Hey Fabian, thanks for the question, it was a good game and congrats on the win!
First off I definitely agree that serve and receive was very key in this game and I’m sure other times you’ve played this opponent too. Often points were decided by who served well or was able to make the first attack in the point.
This would be one of the first things I think would really help you beat this type of player more comfortably, quite a few of his serves are actually drifting long are are able to be attacked with a topspin and fairly often you pushed them back which means he got in the first attack. If you can always start expecting and anticipate a half long serve and prepare early to try and topspin this ball you’ll have a lot of success. This first topspin doesn’t need to be all about speed, just a good quality spin is enough to get on the front foot in the points. Any loose serves this player punished them with an attack well and looked confident with, so nice tight serves when you are serving as much possible is great too.
I actually think you both have quite similar styles really and noticed if either of you played a good quality shot wide into the forehand the other players struggled with it. So if you can be the one to switch first out wide out there that’s a good tactic. Of course this ball needs to be a positive switch because if its to weak his forehand attack is strong.
Also when you played a good quality heavy spin into his middle or backhand he blocked off a few times or played a weak block back that you could attack.
So a few things there for you, I believe the main area is the serve and getting in the first attack and that’s where the match result revolved around. So in terms of practice it would be focusing on making your serves tight and 2 bounces so they can’t be attacked and then also training the return of serve and picking up topspin shots more often than pushing or even stepping in to flick and get on the front foot early in the rally more often.
Let us know if you have any other questions on this and some of the perceptions you mentioned too if you wanted to discuss those. Regards, Tom
