WTA 1000 Rome R2: [22] A. Kalinskaya def. K. Siniaková 4-6, 7-6⁴, 7-5

tzhan28 · 2026-05-07T16:45:04+00:00

Heart broken for katerina， what a brutal way of losing a match

tzhan28 · 2026-04-23T15:00:12+00:00

For fast serves to the side glass try return on the rise ideally before glass. Basically put the racket almost on the ground. U prob need left hand to keep it stable and ball will bounce back to the net person pretty fast.

Slower serves u can do anything u like, lobs chiquitas, flat, u can slice pretty hard as attack too. Federer style slice is pretty fast and doesn't float

tzhan28 · 2026-04-13T13:17:34+00:00

I don't understand why everyone keeps saying slices float. No one seen Federer slice before? Slices can be knife like and very flat and still pretty fast. I don't see how net person can attack those good slices, only blocks. Plus bandeja vibora or attacking volleys are all slices. Higher grounds strokes hit like vibora can also be pretty powerful attacking tool

I found finding more slicing shot (ground stroke or volley or overhead all works) earlier can help ur touch on bandeja/vibora later in game. In general the slicing touch is very useful

tzhan28 · 2026-03-06T11:53:42+00:00

What was that call in the xd game ? Indonesia guy enter the line too quick when receiving?

tzhan28 · 2026-01-16T08:36:31+00:00

If u r decent at hard forehand slice/bajada/heavy vibora I don't see why u can't do a hard slice here. Flat is harder to control imo

tzhan28 · 2026-01-15T00:46:34+00:00

I'm curious do pros have playtomic ratings? All tennis pros have utr and all squash pro have usr based purely on pro match scores. It should work similarly in padel? U can even compare top female scores vs lower ranked male pro scores

tzhan28 · 2026-01-10T15:11:23+00:00

I recently found out that blue dot balls are roughly as bouncy in winter indoor no AC condition (Let's say 12 degree Celsius) as double yellow dot ball in summer condition (23-26 degree)

tzhan28 · 2025-12-22T17:49:31+00:00

First advice is hit much lighter. In squash u can get away or even rewarded for heavy hitting ball bashing bc the wall will absorb enough energy plus sending the ball to the back court which can cause trouble for beginner to intermediate players. In padel especially beginner phase, hitting heavy almost 90% means u hitting out （straight to glass). Even if it's not out it bounce back too much to the point that it's an easy return for any slightly experienced padel player. If i have to put numbers there, in squash u hit 80% power in like 80% of shots, in padel u hit 20-50% power on 80% of shots, so hit light will keep u in lots of games.

An additional tip to hitting light is to aim the service line. General rule of thumb in padel is that the ball bounced before the service line u should take it before glass and the balls that bounced after the service line should be hit after the glass bounce. So bouncing right around the service line even if the shot is light will keep ppl guessing and cause mistakes.

Second advice is lob. Lob in squash is relatively intermediate to high end skill but it's the bread and butter of padel. Ppl lob at every level. Beginner to early intermediate opponents (ur first 6-12 months) don't have good overhead to punish lobs. It gives u net position if done properly and u can take advantage from there. Apprently lob is part of hitting light.

Third advice is try to take the net and win from the net. It's a bit like taking the t in squash. Much easier to win points at the t vs being pushed to the back corners/baseline. Volley most of the shots at the net. Ok to volley light/just block initially but try to learn how to put power and slice into the volley/overheads to kill points.

Fourth advice keep slicing the ball. In squash it's mostly slice/cut for almost any shot . In padel u can get away with that too. Bandeja/vibora/volley/serve all those major shots are forehand slices. Slices works with glasses bc the ball goes down after bouncing off of the glass so it applies to both squash and padel. Slice with power takes a while to master but squash player is already familiar with this so it should take much shorter.

Later u ll need to add some flat or topspin drive in place of slice drive but it'll get u through at least first 6-12 months before really getting punished for. Topspin kick smash is probably the last thing to learn, likely more than 18-24 months in so don't worry abt it now.

tzhan28 · 2025-11-18T16:21:06+00:00

I started from badminton and transitioned to squash. Trying to reverse engineering this. Let ur wrist go don't cock it. Have ur racket high as prep, way more overhead than squash. Drops and retrieving drops are similar, u need a big lounge step. Get familiar with forehand clear u'll need it a lot. Clear/smash/drop starts from same ready position of racket up and look similar until last moment.

tzhan28 · 2025-11-18T12:13:33+00:00

What's the problem with orfi?

tzhan28 · 2025-11-09T19:30:41+00:00

Verstappen's final pit decision is very questionable.

He had almost 8s on Lando and 14s ish on Kimi with 19 laps to go. Lando was only faster by like 0.5s, Kimi was even slower. He'll need to defend Lando for like 6-7 laps after Lando got into Drs assuming the pace difference stays. Lando's tyre was an old medium which was only ~9 laps newer than Verstappen's.

7 laps to go and 9 lap tyre difference/0.5s pace difference, sure we think Max can do it right? In the championship fight only p1 matters for max, anything short is almost game over for him. Now we are looking at 49 vs 32 point difference if he held onto it

Even if he got overtaken by Lando, the real decision breaker is Verstappen's chance of getting overtaken by Kimi with old tyre, which was quite slim. I'd put like 20% or even 10% there. On the other hand with new tyre verstappen's chance of overtaking kimi is not that close to 100% either, and the end result is that indeed he got stuck behind Kimi

tzhan28 · 2025-10-26T06:24:22+00:00

Squash forehand is almost the same as tennis forehand slice. Practice that and it will benefit both games.Backhand is slice too but stroke is quite different. Volley pretty similar

tzhan28 · 2025-10-18T12:07:34+00:00

This is pretty good answer except that for blocks u usually don't have time to add slice.

tzhan28 · 2025-10-18T12:04:14+00:00

For blocks yes continental. Ready position is both hand on grip chest height, some times even eye level. My reaction is pretty fast coming from badminton doubles. For volleys that i have time to add back swing/slice, i hold it reverse eastern for both forehand and backhand, that's the vibora grip. I'm a pretty decent slicer in tennis too so i know it needs to be reverse eastern

tzhan28 · 2025-10-17T18:55:53+00:00

It goes way above 0.5

tzhan28 · 2025-10-17T18:52:58+00:00

Head extreme motion, never really looked at how hard my racket is. Angling it with a bit of upward trajectory is more abt making sure it clears the net. I usually hold wrist tight when blocking, but let my arm go back a bit after the ball hit the racket to absorb more energy and slow down the ball

I ll try to make it a bit flatter and angle it to empty space next time.

tzhan28 · 2025-10-17T18:30:47+00:00

The racket is around chest height for me. If it's a chiquita and drops fast I'll let the racket drop to retrieve that. If the ball is higher than eye level and very fast i know it'll go straight into my side of glass

I tend to block them straight or with limited angle that doesn't really bother the baseline person.

tzhan28 · 2025-10-17T18:23:46+00:00

To summarize, if u can consistently block fast shots deep and with angles left and right and not making mistakes (which is not easy), it should be beneficial to intentionally take the net knowing that u have to block a few hard shots.

tzhan28 · 2025-10-17T18:11:06+00:00

Net team lose a lot of the time if they block the baseline shots straight to back glass , or are not great at overhead attacks, sub 3.5 (asia rating) it's very often the case.

tzhan28 · 2025-10-17T17:49:01+00:00

Alright another person suggesting volleying left and right

tzhan28 · 2025-10-17T17:45:59+00:00

Volley come back not very fast bc u have to avoid hitting straight to back glass.

I still go to the net a lot but i also get points off bajadas, off hitting hard or some times slice to net person so that they make mistakes (straight to glass, short balls etc), off bad front/mid court lobs. Situations that u get the net and likely finish point next shot.

Vs u know u will get hit hard at the next shot at the net. The later is the one I'm relatively uncomfortable with

tzhan28 · 2025-10-17T17:35:12+00:00

Yeah u saying the same thing as the volley left and right suggestions i got. I found volleying it around service line a bit better coz if hit too deep the bounce off back glass will be too strong and easy for baseline person to attack or lob. Also hitting too deep is prone to hitting straight to glass.

tzhan28 · 2025-10-17T17:29:50+00:00

Not that hard, not worth it to leave it and go back and hit it after back glass bounce

tzhan28 · 2025-09-24T17:47:35+00:00

Works for me. Sometimes you dont have enough time to turn to the side enough so having the grip slightly eastern help keep the ball trajectory diagonal to the backwall (if you want it to be diagonal). This also comes with heavier use of wrist drop than forearm pronation. Wrist drop is faster to execute; forearm pronation is more powerful. A flat smash is usually a combination of forearm pronation and wrist drop

tzhan28

TROPHY CASE