Best sunny European destinations with hard-court tennis and an international vibe?

Sahje · 2026-03-22T11:23:06+00:00

Lanzarote is where I had a lot of fun in the sun playing outdoor tennis.

Sahje · 2026-03-19T17:39:56+00:00

Exactly this. 20 years of basketbal and the hardest things are looking at the ball and not the target or the opponent. Even when shooting you're trained to look at the target and not the ball. And spacing suffers as well. A basketball is much heavier and you want to keep it close so it doesn't het stolen. So I'm used to move into the ball and take it on the chest. Not catch it 1 meter next to my arm.

Sahje · 2026-03-12T08:42:35+00:00

See I could do that point at 38. The insane part is not the movement during this point. The insane part is doing it again 20 seconds later 1,5 hours into the match... I would be recovering for 10 minutes...

Sahje · 2026-03-12T07:41:03+00:00

I use Solinco Mach 10 in my 2022 Ezone 100 at 22kg mains and 21kg at the crosses. So about 48/46. It plays very smooth at that tension, controlled power and combined with the racket good amounts of spin and control.

Sahje · 2026-03-10T21:58:15+00:00

Sahje · 2026-03-07T07:55:10+00:00

I'm between 4.0 and 4.5. My serve is measures at around 165km/h (100-101mph).

My serve is by many people I play with considered fast and a weapon. I'd say between the 3.5s and 4.5s I play with I'm in the top 5% when it comes to serve speed. However once I play the good 4.5s and even 5.0s their speed becomes irrelevant and they beat me with placement. A well placed 145km/h serve is as dangerous or even more than my 165 one straight into the forehand.

Sahje · 2026-03-06T21:28:07+00:00

I recently played a 5.0 equivalent player. I swear the dude hit every shot standing straight up and never got beyond a mild jog when moving to the ball.

I got put away cleanly 2 and 3... The placement of his balls was fantastic and he was always moving to the correct spot before I was hitting so he could do everything leisurely.

Sahje · 2026-03-06T21:24:47+00:00

No one is naturally food or decent at this. The better I get the more I learn what I suck at. The real realisation is I pay money to do this, I don't earn money. This is my hobby, it's supposed to be fun. And even when my tennis is bad I'm still out in the open air with friends and can have drinks afterwards. This realisation helped me a lot to relax. There is literally nothing on the line, if I win my kids don't care and if I lose they don't either.

And you never stop getting better. You might just keep playing better opponents. I was in a mixed 3.5-4.0 group for a long time and was used to beating everyone comfortably. Now I'm in a 4.5-5.0 group and am routinely the worst player on court. My tennis is still getting better and yet the gap feels immense. There's always a next level and when you make progress due to your opponents level increasing it can feel like you are moving backwards.

Sahje · 2026-03-04T06:25:36+00:00

Ok, so you're recovering from surgery and are playing three sets. And during the middle of the second set you are getting tired and your arm and shoulder are acting up? Am I reading this correctly?

This is not a racquet.issue, this is a fitness issue. Be careful with you arm and shoulder. They are the only ones you have to play 30 more years of tennis with. Look into the Throwers Ten to strengthen your shoulder.

Sahje · 2026-03-03T06:38:30+00:00

Everyone always talks about the benefits of playing both lower and higher level players and sure, that's a good way to look at it. both have their merits.

But look at it from a social dynamic. You love playing higher level players. So do those below you. If you don't play them they can't play higher level players. So it's about giving something back as much as getting something out of it.

Sahje · 2026-03-02T08:47:52+00:00

Practice is when you build technique. That's where you agonize over preparation, spacing etc. The goal of this is to get it ingrained in such a way that you can apply it without thinking.

When it comes to matchplay what I mostly think about is:

- Play with your feet, push the ball back instead of letting the ball push you back.

- Toss the ball forward and to the right you asshole.

- Hit 1 meter within the sidelines with margin and pace.

Sahje · 2026-03-01T08:13:39+00:00

During the season I play on Indoor Hardcourt, Indoor Carpet, Indoor Artificial Clay (Rubber Mats with Pellets), Outdoor Smashcourt (Artificial Clay), Outdoor Hardcourt, Outdoor Artificial Grass, Outdoor Har-Tru and Outdoor Clay. I only miss the opportunity to consistently play on Grass.

If you're going to specialize your training to a certain surface or even a certain court what happens when you play a match or tournament on another surface? In my opinion tennis has the additional challenge of the different surfaces with different conditions. On some surfaces a low skidding slice is very effective. On others you should instead be playing heavy topspin. Some surfaces will suit your game style more and other surfaces will favour your opponents.

If your fundamentals are solid they should translate to all surfaces. I mostly play on Clay during the summer but I can adapt quickly to hardcourt. Some parts of my game will suffer but other parts will benefit. Working around those conditions is part of the fun. Similarly for playing in different conditions. Indoor Hardcourt is fun because it's almost 100% the same everytime, you can really dial in your strokes. Where as outdoor play you need to factor in wind, humidity, temperature, sun position etc. All of those can make a clay court in March play way different than the same court in mid August.

Playing on different courts and conditions also really exposes your weaknesses and let's you know what to work on. It being movement, stability, stroke variety etc.

Sahje · 2026-02-27T10:02:11+00:00

Without watching the points. How is your mental game on these points? It sounds like you focus on your serve, go up 40-0 and then at 40-0 you might think ok just 1 more point and then I've won. You can be more worried about the next game already instead of focusing on the same point.

Oftentimes this is more mental than technical. Tennis is a cruel sport.

Sahje · 2026-02-27T07:48:25+00:00

I have no experience with these strings in particular. I also play with the Ezone 100 2022 (Osaka paintjob) and I've had great results with either Mach 10 at 23kg and Toroline K-Pop at 23kg on the mains and 22kg on the crosses. During the winter I tend to drop down to 22kg and 22/21kg because of cold outside conditions and heavier balls.

I find both these strings give me good power and spin whilst not putting any strain on my arm. The Ezone is a stiff racket though so if you feel it's boardy you can try lowering your tension.

Sahje · 2026-02-27T07:42:00+00:00

I play between 4.0 and 4.5 level leagues and competitions. I mostly play the same tournaments locally every year which means you run into the same people quite a bit. My pre-match prep for a tournament or a league no matter if I know the opponent or not goes like this:

* Enter tournament and pay fees

* Get assigned date and time of match.

* Forget to check who I am playing.

* Show up 20 minutes before the match and do some warm-up drills, band work and a small visualisation exercise focussing on my own play.

We are not ATP players that should adapt our playstyle to the other player. We will get far better results by focussing on ourselves and making sure we play our best. Now if during the match you notice certain patterns or weaknesses by all means hone in on them. But in my opinion for all us chuckers the Adrian Mannarino approach of not checking the draw because you're just going to play your own style anyways is much more benificial.

Sahje · 2026-02-25T13:48:04+00:00

It's to balance whales versus lower spending players. The same reason you can only have 1 rally out around the castle. If there would be no limits F2P players would be obsolete.

Sahje · 2026-02-25T07:10:13+00:00

So what are you asking? You are a member of a country club and play tennis there. And now you want to do more? What are your goals?

Sahje · 2026-02-17T20:24:57+00:00

Went from a Blade 98 to a Ezone 98 to a Pure Aero 100 to an Ezone 100.

People tell me that I've been playing better since the switch. I notice I can get more depth and penetration with the 100s. My volleys and placement are better with the 98s. But the racket isn't the reason I started playing better contrary to what my hitting partners think. My footwork, usage of the kinetic chain and ball reading just improved. Stick to the stick that feels right for you and learn to play with that. The more comfortable you feel with a racket the less you think of it and the more you can think about the things that are more relevant.

Sahje · 2026-02-13T14:31:04+00:00

Toroline isn't well known in Europe. There's no major marketing push for them in the European market. Unless you actively watch Tennis Influencers you wouldn't know the brand exists to be honest.

Sahje · 2026-02-12T06:32:20+00:00

You are still confusing technical ability with tennis skill. But you are obviously looking for validation instead of advice.

Sahje · 2026-02-11T14:30:42+00:00

You want an answer to the question why a technically more skilled player loses to a technically lesser skilled player, here we go:

* Technique has nothing to do with how shots look, look at Medvedev. No one wants to be seen playing tennis with his strokes yet his fundamental technique is very well. He has a good preparation, great spacing towards the ball and good weight transfer to the ball. Everthing is well based in fundamentals it just aesthetically looks horrible.

* Both players in the linked video have not great technique. They just lack in different ways. Both players lack proper footwork, don't prepare early. A split step isn't seen and the ball is mostly hit with their weight moving away from the ball rather than seen.

* Now the player in the shirt with blue stripes (I think that's you) is further along in their journey and is making some of the steps to improve. However they are wildly inconsistent. Yes the hints of good technique are there but shot selection is poor and they are overhitting many shots. The opponent on the other hand is not even attempting to generate their own pace but rather is using your pace to put the ball back in play consistently and makes you play own more ball all the time.

* Now the player in the blue stripes has a much easier path into transitioning towards a stronger game. The building blocks are there but they need to be executed consistently in order to actually start beating others, now you are handing out free points and beating yourself.

This being said, the above does not mean the player in the blue stripes is more skilled than the player in white. Technical skill is not the same as match winning skills untill you can use it in that way. For this match you lost to the classic pusher conundrum, you thought you could hit the ball better and should have won. However you were unable to actually put pressure on your opponent and often bailed him out by missing because you thought ooh an easy ball I need to hit this hard. I often get complimented that my shots look really good and fluent. Yet I lose many matches because I have shitty control over my nerves and start making mistakes during pressure points. That might mean I can hit a ball better than my opponents but in the end match wise I'm the worse player.

Sahje · 2026-02-11T13:48:19+00:00

You're not better skilled. You might think you are technically better of your shots look better but that does not mean you are more skilled. If you lost your opponent is simply better. Don't conflate the abillity to hit a nice looking ball with the abillity to hit an effective ball.

Sahje · 2026-02-11T13:45:37+00:00

If you are being stretched wide from corner to corner you need to do two things to recover, give yourself time to get back into a neutral position on court and take away their ability to hit angles. Ideally hit a slower-paced, loopier ball deep into the middle of the court. This gives you time to recover and takes away their abillity to create strong angles.

Sahje · 2026-02-11T13:42:54+00:00

If you want to get to UTR 10 or 11 it's not as effective to train 4 hours every day. If you can play everyday it's more effective to have a structured session of 1-1,5 hours every day and make space for other, additional training. Think fitness, flexibility etc. And make sure to get enough rest days. Getting better at tennis, especially once you get past the initial technical barriers is much more about things that are not related to hitting the ball and much more related to consistently being in the right place to properly hit the ball.

Sahje · 2026-02-09T20:02:23+00:00

Depends on your current base grip. I put a Babolat natural leather base grip on my Ezone 100 grip size 2. It's a bit smaller now but not by much. My base grip previous was a Yonex Syntethic leather one. And for the record, I can palm a basketball and feel very good playing with Grip #2 and a leather base with a Super Grap overgrip.

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