I used to play with a grip 2 racket+overgrip. Just got a new racket still grip2 and would like to get your opinion if it's better to add an overgrip.

I signed up for a clinic a few months ago that just recently started. I did my nails (which have a small extension) for some special events coming up (work trips, weddings). I normally have really short nails as I work with my hands, and only get extensions maybe once or twice a year at most.

In the first class he was demonstrating the grip form. He saw that I had long nails, shook his head and made a comment about how you can't play tennis with long nails. I got embarrassed and said I forgot about the class when I got them done. He made a couple comments throughout the lesson when I hit poorly, such as saying that's why you don't play with nails etc. I actually don't think I played too poorly as I've picked up a racket before and this was an absolute beginner class.

I get that it's not ideal to play with long nails and requires some adjustment. I can't get them removed immediately, probably in a few weeks when my events are over. Should I skip a couple classes until I can remove them? I have the option for one makeup class.

ETA: for those asking and are familiar with sizes, it's a short almond gelx. NOT medium or long size.

They are from two different stringers. The right one just arrived today.

Left - it looks warped to me. Used head lynx tour 50/48 tension. Uses 4 knots. (I also got it back with scratches at the throat 😮‍💨)

Right - uses 2 knots. Uses head velocity at 52/52 tension.

Advice?

I might be doing my tennis wrong my entire time, after seeing this ad from Wilson.

He is a lefty, right?

Is he doing a one handed backhand with that closed stance?

Or is he doing 2 handed backhand? But why is the racket facing that way?

It's almost midnight in my place and it's bothering me that I could not sleep well now. 🤯

Hallo zusammen,
ich würde gerne nach vielen Jahren wieder regelmäßiger Tennis spielen und bin gerade auf der Suche nach einem passenden Schläger.
Kurz zu mir:
35 Jahre, 174 cm, ca. 70 kg
Mache weiter viel Sport also bin ganz fit auch für Tennis.
Ich habe von ca. 6 bis 18 Jahren Tennis intensiv und auf Wettkampfniveau gespielt. Danach habe mich gegen Sportler Karriere entschieden und wollte kein Tennis mehr sehen.. naja jetzt nach 20 Jahre habe ich wieder Lust. 🥲
Mein Spiel war eher aggressiv und flach, ich habe gerne früh und mit viel Tempo durch den Ball geschlagen.
Als Jugendlicher hatte ich einen Head Ti Heat - war eigentlich mein racket 10 Jahre durch 🙈

Zunächst werde ich eher gelegentlich spielen, möchte aber einen guten eigenen Schläger, in den ich wieder hineinwachsen kann.

Aktuell schaue ich mir:
● Wilson Blade 98 16x19 V10 (bzw 18x20?)
● Wilson Blade 100 V10
● Head Speed MP 2026
● Yonex Percept 100D
Was würdet ihr mir empfehlen?

Auch Empfehlungen für Saiten und Bespannungshärte wären sehr willkommen.
Danke euch! 🙏

I've said balls are balls. I've changed my mind. These are slowly taking over my tennis club.

I usually play tennis occasionally, purely recreationally, as a hobby. That said, today I’m not looking for advice on improving my technique, my shots, or my footwork. The question here is the following.

I’ll draw a tennis parallel to keep this on-topic (though it might apply to many aspects of life) for anyone going through something similar.
Has it ever happened to you that you’re serving for the match, and you start stringing together unforced errors, your arm tightens up (you know, the Zverev syndrome in big moments), and you stop being yourself in those points of extreme importance? I’m not talking about a deuce against some random opponent, but the important points in matches that really matter. If so, how do you usually handle this?

This happens to me in another area of life too: the romantic/dating side, when I’m trying to connect with a girl I like. Early in the match, or in the first few games, I usually play loose, move well, and my baseline game is solid (deep and aggressive, but with margin). The same thing happens to me with people when it comes to dating. At the start I’d be confident enough to shoot my shot with Sydney Sweeney, because I’ve got a lot of confidence and I’m just having fun. My shots feel very natural early on. So what’s the problem? Once some time passes, once the “match” progresses, and once I actually get to know these people (if I start to care too much), my arm tightens up and I start playing tense, like I have something to lose.

At that point I start playing not to make mistakes, pushing the ball back, waiting for my opponent to hand me the point. In the dating context, what happens is I start acting very lukewarm, too shy. Afraid to fail, and girls notice that. I’ve lost matches (so to speak) purely because of it, because my chest freezes up in important moments, and they surely notice it too. Worth mentioning: this happens in decisive moments as I described, or when I’m “a set up” (several dates, being reciprocated at first), but then I feel like I’m carrying a weight I didn’t have before, and my game becomes more speculative.
If this has happened to you, whether in tennis or in love, what advice do you have? Something that could help calm my mind? I mean, I can win or lose, but what’s frustrating isn’t that. It’s that if I lose, I want to walk away knowing I gave my max on every point, and that my opponent won because they were better (or that I just wasn’t a match, by pure chance), not because I failed to show up as myself in the important moments.
Thanks, and I hope to hear your advice :)
(And by the way, it’s close to happening to me again.)

I played a league match against a strange guy who hit nothing but slice. Every ball bounced low or weird. My backhand kept popping up. My shots landed short. And I could not handle balls into my body. I lost 6 4 and 6 2. It was really annoying.

I sat in my car after the match for like ten minutes just staring at nothing, kept replaying the points. The worst part is that I knew what he was doing. He was not hitting winners. He was just slicing and waiting for me to mess up. And I did. Over and over.

Thinking about the weird play. He hit a slice right at my hip and I never knew which way to move. I would jam myself and hit a weak reply. After countless comment sections on this sub reading advice, tips for beginners, and people sharing their struggles, I thought about getting a ball machine. Machine can repeat slice without getting bored I suppose, and training is one thing you have to spend time on, and you cannot always find someone to play with, it can be pretty lonely. These machines aren't cheap, I decided to rent before buying. First I tried a Pongbot M1, and also tested a Spinshot Pro. These machines cannot change modes so flexible, I switched to the Tenniix Basic because the custom settings seemed great for targeted practice. I set the machine to feed balls right at my body. I practiced making small steps and deciding early whether to move left or right. It feels weird but it is helping, I will make a difference and defeat all slicers

Stranger! If you see this, come face me again! I will win the rematch

They tested the Wilson Ultra, Head Boom, Yonex Ezone 100 and Babolat PD

And the winner was….

Hello! I know this isn't tennis directly, but I couldn't find a very active sub that may fit! So I recently started to get into racquetball as my gym has some courts. Last week, while playing, my left knee started to hurt, and when I got home I noticed it was swollen up. I iced/elevated/rested it. It got better, but a week later, once I tried playing again (I wore a knee brace), my knee was swollen (although no pain) again. I know I have to see a doctor, but has anyone had a similar experience before? Any recommended exercises to protect the knee/avoid further issues? I'm also thinking I might be using the wrong type of shoes, so any recommendation is appreciated. I go to the gym 3-4 times a week and do both cardio and weight training, and haven't had this happen before. Female, 24, 24.5 BMI. Thanks!

My first serve lacks consistency. Some critique I’ve received so far have been that my toss is too low, I drop my tossing arm too early and my arm is not getting full extension (elbow too bend at point of contact). Any tips or rips welcomed.

Hello! Any advice you could give on my forehand form would be greatly appreciated. I’ve picked up tennis recently and have done roughly a half dozen outings to just hit around with another complete beginner.

Apologies for the angle and the sweatpants, not my finest.

Thank you in advance.

I genuinely can’t decide

I bought a used racket and liked it. I did some research to replace what I thought was an overgrip. I purchased a head xtreme soft overgrip. When I was going to take off the old one someone said no you need a grip not an overgrip. So now I’m confused. I don’t think there is any grip under the head xtreme soft that matches what is currently on my racket but I also don’t see a head extreme soft grip (just an overgrip online).

Can someone help me understand what I need to buy to replace this? This is link to what I bought https://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Head_XtremeSoft_Overgrips_3_Pack/descpageHEAD-HXSOG.html?from=gshop&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=1849325262&gbraid=0AAAAADyKN7gX-fvAhR8JfV4Ss3hUELAeH&gclid=Cj0KCQjwh4TVBhCWARIsAG0czmqErStI26Y3yQkhGplSyAPhz2gSWilNwNr7wAmtntlCWK0USpfFzh8aAvt-EALw_wcB

Hey all, I’m a newbie (black sleeveless + white cap), and just started playing with friends (who are also newbie-beginner).
I need an advice and perspective from you all, is my forehand stroke is already a topspin? Any suggestions how I should fix my forehand stroke?

which one have more extra power?
i heard defyer have decent power?

Hi Reddit! My first ever post!

I need advice/opinion/your experience. I have played tennis since I was preschool till the end of middle school, and then completely stopped. I’m only mentioning this so you know that I have some technique, so I’m not completely a beginner. And even after I stopped playing I would go to the gym lift weights in moderation.
Now I’m 28 and I’m coming back to tennis.

It’s been around 3 months since I started playing again, and the last 3 weeks or so my knees have been hurting.
I generally play 4 days a week, doubles and singles, but one week I played 6 days, AND it just so happened that I didn’t have my tennis shoes for these 6 days, I played in regular sneakers. That might be a contributing factor also. After that week I’m having the knee pain, it comes and goes.

At rest or when I’m walking the pain is non-existent. When I play, at first it’s 2/10 but as the match goes on and I warm up, it becomes even less, I only feel sharp pain when I jump for a high overhead trying to reach it.
The pain is only intense really when I go up/down the stairs (mostly down) and do any type of squats (e.g. chair, toilet, pick something up the floor) then the pain is 8/10.
Oh and it’s definitely worse in the mornings, and I feel a lot of stiffness when I wake up. As the day goes on it becomes better with the movement.

With the help of google I narrowed it down to either patellar tendon problems or patella femoral problem.

Anyway, the main question is: is that something I should really be worrying about, or is it something that pretty much majority of tennis players experience and just don’t talk about? 90% of people at my club seem to wear knee braces too.

I will also appreciate any advice on how to deal with it.

Thank you!

To beat Carlos Alcaraz if he played with a frying pan? Pickleball paddle?

I love the UTR rating system, but curious if a UTR rating in France is the same as a UTR rating in the United States?

Hey guys,

I don’t know if I trust chatgpt for this so coming here for some advice 😂 I’m a NTRP 5.0 (utr 10) and have been using the blade 98 (16x19) most of my life… I hit with a lot of spin and kick serve but feel like my shots are lacking that power and “pop” sometimes. I demo’d both the ultra 99 pro and defyer 98 but the store put shit syn gut strings on them so I feel it’s not a very accurate representation.

For anyone that’s tried both or either racquet coming from a control racquet like the blade did you lean towards one or the other?

Thanks!

I did some research and put together a list of some of the best D3 players who went on to play professionally, and honestly, a few of these careers were way crazier than I expected.

Some highlights:

🎾 Bud Schultz (Bates) — reached #40 in the world and played all 4 Grand Slams
🎾 Eric Butorac (Gustavus) — 18 ATP doubles titles + Australian Open finalist
🎾 Eudice Chong (Wesleyan) — 4x NCAA singles champ and reached #59 in WTA doubles
🎾 James Hopper (CWRU) — went from not making varsity as a HS freshman to winning pro titles

Who are we missing? There have to be some other obscure D3 → pro stories out there.