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I'm a 49 yr old long time player. Here's who I'm up against, how can I beat him??

I have beaten him before, however he got the upper hand in our last match. Everything was just working for him.

His strengths:
* Exceptional volleyer of the ball, very accurate. Any volley afforded him usually ends up being killed low and/or in the corner.
* Exceptional at taking the ball out of the air, even when tight against the wall or high.
* Exceptional at covering the court sideways, it's very hard to get the ball off the front wall and back past him.
* Exceptional at the front, very fine touches, dropping the ball, slicing it, deceiving, with the ball ending very low and in the sidewall niche.

Weaknesses:
* Not a consistently good serve.
* Fitness.
* Not great in the back corners (when I hit a good length).

Any ideas of how I can beat this guy? Your input will help me keep my dignity!

Thanks!!
Gerard

Attack his serve, make him run (forward and back, rather than sideways -- since he is good at the latter) and then go for the corners!

Good luck!

Excellent, I'll try this tomorrow! You're right, I'm giving him too much time to corner me in the back on his service. I should move forward to attack the serve instead of waiting for it to come off the back wall.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Right so I beat him 3-1. Great result. But not all plain sailing. The score flatters me, all except perhaps the last game could have gone either way.

I attacked his serve in 2 ways. 1) Straight drive, tight on the wall and to good length; 2) low boast, ending low and dying in the corner. I used them intermittently so he didn't know what to expect. Both worked well. I also tried to stand closer and take the ball early a number of times but not with great results.

I mixed my serve up a lot which meant he'd have to use his feet a lot to get in position for the shot. With his fitness low, he's lazy to do that. It worked okay, although I probably conceded some points through some weak serves as a result.

This guy because of his ability to cut off any ball and prevent it from going past him, has the effect that I try to rush shots to catch him out of position. And hit harder than normal. In the last few games I tried to slow myself down and think rather. I started playing more drop shots to the front corners and again with his fitness this put him under pressure.

Thanks for your advice!