{"id":25916,"date":"2020-06-14T22:01:04","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T02:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=25916"},"modified":"2020-06-15T10:56:04","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T14:56:04","slug":"how-to-beat-counterpuncher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2020\/06\/14\/how-to-beat-counterpuncher\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Beat a Persistent Counterpuncher"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">They\u2019re dogged. They run everything down. They fight for every point and never give up. They are what I would like to call the persistent counterpuncher. What are you supposed to do against an opponent like this? Well, I have concocted a six point strategic plan to tell you how to beat a persistent counterpuncher:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol class=\"ol1\">\n<li class=\"li1\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>Be patient<\/b>. You don\u2019t have to go for outright winners. Wait until your opponent is on the defence<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>i.e. on the back foot or stretching and then make your move. <\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>Be prepared <\/b>to take the ball in the air.<b>\u00a0<\/b>Volleying or swing volleying takes time away from your opponent and allows you to be in charge of the point if not win the point outrightly. <\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>Be in control<\/b> from the first shot. That means making plenty of first serves in as well as attacking your opponent\u2019s (second) serve. Use that first shot to set up the point i.e. serve out wide and then attack into the open court or attack the second serve down the line and approach the net.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>Run like the wind<\/b> when you\u2019re on the defence. Let your opponent know that they are not the only one that is prepared to run down that extra ball. <\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>Stay calm <\/b>when you\u2019re in control of the point. Don\u2019t panic if your opponent gets another one, two or three shots back. You are still in the ascendency. In the famous words of Maria Sharapova while she was playing Agnieszka Radwanska at the 2015 End of Year Championships, let your opponent \u201crun, run\u201d.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LhVKYPyEv8s\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"li1\"><b><\/b><b><\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>Stay aggressive. <\/b>Play the way you want to play and don\u2019t get sucked into playing your opponent\u2019s style of game.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Again, to reiterate the first point, you don\u2019t need to hit winners with every shot. Move your opponent around the court and wait for that shorter, more attackable ball. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And there you have it &#8211; a six point strategy for how to beat a persistent counterpuncher.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"rDiYmyKCTKdrntQLR4lBOQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/1225377364\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'rDiYmyKCTKdrntQLR4lBOQ',sig:'3RZLvd7XzKgcvas_UHYDTr-Fz4tJ7GHj3NCr9bKTi0g=',w:'594px',h:'386px',items:'1225377364',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They\u2019re dogged. They run everything down. They fight for every point and never give up. They are what I would like to call the persistent counterpuncher. What are you supposed to do against an opponent like this? Well, I have concocted a six point strategic plan to tell you how to beat a persistent counterpuncher: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3500,"featured_media":25927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[11489],"class_list":["post-25916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","tag-tennis-strategy-tactics-counterpuncher"],"modified_by":"Jim Smith","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3500"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}