Match play is as much an acquired skill as is a beautiful backhand. A good coach or teaching pro can give you a ton of useful feedback and ideas about positioning, shot selection, and reading your opponent, but as in most fields of study, your understanding won't fully take hold until you actually put it to use.
Your coach will likely encourage you to play with certain opponents who are likely to force you to strengthen your weaknesses or sharpen your strengths. By all means, take that advice and seek those opponents out. In addition, here's how you can go out on your own to make yourself a tougher competitor.
The single best way to improve your match skills is to pick out a few people who are a little better than you are and keep playing them until you can beat them most of the time. Of course, if some of them are improving as quickly as you are, you might be playing them for quite a while, but that's all good. Playing a slightly better opponent is almost always beneficial. A good opponent will attack your weaknesses over and over, and thereby give them the practice under fire that they need. You'll also learn to use your strongest shots better on key points, and between bolstering your weaknesses and making smart use of your strengths, you'll start winning more games. Once you surpass an opponent, pick out someone a little better still, and play that person until you surpass him or her. If you go about this process thoughtfully and deliberately, and you play at least two of these matches a week, you'll find yourself climbing quickly this match-skill ladder of your own making.
