Natalie plays a "Go Big or Go Home" style of play. Very impressive forehand power and depth coupled with an excellent net game. Would hate to be her opponent on a day when is totally "on" the whole time. Valiant effort by Winston to compete.
It's what great players do. A 10 UTR is going to capitalize on floaty slower serves like Winston's 2nd. Against a 4.5 it's a point-starter. Against a 5.5 it's cannon fodder.
Anyone see that video going viral of that lady got hit by softie volley and screamed bloody murder cursing the guy and throwing her racquet twice at him. Highly recommend
Wow Natalie has a great slice backhand and slice approach. Very Stefan Edberg like! It's definitely a lost art. Winston is solid but needs to develop a first serve as a weapon. Seems like he always just hits 2 second serves which is ok against 4.5 to 5.0 level, but then its feasting time for returners above that level.
She never warmed up her serve and she was still never in trouble. Goes to show that even a good 4.5 level serve is just target practice for someone a level higher. Also, Singaporean?
There's a young lady who played D1 playing on the 4.5 ladder in Raleigh and she's 6-0 and none of the matches have been close. and she didn't even play at a big/successful program.
You did well, competitive games. A 4.5 guy at my club played a former D1 female player and lost 6-0, 4-0. It ended 4-0 cuz the 4.5 guy suddenly had somewhere to go. 🤷🏻♂️
@WinstonDu love your content. Hey, I have a great idea for some fresh content. I'm a 4.5 player from Phoenix but I'm MUCH older than you. How about a young 4.5 vs. an old 4.5? I'm in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area but I'm also in OC occasionally. Let me know if you would be up for it. Could make for some great content. PS, I specialize it taking down 4.5 players half my age :) Thanks again for all the vids. Peace.
At some point I was like...ditch the second serve man, just go big twice. If you double fault some, so be it. You'll get some in and have a fighting chance at least.
Nice to see a slice backhand with full control. A lot of times slices can be wristy and have long/mechanical swings. Really nice when someone is able to rely on a quiet wrist and pure racquet head control to work the slice. Probably the same reason her volleys are very nice.
Winston, you really really need to improve your serve. It's like you've got two second serves and they sit up, asking to be attacked. You're on the defensive in your service games nearly all the time.
A couple observations which echo other people's comments: 1) Winston's 2nd serve: Natalie attacked it and blasted forehands the entire match. The only points Winston won on his 2nd serve were when Natalie went for too much and missed the return. Since Winston's 2nd serve doesn't have enough on it to get to Natalie's backhand, he may have done better taking some off the first serve and getting a higher percentage in, ideally to her backhand side where she just slices it back. This strategy would have allowed Winston to start the point neutral instead of just praying that Natalie misses the return. 2) Matchup Issues: This was a tough one for Winston since he likes to stay at the baseline and grind. Since Natalie likes coming into net or bringing her opponent up to the net, her game highlighted some of Winston's weaknesses (ex: passing shots and volleying). I think Natalie won every single point that had a "cat and mouse" component to it.
She has some great pop on all her shots! She was really off on her serve. So many missed first serves and too many doubles. And she missed so many groundstrokes by a small margin, too. But, she was never really in trouble in the match... I really like her game, in general!
She pretty much hits 2 first serves. Very rushed game style. Not much patience. You don't see that often. I always wondered if game style somehow is correlated with one's personality. She's in the ADHD category hahah
Interesting match-up of styles. Natalie’s first serve is a definite weak spot; toward the end of the set she began taking some pace off and focused on placement to get it in and get the point started (a wise move). Her court sense is pretty strong. She was hitting behind you effectively and without hesitation. Great ball control whether slicing the backhand or spanking forehand returns off second serves. Really nice instincts at the net, nice technique, great positioning. Great balance. If you had served REALLY big and put her on the defensive, moved it around the box, you would have controlled the center of the court better and it would have been closer. She kept you on the move fairly easily with returns and change-ups. Fun encounter to watch.
I super enjoy when you play against female players! It looked like you two hadn’t had a good day while serving. I think there were too many misses. Probably lack of warm up. Overall, great game and great content! Thanks
Winston has the worst game to take on these types of players. Only hits one ball, can’t change pace, serve is not reliable. Even though him and mark Sansait had a close match, mark sansait can give this girl a much better challenge because his game has many more dimensions and his serve is far stronger than Winston’s.
She has nice power but can someone more knowledgable explain to me why women have a FH takeback that wraps much more behind their back compared to men? Is that a natural consequence of anatomical differences or are girls just taught to hit different for whatever reason? If it gives you extra power to your FH then it has to come with some downsides too, I assume.
Wow… what a roller coaster. Incredible grit to win that. Congrats Karue!!! 💪🏾💪🏾I just won my utr match in a third set tie break earlier tonight and the thrill of seeing yourself save match points and play out of your mind in clutch moments just amplified my victory tonight. You hate the sport, but you love to get better. And at the end of the day when you look back, you can really say you love the sport of tennis
Winston, your serve + 1 is a liability. You need to work on a bigger kick and MOSTLY better placement on your serve. In addition, you need to work on switching your grip immediately after the serve, finding where you want to stand (not chilling in no man's land) and get in the ready position for the first ball after the serve. SOO many points where you hit a good serve, and just are not ready for the next ball . And you have a lot strengths, but this is important because every point stars with serve + 1 and you gotta be able to hold serve. On the plus side, your inside out forehand is a beast
Bro, Winston, you have to work in your serve, you should be serving a lot harder, instead of so much kick or slice, try hitting it flatter, that will give you more power, flick your wrist more downward right before contact, you do that Winston and you gameplay will be on a whole new level, ive seen how much you have improved since you started this channel, you are doing great man, #1 thing now, work on your serve, more power!
great match! if you're in nashville ever would love to play, i'm also a 4.5. i would be very different type of player as i'm a senior director business professional, maybe another angle of "rec players" playing each other?
she's so fun to watch, especially if she cleans up the consistency a bit. love the return game and how aggressive she plays! Winston definitely feeling the pressure to put in bigger serves towards the end (which lead to some DFs).
When Natalie used her hips on her forehand she made every shot, the only time she missed returns is when she didn’t use her hips as much, but this lady has amazing shots and Winston’s second serve was being murdered by this lady! Great playing and amazing performance by Natalie!
Too many unforced errors for a good match, especially you keep hitting into the net. Also your groundstroke target too much into the middle, which she can comfortably blasting the ball to the corners. If i were you I would push it to her backhand, her gameplay seems to rely too much on the forehand power.
I like how she plays off the front foot and always wants to be attacking. Interesting string combo as well - that hybrid certainly was producing a flatter more penetrating trajectory of shot compared to full bed poly.
You both made each other look bad compared to when Winston played the pro! Maybe it's playing under lights. Natalie can improve her serve by pushing off the right foot to get the hip rotation and kinetic chain. As it is, she hits from her shoulders, and her hips and feet are left behind (Winston actually does this better). You can see how at the finish of the serve her shoulders are ahead of her hips and feet: the right foot isn't powering the serve at all, so it all comes from the shoulders. That means she can't really get the kick on the second serve. If she turned her front (left) foot parallel to the baseline she'd have to bend her knees and rotate into the serve more.That would yield more spin and power because she'd be going up to the ball: it's like you're placing a lightbulb up there just out of reach, so you have to go up to hit it. For her slice backhand, needs to work on the footwork - turn more and hit through it. Great to watch as ever.
