Hal the E.T.A. master of the contre-pied, "since the explosion"

texture · UNDATED, YDAU-era

• When: UNDATED (post "the explosion," Hal's competitive breakout; YDAU-era)
• What: A tennis-identity fact: the wrong-foot / "contre-pied" (moving a player one way then hitting behind him) is exactly Hal's signature weapon — "it's Hal, since the explosion, who's known as the real E.T.A. master of placement and opponent-yanking-around and the old contre-pied." (This is the very shot with which he wrong-foots Stice in scene 125.) Fixes Hal's game as one of guile and placement, and stamps his rise as a discrete "explosion."