Mana Games

[dimcoe]

Hey,

I've been struggling quite a bit with opponents using serve and volley on Pro10. Whenever the opponent is at the net it feels like I'm playing against a wall (or worse, Sampras): everything comes back, even when I arrive early at a drop shot and go for a strong body shot, the ball comes back with a vengeance. I've tried to use the short strike, the short acceleration, lobs... but I still get opponents with 75-80% net points won. Any tips on how to improve?

(I often win the matches relying on the occasional bad serve game by the opponent, but it bothers me that I don't seem to succeed much with passing shots)

[manutoo]

Hello,

I start with a copy/paste :

The short strike & the short accelerations are meant to do passing shots, which is the 1st way to pass a player at the net ; the normal acceleration is also good when you want to do a passing down the line.

The defensive lob rarely works in-game and in real life. The attacking lob however can be a winner when your opponent is close to the net, so pay attention to his position.

You'll find more details here :
topic15-33305.php
topic15-9763.php

I'll add : your 1st strike is the most important. Your best occasion is when your opponent starts to run from the baseline. If you notice it and send the ball far from him, you'll either do a winner or force him to do a poor shot that will allow you to do a passing winner on the next strike. If your 1st strike isn't good, you can consider you have lost the point and if you end up winning it, that's a good performance on your part.

Globally, to pass the CPU efficiently, you need to be able to aim close enough to the lines consistently and move up/down to get the ball at its highest point.

Also, the short strike is not good when the ball is low and/or hit after the baseline, as it produces a too-slow and high ball.

If you manage to lower your opponent's net success ratio to less than 60%, you'll be already doing well. (when your skills and his skills are roughly equivalent)

I just checked that with the Pro-10 Sampras with Rank #1.

Against what difficulty level are you playing ?

[dimcoe]

Thanks, I had indeed been using the tactics I learned when I played tennis, like the ones you mentioned, but I think my main problem is the one with the short strike being too high and slow, and the volleyer being a bit too good at responding to a ball at their feet and/or with good crosscourt angle, often with very deep volleys or a great drop shot (incidentally, the other day I even saw one with backspin!). By 'after the baseline' you mean behind the baseline, for the short strike?

I've been playing at Pro10 with elite controls, since I feel they are more realistic, otherwise it is rare to see net faults. I'm currently in 2021, so I experience this against Lopez and Millman. I was an Agassi fan, so I don't think I'm psychologically prepared to face Sampras yet

[manutoo]

1) Yes, behind the baseline ("after" being relative to the ball path ) ; ie: when you stand quite far from the net
I'll try to tune that a bit, maybe buff the speed a bit when the opponent is at the net so it's less curvy and more efficient overall.

2) Elite controls might lower the passing efficiency, but it should lead to slightly less effective volleying.
In my try, with Simulation controls, the CPU made several mistakes at the net, but only on difficult balls (with maybe 1 exception).

[dimcoe]

That sounds good, I guess what I was looking for is the sort of short strike with a bit of topspin that baseliners use to counter an opponent at the net. I sometimes delay the strike so as to make the topspin strike go short, but it doesn't always work quite as planned...