Dr. Mark Nan Tu

I have been playing seriously since Aug. 2008. It has been three years. Here is me hitting. Looks like 4.0NTRP player?

I started playing tennis seriously 2 years ago. I played around a bit in colleges 18 years ago. I also play other sports such as swimming and basketball. My goal of Sept. 2008 was to achieve 4.0 in 2 years.

To reach this goal, I have done the following:
1: Hired 3 private couches through out the 2 years and had about all together 40 private lessons.
2: Work out in the Gym twice a week to build up upper body strength (which was my weakness).
3: Practice matches with various hitting partners during the weekends, often found through internet postings.
4: Practice at least 3 times a week during the week with regular hitting partners.
5: Join local NTRP matches and tournaments every few month to check progress and find weakness in the game and set up development goals.
6: Video tape myself and improve technique.
7: Watch a lot of video instructions such as FYB and those from youtube.

Results: I am a strong 3.5 player (backed by NTRP match play results). I am confident that I can reach strong 4.0 in about year. I need to work on the following:
1: Reduce double errors by developing a reliable second serve (kick and slice).
2: Develop a better front court game such as volleys and mashes.

Looking back, I think that with determination, practice and proper instructions, most of the adults can reach 3.5-4.0 in about 2 years. Some exceptional ones can reach a solid 4.0 in 2 years.

I am really curious how long it takes for me to reach 4.5.

Here is me hitting with a 3.5 partner. I am the one in black and close to the camera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWY0IKllyIs

No one can.

I brought a fake Wilson K90 for $25USD in Shenzhen. The seller even throw in a Wilson bag which should worth $5 alone. I brought my first Wilson racket back in 1993 and it was a real Prostaff classical 85. (the one used by tennis legend Pete Sampras). I only hit with it a few times before I went to the US and basically retired from the sports. I started playing tennis again in Aug. 2008. I brought a Wilson K95. I know both my Prostaff and K95 are the real racket as they all cost me around 190USD.
So now, I have three rackets, a real Prostaff, a real K95 and a fake K90.

I have played with fake k90 for a while. Here is what I found:
1: It is impossible to tell the difference from the appearance. The graphics are excellent, identical as the real K90.
2: It weights only 260 gram (real K90 weights around 320gram for the Asian edition).
3: It uses graphite material but is different than the real K90.

Surprisingly, this racket is very playable. It actually feels like a classical (80s) racket. I think that the racket uses a classical graphite material, similar to those 80s racket.

I personally believe that the racket is well worth the $25 USD I paid for. I even use it in real matches.

If I can demo it, I would buy the racket for $50 even it says: Milson or whatever on it. I started with Wilson as the sellers in those sports stores kept pushing Wilson to me (perhaps with high margin for themselves).

If a real Wilson is make in China, I am very confident that the same factory can make Milson with the same quality if not better. These factories do not use their own names as they do not have the marketing budget to build a brand name as they are busy making the 5% margin to do OEM for Wilson. Everyone got to live. I guess.

However, I expect the situation to change in the next 10-15 years. In the next 10 years, I will not care if my racket is a Wilson or a Milson. It will a good thing for all the consumers as the Wilson and Milson will all sell for $50-$100.

I played some tennis in my university years (without a coach). I also played a lot of basketball and was in the university swimming team. So I had a good athletic foundation. But I stopped playing tennis after graduation which was 17 years ago. I do excise 3-4 times a week through out the years just to keep in shape. Now, I wanted to pick up tennis again.

I recently went through a 3 week training camp just to get back on my tennis game. It was 2 hours each day and 5 days a week. After the training camp, I

Although it was sunny today, the weather was still cold. I went to the Beijing Continental Garden Hotel at one o