See the news article on November 9 for the beginning of this article.

   3. Come prepared. It pains me to see players who turn up to a long day of tournament play with a banana and a bottle of Powerade and expect that to get them through the day. I'm also pretty happy as I realise that I can get an upper hand over my opponents if I make sure I am better prepared. I cop my fair share of crap for always turning up with my bag of food (always more than I will actually need to get through the day) but I wouldn't have it any other way. The body needs constant energy, especially during the pressure of competition and you will perform better if you make sure your body gets it.

4. Take notice of the patterns of play in the match. Understand that almost all players will fall into tactics and play that feel comfortable and secure when they are under the highest degree of pressure. I'm as guilty of this as anyone and it has worked really well and really poorly for me in the past. Something that has let me down in my matches against the really top world players is that I get stuck playing the same patterns of play when it gets close. My ball placement and shot selection becomes too predictable and I only use a small selection of the shots available to me. That's just not good enough against the best in the world and has cost me many close sets. On the flipside, my ability to be able to be precise and do a few things well over and over again in tight situations has won me countless matches in Australia and abroad.

5. Play smart. A large part of my thinking and tactics are targeted at making it as difficult as possible for my opponent to play his favoured strokes. I've always realised that stopping your opponent from playing their strong shots is at least as important as winning points of your own accord. I've spent countless hours improving my ability to hit the ball close to the white lines, to work on shots that I know are unusual and that my opponents won't be expecting, learning to push short, learning to topspin the ball low over the net (and cutting downt he options my opponent has). Basically making it harder for the opponent to play his favoured shots.

 To be continued...