If you tuned into Championship Sunday at the 2023 Texas Open, you saw one of the best women’s finals matches of all time.
Lea Jansen made Anna Leigh Waters appear human again and less like some pickleball-playing alien sent from another planet.
ALW got the win, but this match looked very different from previous meetings.
Lea joined It Feels Right this week to talk about the match. She unabashedly shared the strategy and game changes that made the difference:
For Jansen, it was all about taking away the angles:
- She elected to return the ball to the middle of the court to eliminate passing shot angles.
- The key was to keep these balls deep so the passing shot was coming from behind the baseline.
- Then Jansen could use the length of the court to her advantage instead of trying to play side to side.
Hitting the ball down the middle in singles may seem counter-intuitive. You’re not making them chase the ball. But it does make hitting a passing shot more difficult.
This lends itself to more of a cat-and-mouse style match which is exactly what Jansen was aiming for.
If you’re a singles stallion (kudos to you), try mixing this in to become harder to pass.
It IS possible to keep your body game-ready. One important…
