How to Play Tennis Singles: JAB THEORY ROPE A DOPE

Comment

Comment by Mark / The Mayor on February 26, 2011 at 11:58am

Good post Gary!  You took control of the point from the beginning and never gave it up.

 

I think you are using the term rope-a-dope incorrectly though.  It means to string someone along casually until they are comfortable and they drop their guard - THEN you go for the knock-out punch.  It actually comes from boxing as you probably know.  Here's a good quote from the wikipedia entry:

The rope-a-dope is performed by a boxer assuming a protected stance, in Ali's classic pose, lying against the ropes, and allowing his opponent to hit him, toward the end that the opponent will tire and make mistakes which the boxer can exploit in a counter-attack.

In competitive situations other than boxing, rope-a-dope is used to describe strategies in which one party purposely puts itself in what appears to be a losing position, attempting thereby to become the eventual victor.

 

That does not appear to be what you and that professional female player are doing.  You are both taking control from the beginning and keeping your opponent on the run, like you "have them on a string" or "on a rope", but not the same thing as rope-a-dope.