I just played a grueling match against a player calling himself Ferris Jones (or maybe it was Ferris Davis). He says that he was formerly Player 1, but I guess he restarted ELO like so many do. Anyway, I had played him in doubles and expected an easier match, and so I did not leave the match to turn on my preview when I noticed that it was off (please fix this, as it is so frustrating to be in this situation). That was a mistake. I survived it, but it was so hard. Another tip -- always read about match before joining. This one turned out to be a three-set match. I thought I had lost the match when I lost the first set 6-4, but then I realized there was more to play. I was so tired from the first set that I did not expect much, but I managed to win the next two sets. Anyway, back to the topic of this post.
This guy hit with it seemed unlimited accelerations. I had to be very careful with these as I did not have the preview and was concerned about making an error. But him -- wow! Not once did he have the little puff that says you are about out of accelerations, and it seemed that this was all he hit, except for the slice and occasional drop shot. What is going on with this? What is the maximum number of power accelerations, regardless of playing style? This did not seem fair. And at the end he accused *me* of cheating. Insane. But he made this accusation it seemed tongue-in-cheek, which makes more all the more suspicious of how he hit so many accelerations, and he did not comment on this when I asked him how he could hit so great of angles and such. How could he never run out of accelerations? Almost every point, except for aces, were long rallies -- probably at least 6 shots each player and many were much longer.
The other issue is the angle that some can generate. For instance, he would serve wide, and almost hit the lines every time it seemed. He was quite risky with this, as he hit a few double faults that I think cost him (a lot of players seem to take risky second serves). Anyway, I just could not get enough preparation to do much on the return or on most of the other shots except to hit the ball back, and due to the game design, the ball just went right back to center -- right where he was standing. Then, he would slam it to the other corner and I would run after that and back and forth, all the while he just stood there at the T on the base line. That just isn't fair. He had great angles even when he did have to run (I understand that if you are just standing still and the ball comes to you, you have plenty of time to prepare, but that is not what I am talking about). There has got to be some variability with keyboard type, sensitivity, repeat rate, or something that is affecting shot and preparation abilities, as there is too much of a contrast between the angles that different players (even experienced ones) can generate. At least I feel this way. For example, there is a setting for repeat rate and repeat delay in the BIOS of many systems (and in Windows, I think). Maybe this has some influence when buttons are held down for preparation effect?
I know that when I played in the past with a controller, I had significantly greater ease of generating large shot angles. Based on that, I think that this issue is legitimate and not just my being hysterical (oh I hope this is so , or I'll be so embarrassed )! Yeah, I'm a little exasperated right now, maybe a little frantic. Please tell me that I am not the only one who has noticed this, and tell me how to make this less of a factor? What is the ideal input device and what are the ideal settings related to each?
My whining is over, I guess. Thanks.