Defusing a Secret Weapon

Sets 70-71 (of 365):

Stuart vs. J. at Woodlands Park. Winner: Stuart 6-4, 6-1.
Ladder Match #6

My Mojo: Steady

This was another ladder match. The first set was a pretty intense contest. We went neck-and neck for a while until I broke his serve one game, and then I ended up winning the set. In the second set, I found my footing more, eliminated many of my errors, and figured out successful strategies for dealing with his hyper-spin shots. He had this shot that relied on a huge amount of slice, so that when the ball would drop, it would either not bounce hardly at all, would bounce toward the net, or would bounce off in some goofy direction. In the first set, these shots were getting to me a lot and I was not dealing with them well so he was winning a lot of points with them. By the time the second set arrived, I was able to tell from his mannerisms when he was going to hit that shot and also tell pretty accurately how deep they were going to go, because some bounced right over the net and some went pretty deep. So I just set up right near where the ball landed and prepared to have to reach in just about any direction. I also made sure to stop motion before I set up and hit, because I discovered early that the intense spin of these shots made my shots go long if I was moving through the shot. This shot seemed to be his "secret weapon," and once I figured out how to defuse that, I won pretty easily.