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This 5-Step Tennis Warm-up Can Take Your Game to the Next Level

The tennis warm-up–the obligatory 10 minutes spent with an opponent right before the match--is among the most misunderstood elements of the sport.

For one, it's not a warm-up. The real work happens long before the players crack open a can of new balls and take a few practices serves.

"That time spent with your opponent is really just to get used to the court and the environment, but it's not a warm-up," says Bill Wright, former men's tennis head coach at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Arizona.

"When you watch Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer warm up before a big match, remember it's just window dressing," Wright says. "The real warm-up, when they literally recreate and practice every shot possible, playing it out a million different ways, happened two hours before."

But most players don't have time to put in a Nadal-style warm-up. These tips and tricks will turn that flimsy pre-match practice into an efficient warm-up that will improve your game.

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