British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

indiana · Tennis legend

Week 43 - ITF M25 - Sheffield, Great Britain (indoor hard)

Sheddie · administrator

The French do specialise in producing unorthodox (and often highly creative) tennis players. Ponchet has a bizarre game - awkward lefty serve and decent returns, but he doesn't hit through his forehand properly, had no real backhand to speak off, and missed some absolute sitters at the net.

Oli was all over him, outhit him, found lots of big serves when he needed them, and was still super pumped up at 6-0, 5-0.

But I was watching it at times, thinking how did this guy make the final? Oli won a lot of points with a very simple strategy, hit it deep to the Ponchet backhand and attack the net, and most of the time, the Frenchman dumped it in the net.

Anyway, a very professional fortnight from Oli. Once these points are added on, he'll be in and around the top 250. He's given himself a shot at Australia in Jan. Needs a deep run in one of the upcoming US indoor challengers, but he should be flying out there full of confidence

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Sheddie wrote:
The French do specialise in producing unorthodox (and often highly creative) tennis players. Ponchet has a bizarre game - awkward lefty serve and decent returns, but he doesn't hit through his forehand properly, had no real backhand to speak off, and missed some absolute sitters at the net.

Oli was all over him, outhit him, found lots of big serves when he needed them, and was still super pumped up at 6-0, 5-0.

But I was watching it at times, thinking how did this guy make the final? Oli won a lot of points with a very simple strategy, hit it deep to the Ponchet backhand and attack the net, and most of the time, the Frenchman dumped it in the net.

Anyway, a very professional fortnight from Oli. Once these points are added on, he'll be in and around the top 250. He's given himself a shot at Australia in Jan. Needs a deep run in one of the upcoming US indoor challengers, but he should be flying out there full of confidence

His sister, Jessika, is ever worse, IMO

And I agree - it's just painful to watch

(if they were both trained at the same tennis club when little - which is very likely - whoever trained them should be ashamed of themselves!)