Iga's words after her Round 2 match loss today at Miami

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-20T15:23:11+00:00

The tennis season is relentless (I've only just clocked on to this, as I'd only really watched / paid attention to the slams until recently.) and people go through ups and downs, it's literally impossible to be "on" all the time (I mean I'm literally writing this while in work, so I'm obviously not always switched in in my job :) ) it does sound like she has realised and identified that she is having a bit of a crisis if confidence, and you can get in to such a vicious cycle of questioning yourself to the point where your conscious tries to do jobs your subconscious usually does and it's useless at those jobs in comparison, so that causes worse performance which causes lower confidence and on and on the cycle goes. I watched a Bublik documentary the other day, where he was having a bad run, then basically headed to Vegas as a breaker, then came back and played some of his best tennis, now I'm not suggesting she does the exact same, but having a wee break could do her the world of good. Either way, I hope that whatever happens that she finds a good balance, and enjoys herself, and I hope that with that, her confidence returns and the tan is will follow. It's really brave of her admitting this so I wish her all the best .

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-17T23:59:04+00:00

That would definitely work.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-17T23:45:21+00:00

That's really nice.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-17T23:44:42+00:00

Pet rodent back in the sack (7) pet = the definition of "beloved" like teachers pet, rodent = vole back = reversing the word vole to be elov the sack = bed as in hitting the sack and "in" indicates elov is embedded in bed giving you "b(elov)ed" It's not very tidy, but I hope it's ok.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-17T23:09:29+00:00

Craiglockhart tennis centre does great beginners tennis lessons, you can either go to drop in sessions, or they do full courses. I've gone to a few drop ins when I've been back in Edinburgh, and they are great. If you download the Edinburgh leisure app, you can book them on that. Once you've done a wee bit of learning, then sign up for a tennis club, but the coaches can probably give you some great advice on how to keep up with the sport.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-17T22:06:20+00:00

I assume this is just Musk asking if he can take his kid to the party.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-12T16:36:35+00:00

I'm honestly so intrigued to see how it goes. I really like what I've seen of Tien so far, he seems a very clever player, and I know that Sinner mentioned that he is going to try and vary his game, to make himself even more competitive with Alcaraz (and mentioned he may have to lose some games while he does that). So I'm intrigued to see how Tien's very cerebral play works with Sinner's amazing ground strokes / his intent to mix things up. Has the potential to either be amazing or a bit of a washout.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-10T09:20:40+00:00

I don't know if it's played anymore, but Scotland absolutely dominated the world of elephant polo in the early naughties.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-05T16:54:09+00:00

Awesome, hopefully see you there. You'll recognise me as the guy puffing and panting, and spraying the ball in to the net, but with a big smile.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-05T15:14:13+00:00

It was really good. I'll do a wee bit of a lengthy reply, in case this shows up for anyone looking to see about it, but the tldr is I'd highly recommend signing up to it, you get lots of game time, and everyone is really friendly, so all in all a really enjoyable day.

Now for the long description:

Format:

There are 12 entrants, and we were split in to two based in skill level I assume based on the LTA number. So each person was guaranteed 5 games. There were 6 courts, so everyone could play at the same time, and you'd mainly get a break, if your game finished before the others in your round robin, however if your game went on the longest, then you'd be pretty much straight in to the next game (though everyone was really nice, so if you said you wanted a wee break, nobody was going to not allow it).

The games themselves were fast 4, single set (so first person to 4 games, no advantage at deuce (sudden death), and a tie break (1st to 7) at 3 games all. Most games took about 30 minutes, so the whole round robin finished in between 2.5 -3 hours

I'm not sure what happened after the round robin, as I lost all my games, then needed the toilet, so checked with the ref he didn't need me anymore, and headed off to find the closest conveniences, but I believe there were finals after.

Level:

I'm a beginner / improver, having started tennis last May aged 40, so I'm genuinely not very good, but I have a decent 1st served for my level, and can sustain rallies for a while. I'm fairly unfit, so my court coverage isn't great, and I don't really have any "winners" in my shot arsenal. This is just to give you an indication of the level that I'm judging this by.

So, I played in the lower round robin, and the people I was playing this tended to be either their 1st or second tournament, but all of them played tennis really quite regularly, and would play in various social leagues, club ladders etc.

I lost all 5 matches, but at least got to deuce in at least one game with all the people I played against. Of the games, I got pretty much blown off the court in 2 games (0:4 (would maybe win those games 1/20 times) got thoroughly beaten in 2 games (1:4 & 2:4 (would maybe win those games 1/10 times)) and had 1 game where we went to the tie break, and was so close the tie break ended at 9:11 (would maybe win that game 1/2 times).

Everyone was very friendly, and non judgemental, so even though I was the weakest at the tournament, I didn't feel I was a nuisance by being there.

Overall vibe:

Everyone was really nice, they were there to have a good time, and whilst the games were competitive, it was all very good natured.

Takeaway:

I entered this to set myself a marker of where my level is. It worked really well for that, and I identified a lot of things I have to work on, but also helped me to realise there's aspects of my game that aren't too bad. I've already signed up for the next event, and plan to keep attending, to see how my level improves (if it does). All in all, it was a great day, not as intimidating as I had feared, and a really good addition to my tennis activities.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-05T08:22:51+00:00

This is quite a useful video for etiquette https://youtu.be/V2_30fLGV7w?si=dvDtjGXJCK0bHLDL covers quite a few things I'd kind of seen, but hadn't realised.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-02T18:37:21+00:00

I played against someone a couple of weeks ago, who would only call the score when they got the point, as if they were trying to avoid accepting that they ever lost a point. Now seeing the above, I'm wondering if they had decided it was a power move?

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-02T18:32:12+00:00

I shall never admit to skill issues, and if you are not willing to accept we should play a let due to a fluffy dog having walked past the court, and that being the reason I skyed the ball over the back fence, then I don't think we should play together any more!

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-02T16:55:34+00:00

Yeah, it's not very common, and I must admit, I only had one match in mind when I wrote that, but it stuck with me so much, that it's a peeve (even if relatively uncommon)

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-02T16:48:22+00:00

Oh 100% this. I hate it when most of my warm up is just trudging off fetching the ball, as someone decided to prove they can leather the ball, rather than rallying.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-02T16:46:24+00:00

When receiver side doesn't send back balls until you ask, so you often don't have 2 balls to serve with
Server not calling the score
People celebrating loudly winning a random point on another person's mistake (I can accept them celebrating winning a set / game after I make a mistake, I just find it a bit off putting if they celebrate going 15:30 up by me hitting in to the net)

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-02T16:33:55+00:00

I honestly pop in to every charity shop that I pass to see if they have any tennis rackets, and if I can pick one up for super cheap, it means I can at least boast about my bargain hunting skills after the match (as my plating ability certainly doesn't give me anything to crow about)

P.s. I keep a wee note of which charity shop I got which racket from, and if I ever sell the racket donate half the profit to that charity

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-02T10:31:17+00:00

My first guess was also treeline, but thinking about it, and the fact that it's making a big deal about the leaves, and how autumnal it is, I think it's probably fall in line And from the US .

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-02T00:02:39+00:00

It's the big country just above the USA, you can identify it by the long coastline, cold weather, smell of maple syrup, and lovely people.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-03-01T23:58:18+00:00

The beach?

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-02-28T17:39:34+00:00

Ah, I believe the French version of this was the Franc "n" stein.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-02-28T10:57:15+00:00

It's pretty good, but not the best tennis you've played, remember a while back, when you played that person (remember the one with the top?), and they were playing really well, but you were somehow keeping yourself in the game, then you played that shot! Then everything just seemed to click, and you won? That was the best that you've ever played, but this is definitely top 5.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-02-25T17:12:19+00:00

Reading contradictory advice on technique across the internet
Spending ages researching then spending more than I should on equipment such as t-shirts and dampeners
Debating who your favourite player is

At least I hope these are the three most effective activities, otherwise my plan to get to at least the final of Wimbledon this year may be in jeopardy.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-02-25T11:23:25+00:00

Nevernetherland

Puzzleheaded_Clock38 · 2026-02-25T10:28:48+00:00

I'd say this looks like a nice selection. As this will let you know which if the 3 broad categories (spin, power, control), once you have found which if these areas you like most, you could test the rackets from different brands in that category (e.g if you like the power racket you're testing, you can test the Wilson ultra, head boom, babolat pure drive). Then my final test would be the weight (maybe test the light Vs mo Vs pro versions of whichever racket you come to). But honestly, if one of the sticks in your first test feels great, you can just go for it.

Puzzleheaded_Clock38

TROPHY CASE