The General
Doesn't react. Plans.
Some players respond to the ball. The General responds to a match he has already seen three shots before it happens. To him the court isn't a court: it's a chessboard with a net through the middle.
How they play
The General plays slow when slow is needed and fast when he has decided it's time. He doesn't hit hard out of habit — he hits hard because that particular point called for that particular shot. He builds the rally in layers: a lob to buy time, two balls at the feet to move the opponent, then the cross-court that was the real target all along. When the point ends you realise you've been playing his match for the last thirty seconds.
Strengths
Clarity under pressure. At 4-5 and 30-40 The General is exactly the player he was at 1-0: same shot selection, same rhythm, same face. He reads the opponents' positions before they've finished taking them, and almost always knows in advance where the next ball is going to land.
The weak side
Rigidity. When the plan works he's unbeatable; when the plan collapses, he keeps running it two or three points too long before admitting a plan B is needed. Against a genuinely chaotic opponent he can get rattled, because chaos is the one thing he can't fit into a pattern.
The ideal partner
Works best with The Gladiator. The General draws the map, The Gladiator runs it at full speed without asking questions. It's a pairing that wins because neither wants the other's job: one thinks, one executes, and for once nobody argues about who was supposed to take that ball down the middle.
"Hold on, don't go for it — let's turn it over twice more."
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