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Meridian Tennis
858.754.1160 |
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Winners Tennis Club
(our home base)
550 Via de la Valle
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Greetings!
Greetings from Matt
Hello everyone and thanks again for taking the time to read our newsletter. We had very good response from our first newsletter and survey. The survey is still online for those who are interested and have a little time. We always welcome your feedback and suggestions so please let us know what you think. We appreciate all your encouragement and support. Thanks again.
2009 Davis Cup Report
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis... (read more)
Greetings from Zac
Tennis Court Positioning - Singles
One of the most important aspects to the game of tennis is positioning! Where is the correct place to stand? Tennis, being a game where the ball is constantly moving, means that you, the player, also have to move to adjust to the ball's position. One of the places where I see people stuck the most is an area called 'no man's land'. This is a tennis term that you will hear often... (read more)
Greetings from Craig
The Meridian Girls - USTA Junior Team Report
(8-Mar) Our USTA U18 Junior team, the Meridian Girls, have started off their season in winning ways! Over the past several months all the girls have been working very hard, coming to workouts and clinics in preparation for our season. Our first match was away at Lake Murray Tennis Club, close to SDSU... (read more) |
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We look forward to seeing you on the courts!
Sincerely,
Matt . Zac . Craig
Meridian Tennis Group
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New Clinic Schedule
(effective March 1, 2009) |
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Tues 9:00-10:30am Ladies CC-team
Tues 6:30-8:00pm Adult workout
Wed 8:30-10:00am Ladies A/BB-team
Thurs 9:00-10:30am Ladies B-team
Fri 8:30-10:00am Adult workout
TBD Beginners clinics |
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Minis . Juniors . High School . Tournament
Mon.Wed.Fri 3:30-4:30pm Minis
Mon.Wed.Fri 4:30-6:00pm Juniors
Tue.Thurs 4:00-5:30 HS.Tournament
Sat 3:00-4:30pm HS.Tournament
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 Greetings from Matt
2009 Davis Cup Report
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. The largest annual international team competition in sport, the Davis Cup is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format.
Though still not to the scale of World Cup in soccer or the Ryder Cup in golf, Davis Cup still commands a huge following and the USA progressed to the quarterfinals by ousting Switzerland. International competition always draws a crowd, as was evident from the Swiss supporters who came to Birmingham, AL. to support their team even without Roger Federer who was out due to a bank injury. The Swiss managed well, with Stanislas Wawrinka (Gold medal doubles partner of Roger Federer at the Beijing Olympics) stepping in to take the helm. The U.S. team, with Andy Roddick (singles ranking 6), James Blake (singles ranking 13), and the Bryan brothers (doubles ranking 1) competing, and the Swiss team, with Wawrinka (singles ranking 16), and unknowns Yves Allegro (doubles ranking 96) and Marco Chiudinelli (singles ranking 341). The final result was U.S. 4-1. James Blake had the only loss for the U.S. in the first match in a tough 4 set match against Wawrinka but Andy Roddick leveled the match by beating Chiudinelli in straight sets. The huge victory, makes Roddick (31-11) the second-winningest American in Davis Cup singles history, cruising past Andre Agassi (30-6) and behind John McEnroe with 41 singles wins. The Bryan brothers took the doubles in 4 sets giving the U.S. a 2-1 lead going into the reverse singles. With the victory, the Bryans became the winningest American Davis Cup doubles team (15-2), surpassing John McEnroe and Peter Fleming (14-1).The match was decided when Andy Roddick beat Stanislas Wawrinka in 4 sets and the U.S. took an unassailable 3-1 lead. The last match to wrap up the tie was between James Blake and Marco Chiudinelli where Blake won in straight sets.
The U.S. will next face Croatia who managed to get by Chile 5-0 who were without Fernando Gonzales. The players the U.S. will encounter in the next round will likely be Mario Ancic (singles ranking 30) and Marin Celic (singles ranking 19). This tie will not be played until July 10-12th 2009 and between now and then there is a lot of tennis to be played. Some other notable results from this round of matches was the upset of Sweden by Israel 3-2, who have not made it to the quarterfinal stage since 1987. France was also upset by Czech Republic 3-2. Spain had a dominant performance over Serbia where Nadal beat Djorkovic in straight sets to achieve a 4-1 result. Argentina crushed by the Netherlands 5-0 and is looking to make it back into the final after the shocking defeat to Spain in last year's Davis Cup final.
The draw for the quarter-finals will be Argentina vs. Czech Republic, USA vs. Croatia, Israel vs. Russia, and Germany vs. Spain. The Davis Cup is a great competition between nations and having ties played throughout the whole year makes it increasingly difficult to predict the eventual winners. The men's tennis schedule is long and difficult and each team has to deal with player injuries and fatigue when selecting those who will represent their country. It will be another exciting season to watch.
The next major events to hit the men's and women's tennis calendars are Indian Wells in Palm Desert (CA) March 9-16 and the Sony Ericsson Open Miami (FL) March 23-30. Good tennis!
Come by and say hi!
Matt Copland
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Greetings from Zac
Tennis Court Positioning - Singles
One of the most important aspects to the game of tennis is positioning! Where is the correct
place to stand? Tennis, being a game where the ball is constantly moving, means that you, the player, also have to move to adjust to the ball's position. One of the places where I see people getting stuck the most, is an area called 'no man's land'. This is a tennis term that you will hear often.
Basically you have two areas that are acceptable for you to be in:
o The baseline zone, which is on the baseline or anywhere one to two feet in front of or behind it
o The net zone, which is approximately between the service line and the net.
The area in between these two zones is what we refer to as no man's land! For anyone that ever practices forehands and backhands, the baseline zone is generally where you should stand. For anyone that practices volleys, the net zone is generally where you should stand. These positions are called neutral positions to whatever is happening in the rally.
When you play the baseline, you need to be able to move up for a short ball, back for a deep ball, and to the side for a wide ball. The center of the baseline provides you the best point from which to run to all of these positions and to stand anywhere else, puts you at a disadvantage to run to even one of them.
In the net zone, you want to be in a neutral position - to close in for a volley, to go back for an overhead, or to move sideways for the wide volley. My biggest pet peeve is seeing people come to the net, yet stand on the service line. The reason people do this is to give themselves more time to react to the ball and while this may be true, you now have to cover more territory in front of you and you are giving your opponent more room to pass you on either side. If you think of it this way, your reason for standing there doesn't make sense!
Now if you are only allowed in two zones then how do you go from one to the other? You do have to run through no man's land to get to the net zone, but the idea is that you spend no time in no man's land waiting for your opponent to hit. If you have to run up to a short ball, run all the way to the net zone and wait for the next ball there, or back-track a little to the baseline zone and wait there. As long as you are never left standing, waiting for a ball in no man's land! Also, when you are in the net zone, follow the ball. If the ball is on your right hand side of the court, move a fraction that way, if the ball is on your left hand side, then move a fraction that way! This is because you are cutting off the angles for your opponent to pass you!
If you can follow these simple positioning rules for singles, then you will appear to be able to cover more of the court. If your opponent thinks you have everything covered they might over-hit, resulting in errors - your point, your game, your match.
Good Luck,
Zac Markham
zac@meridiantennis.com
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 | Greetings from Craig
The Meridian Girls - USTA Junior Team Report
(8-Mar) Our USTA U18 Junior team, the Meridian Girls, have started off their season in winning ways! Over the past month all the girls have been working hard, coming to workouts and clinics in preparation for our season. The majority of the girls have not competed in any organized competition outside of high school. There is nothing more difficult than the first match. Our first match was away at Lake Murray Tennis Club, close to SDSU. Many of the girls had never played this format before (2 singles lines, 2 doubles lines) but they handled themselves extremely well. Our girls won both the singles matches and number two doubles match. We came up a bit short at number one doubles coming up against two very experienced players. Still, our girls fought hard and it was a good contest. Our total team score was 3-1 in matches, 41-25 games. We will make sure to focus on the areas that we observed to be areas for improvement and continue to work on our strengths.
Results:
Singles-1 Jane defeated LMTC (6-3,6-4)
Singles-2 Nicole G defeated LMTC (6-2,6-2)
Doubles-1 LMTC defeated Nicole D/Megan (6-3,6-2)
Doubles-2 Madison/Bailey defeated LMTC (6-1,6-1)
Yeah, girls! We're so proud!
(l to r) Madison, Bailey, Nicole G, Matt, Megan, ME, Jane, Nicole D
~ Craig Johnson
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