Have You Seen This? Tennis pro bamboozles opponent with unexpected serve

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CENTER COURT — I am a big tennis fan. I really enjoy watching it and I love playing it. The main problem, however, is that I'm terrible.

I get out there and love to play, but man am I bad.

Everything I've learned about tennis has come from years of watching it. I've never had a lesson or even someone who actually knows what they're doing show me the correct way to do something. It took me about five years to figure out how to even hit a backhand, and that's still suspect at best.

The only time I ever did well while playing tennis was during a doubles tournament a friend of mine and I played in high school. We were both awful, and after deciding we weren't going to win off of our skills, we went with distraction. We dressed in the most absurd get-ups possible and took to the court.

For the first two matches, our opponents were so thrown off that they started losing to us. Then after losing for a bit, they got frustrated that they weren't beating these clowns and started trying too hard — which played in our favor because they kept making mistakes. After the second match, however, people caught on and we got slaughtered.

My point is, while tennis is a game of finesse and talent, it can also be a game of deception and "trickeration."

Tennis pro Renzo Olivo gets this and used it to his advantage a few years ago in a match. Olivo sets up for his serve, and his opponent is ready for a doozy like most pros deliver. Then Olivo tosses the ball and does a little underhand serve that has the speed and intensity of a napping cat and harmlessly falls on the opponent's side for an ace.

No one really knows how to react, and the opponent can just shake his head and move onto the next point.

It looks like Olivo took a play out of my book for this: one, with the deception; and two, with the actual serve. That's how I serve when I'm trying really hard and get a good one.