

                  New me has learned that I can get maybe 75% of my serves in if I serve a super-slow, loopy, feeble serve that a 90 year old Andy Murray would be ashamed of as his second serve. Once I'm in a rally I run around a huge amount and try to keep the ball in play, that's my main positive attribute. My worst (apart from the serve) is that my instincts - from watching too much grass court tennis in the 80s and never watching Roland Garros (thankyou, BBC) - are that I should come to the net and volley. The consequence is almost inevitably that I get passed or lobbed, or I manage to smack my volley into the net despite only being about 9 inches away from it.

                  Yet, despite knowing that I should not be trying to approach the net, somehow once I get about a yard in from the baseline I can't stop myself.

                  I have no idea who this makes me. Probably a worse version of a bad, early 90s British Davis Cup player. Perhaps a terrible, slow fat Andrew Castle?

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                    #10
                    What type of tennis player are you?

                    A bit like Hewitt, get a lot of balls back but not able to hit enough winners. Coupled with whichever player has the worst second serve you can think of.

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                      #11
                      What type of tennis player are you?

                      Anna Kournikova. I don't actually play tennis, and nobody minds as they are primarily interested in my striking natural beauty.

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                        #12
                        What type of tennis player are you?

                        Struggling for a professional analogue with my way of playing Tennis. It is so much not that of a Tennis player that there is no-one similar.

                        Same holds for Squash, in fact. No top player plays like I do, for the very good reason that if anyone tried (even with their substantially better movement, etc.) their time as a top-level player would be very short.

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                          #13
                          What type of tennis player are you?

                          In every racquet sport I play I'm recklessly aggressive, although tennis is the one I care the least for, so I struggle to raise my agression levels to those I manage in squash or badminton.

                          I can serve reasonably well in terms of speed and angle over the net, however I'm hopeless at varying where it ends up, so it's too predictable. Backhand is good, forehand pretty standard and I can't reliably hit an inside out one to save my life most of the time. Like you Janik, I'd love to be a serve-volley player, but due to being so utterly predictable, I just get lobbed when I try it. So I end up being an effective baseline hitting backboard. Caroline Wozniacki.

                          To be honest I mostly end up messing around a bit while throwing in the odd serious shot, and rarely troubling anyone by actually winning an enormous number of matches; so I suppose I'm more likely to be Mansour Bahrami than Caroline.

                          My fitness, in terms of endurance, is usually what sees me through, so I'm suited more to badminton, where I am only moderately skilled but can outlast most people I play against. Ditto squash, although I don't turn well which results in too many wall collisions

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                            #14
                            What type of tennis player are you?

                            I've started playing again this year after an absence of about a decade. Me and the wife play mixed doubles. The better the opponent the better I play. The trajectory of the ball is much lower and flatter. Against someone my own standard the rallies tend to be more loopy and mediocre - and short.

                            My favourite stroke is a backhand with lots of backspin, but I lack any 'weapons'. Against many people it is fine as you can get the ball back in play and wait for them to make a mistake. We played against a couple a fortnight ago, though, and both had amazing forehands which left us standing. The woman, in particular, managed to generate so much power and whip on the shot she could go for winners all the time. Although the great thing about tennis is that you can find ways to negate other players strengths by moving them around the court with drop shots and lobs. Nonetheless, we got a drubbing.

                            I don't know enough about the style of modern players to be able to make a proper analogy, but as I've got a single-handed backhand I'm going for Federer. My daughter's started lessons and they insist on double handed - I guess it's a more reliable a stroke with 2 hands, but it looks so ugly. The player I aspired to be when I was younger was Miloslav Mecir.

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