Played nearly everyday until blowing a knee last year. Haven't played since
There is a new tennis game for the XBox called Top Spin that is supposedly the shiz for racquet fanatics. They even had a programmer that did nothing but Anna K stuff!
On picking a racquet...Yep best thing was to buy something cheap. Only once you develop more skill will a higher-end piece will pay dividends. Just make a mental note of a couple of things when you're playing for you next purchase:
1) Head size, larger heads have a larger sweet spot and compensate for mis-hits better. They can be a bit cumbersome for play at the net though.
2) Balance, head heavy or head light. A heavy head can hamper net play but seems to make more power. IMHO if you're capable of generating power yourself then go for a lighter head for maneuverability.
There's tons more like string size, string tension, overall weight, etc. Try
www.tenniswarehouse.com for good info and great products. They also let you "test drive" a racquet for nothing more than shipping costs--a very handy feature for nailing down your decision before plunking down a couple hundred bucks.
Try to play with new-ish balls at all times, they're much more consistent. Oftentimes you'll find that if you're having a bad day it is due to worn, or aged balls; this is especially true if your game depends on spin or power. Penn makes the longest-lasting balls by far.
Don't ever play on clay, you'll never want to play on anything else.
Oops, sorry for the long post
), but i just picked it up and it's a great sport. virtua tennis/tennis 2k2 are some of my favorite games for dreamcast, which i play all the time at school, but i never thought i'd like the real thing. i just picked up a Prince Lumina Ti Os racquet for about $40 for my birthday. i figured it'd definitely be good enough to start out with. i can't wait to play once i get back to school at OSU. they have a whole rec center dedicated to indoor tennis!!!!!!!!! 