The Tennis Thread

[Blackpuddin]

Chances of the strings being anything like what they were before 8 years sat in a garage are slim. Restring is less than £20. Think I'd be looking at buying a decent (and more recent) secondhand racket myself though.

[chippy17]

kentlad said:

I've started playing tennis again (had lessons when i was a teen & played to an ok standard). I've just dug my old tennis racquet out after about 8 years sat in the garage. I've changed the grip so it's actually usable. Would i need to get the strings replaced? It was a pretty basic starter racquet back when i bought it.

https://www.tennisnuts.com/babolat-contact-team-te... - this is the racquet.

Or would i be better off buying an upgrade than spending any more money on the current racquet? I'm planning on playing a few times a month with the view to playing in my gyms league eventually.

in answer to your string question, yes I would get a restring definitely, 8 years is a long time! I would however just ask your local stringer to put in some standard, not expensive, synthetic gut to start with

if you are going to play long term i would look to change the racket at some point, you can demo rackets these days from various shops to get a feel for what you like

[chippy17]

Blackpuddin said:

Chances of the strings being anything like what they were before 8 years sat in a garage are slim. Restring is less than £20. Think I'd be looking at buying a decent (and more recent) secondhand racket myself though.

beat me to it!

good point on secondhand, you can find a lot of rackets here and if you sell them on if you don't like them I doubt you will lose any money:

https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?forums/e...

I have actually bought and sold a few and made a little bit of cash

[Blackpuddin]

What is the most accurate way of determining your grip size? I've messed about with so many rackets over the years with extra wraps and what have you that I've lost track of what I 'should' actually be using! Plus I'm hoping that having the right size grip might play a part in stopping the wrist problems that have kept me off the court for the last few months.

[kentlad]

Thanks guys. Will take a look at that second hand site. Won't bother with re-stringing then! Sounds like that'd be more than the racquet is worth!

[chippy17]

Blackpuddin said:

What is the most accurate way of determining your grip size? I've messed about with so many rackets over the years with extra wraps and what have you that I've lost track of what I 'should' actually be using! Plus I'm hoping that having the right size grip might play a part in stopping the wrist problems that have kept me off the court for the last few months.

the traditional way is to grip the racket and see if you can slide your little finger in between your thumb area and the fingers, if that makes any sense

the right grip size is important and could be contributing to your wrist issues but your wrist issues could be any number of things, for example you could have a very head heavy racket which is putting extra strain on your wrist, could be how tightly you are gripping the racket (pro players grip the racket very loosely) the overgrip could be old and not giving you the grip you need so you are subconsciously gripping it tightly, etc etc

[chippy17]

kentlad said:

Thanks guys. Will take a look at that second hand site. Won't bother with re-stringing then! Sounds like that'd be more than the racquet is worth!

tennis geek hat on;

you are now entering a minefield of weight, balance, flex, string pattern with regards to rackets (not to mention literally thousands of different strings to choose from) if you are a geek like me you will know all this but if you want any help let me know

[Blackpuddin]

chippy17 said:

Blackpuddin said:

What is the most accurate way of determining your grip size? I've messed about with so many rackets over the years with extra wraps and what have you that I've lost track of what I 'should' actually be using! Plus I'm hoping that having the right size grip might play a part in stopping the wrist problems that have kept me off the court for the last few months.

the traditional way is to grip the racket and see if you can slide your little finger in between your thumb area and the fingers, if that makes any sense

the right grip size is important and could be contributing to your wrist issues but your wrist issues could be any number of things, for example you could have a very head heavy racket which is putting extra strain on your wrist, could be how tightly you are gripping the racket (pro players grip the racket very loosely) the overgrip could be old and not giving you the grip you need so you are subconsciously gripping it tightly, etc etc

Thanks Chippy. So if you can slide your little finger in, is that correct or wrong? Is there meant to be space between the two, or no space? Sorry to be a bit OCD but I've always felt the finger space thing is very hit and miss. Overgrips have always been regularly changed so it's not that.

[kentlad]

chippy17 said:

tennis geek hat on;

you are now entering a minefield of weight, balance, flex, string pattern with regards to rackets (not to mention literally thousands of different strings to choose from) if you are a geek like me you will know all this but if you want any help let me know

Thanks mate, i'll keep that in mind. I just want to get back to the standard i was when i was a youngster! My Serve is still half decent & my forehand 'ok' but everything else was pretty poor. Think i need to get back into the swing of things before worrying about weight, flex, string patterns etc .

[chippy17]

Blackpuddin said:

chippy17 said:

Blackpuddin said:

What is the most accurate way of determining your grip size? I've messed about with so many rackets over the years with extra wraps and what have you that I've lost track of what I 'should' actually be using! Plus I'm hoping that having the right size grip might play a part in stopping the wrist problems that have kept me off the court for the last few months.

the traditional way is to grip the racket and see if you can slide your little finger in between your thumb area and the fingers, if that makes any sense

the right grip size is important and could be contributing to your wrist issues but your wrist issues could be any number of things, for example you could have a very head heavy racket which is putting extra strain on your wrist, could be how tightly you are gripping the racket (pro players grip the racket very loosely) the overgrip could be old and not giving you the grip you need so you are subconsciously gripping it tightly, etc etc

Thanks Chippy. So if you can slide your little finger in, is that correct or wrong? Is there meant to be space between the two, or no space? Sorry to be a bit OCD but I've always felt the finger space thing is very hit and miss. Overgrips have always been regularly changed so it's not that.

matron! meant to be relatively tight! yes that was what I was always taught, although the below attachment says index finger:

https://www.tennis-warehouse.com/LC/Gripsize.html

[chippy17]

kentlad said:

chippy17 said:

tennis geek hat on;

you are now entering a minefield of weight, balance, flex, string pattern with regards to rackets (not to mention literally thousands of different strings to choose from) if you are a geek like me you will know all this but if you want any help let me know

Thanks mate, i'll keep that in mind. I just want to get back to the standard i was when i was a youngster! My Serve is still half decent & my forehand 'ok' but everything else was pretty poor. Think i need to get back into the swing of things before worrying about weight, flex, string patterns etc .

what standard were you as a youngster?

of course but choosing a racket to improve and grow with means you want to get it right, you don't have to worry about those things but you want a half decent racket

[kentlad]

chippy17 said:

what standard were you as a youngster?

of course but choosing a racket to improve and grow with means you want to get it right, you don't have to worry about those things but you want a half decent racket

Absolutely, but at the same time - if i get back into it seriously, i'd rather not have to replace the frame within a year or so.

Probably an intermediate player as a young teenager - i played against a county player a few times in friendlies and always held my own (although i don't think i ever won)

[languagetimothy]

I'm going to mens semis next Friday. I went in 2016 and was up in the shade. This time I'm row K in the front block, (11 rows from front)on the sunny side opposite the chair umpire.... eeergh I'm gonna fry!... doing the rain dance now for the roof to be closed.

[BlackLabel]

Some interesting results in the first week - Cilic blowing a 2 set lead vs the world number 80 something Guido Pella who himself then capitulated against the American qualifier McDonald. Zverev beaten by Gulbis and Dimitrov, Goffin and Thiem all going out in the first round. Federer has barely broken sweat, Nadal looks to be in decent grass court form although he hasn't played anyone of note yet and Djokovic who looked really shaky vs Edmund in the first set yesterday eventually ended the match playing some really good stuff. Del Potro also looks in good form.

Meanwhile Nick Kyrgios.........he looked like he basically gave up vs a very good Nishikori yesterday, showed no fight at all and just looked disinterested. He's 23 now and still acts like a petulant child when the going gets tough.

[JagLover]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

We can look at their last three recent meetings, all on hard courts and all going Federers way. I would agree that Federer hasn't looked quite as dominant as Nadal but if you watch Federer closely he often only seems bothered about trying to break once or twice a set. He can win sets 6-4 in under 30 minutes.

I personally think Federer isn't quite the player he was last year, that the years are having an effect at last, and that his entire game is focused around winning grand slam matches in under two hours as a consequence.

One thing I will say to all the virtue signalling commentators is that Federer is not trying to "equal" Navratilova's record of nine Wimbledon wins. There is far greater strength in depth, and physical demands, in the men's game and you measure each gender separately.

[languagetimothy]

Just watched "strokes of genius: federer v Nadal" on bbc2 so prob be on i player.
Good stuff, proper new interviews, old films as kids, mostly based around Wimbledon 2008.

[E24man]

Jamie Murray and Victoria Azarenko came back from 1-5 down in the third set to win 7-5 and brilliant to see so many children in the crowd; great tennis, great fun, great for the kidsto watch!

[BlackLabel]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

All of the top 10 seeds have now been knocked out in the women's draw - seems this is now Serena’s tournament to lose.

[E24man]

BlackLabel said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

All of the top 10 seeds have now been knocked out in the women's draw - seems this is now Serena’s tournament to lose.

Briefly turned onto a game today (?Halep) at 4-4 in the first set where there had been 8 breaks of serve...

[The Moose]

I like the camera view that’s in the net. I don’t recall that from previous years. New camera tech?