Success at the Irish Open

Lucky enough to be able to make a trip to Kalamazoo last week first as a chaperone for my daughters model UN conference, then for some fun doubles. I played the mixed and men's 4.0.  My partner for the men's doubles couldn't make the trip, so I asked the tournament director if anyone was looking, and fortunately for me, I was able to play with a really consistent all court 4.0 player.  Our first round bye pushed our first round match to friday night, where we won in straight sets.  Early Saturday I got in the zone and my mixed partner and I won quickly, 3 & 1.   Second round men's was against a tough team that ended up winning the tourney, and we had our opportunities against them... up in the first set tiebreaker 5-2 and even with a set point 7-6.. a few shots different and it would have been ours.  Second set their serves were tough, and we lost one break to get lose it 7-6, 6-4.  BUT, I played my best and kept my cool - even on what looked like a bad call on a critical point.  I was able to be in the moment, not worry about mistakes and focus on the ball.  I felt like the mental game i've been working on was in place.   

Success of course depends on your goals.. mine were to have fun, play well,  be a good sport.  All of these tie together really to my own attitude on the court. My partner sent me the following email...  so, it feels like I WON this weekend's battle... 

Andrew:

Thanks for the fun tennis! We truly had a great time and played really good tennis… As FYI, we lost to the event champs and it could have gone either way… they deserve the victory as it was hard earned….. I cannot say enough about your demeanor in court and your level of play.. outstanding!!!

Strings - Multi, Gut and 'RacquetTune' App

I've been playing around with different strings and tensions in my Yonex Vcore 310Gs.   I started out using a yonex 16g multi, but it seemed to drop in tension and die quickly, so I started using poly mains with synthetic gut crosses, but due to some arm issues wanted something softer.  I'm finding how much of a difference strings make, and how much there is out there to know and try out!

A couple months ago I went to a very soft multi (technifibre xone biphase 17g and 18g) which I like very much for feel, control and power. However, I was breaking them really quickly. Sometimes in 3-5 sets. The 17g was actually breaking as bad or worse than the 18, (it breaks on the frame when i miss-hit). They call this 'shearing' when it breaks along the top.   I dont string my own rackets, so weekly stringing is simply too costly for me. 

Interestingly... I think I've found a way to extend the life of my strings, or at least keep them from breaking at the top when I mishit, by I placing one of those worm dampeners across the top. I like the feel of the dampener across the top (and yes, it is usta legal).  Better yet, I have not broken a string since doing this, I even have a dozen sets of play on a set of the 18g. The tension on the Technifibre is holding true, not much in the way of peeling/fraying strings... might change my take on using this stuff long term.

I've found the 17g plays the best of me in this racquet and will stick with it now. The 18 'feels better' on touch and spin shots but the 17 has treated me well for serves and groundies. There isnt much difference, but just enough.

I got a lot of advice to try Gut, and Gut mains with poly crosses. I had my stringer put in a bed of the Babolat VS team 17g, @ 57mains,55 crosses.   Unfortunately... I ended up not really liking this full bed of Bab 17 vs gut, I couldn't control it and seemed to launch a lot of balls. The tension dropped down to 34 pounds over time, and it didn't last very long (10 sets?) before developing serious grooves in the mains. 

4/27...
I currently have 3 rackets strung up with Technifibre HDX Tour 17g and really like it. I've gotten 17 sets out of one so far, it looks like it is about to break but is still playing well. I have 11 on another bed and it is still playing great, just starting to peel a bit. The 3rd is still new and I'll be playing with it this week and weekend at our usta match.

I still have a couple of packs of gut/poly (pacific/head hawk touch) that I want to try, but will wait til after the upcoming usta match weekend to put them in.

More info and string tracking on my spreadsheet, here: LINK

More later...