Changing Tennis Style & Grips

Peter Bodo has a post over at TennisWorld entitled House of Laver that you shouldn't miss.

I want to zero-in on a point he makes.

It's always been interesting to me that the more radical stylists and clay-court experts - Bjorn Borg and Rafael Nadal come to mind immediately - are the ones who appear to play tennis in the most natural, technique-and-theory free way. In keeping with recent thoughts I posted on Nadal, this impression that he plays like a kid who just picked up a racket, never bothered to find out how to hold the danged thing, then cut a swath to the top, is part of the larger whole. And let's not forget that while the western may be the most natural, it is neither the most elegant nor, necessarily, the most fruitful forehand grip. There is something intrinsically unschooled about those who use the Western grip, despite all the hard work and discipline such players may invest in their games.

The point isn't that this is the best or only way to excel (in fact, he contrasts this with Roger Federer's refined technical style), but players do get to the top this way.

Speaking of Manolo Santana then, Bodo writes...

They broke the mold after they made Santana, but perhaps one day we'll see a player of his ilk once again. It is, in the end, tennis is a game in which the individual always finds a way to express his talents and impulses, regardless of technique and theory.

And I'll wager that even Roger Federer doesn't consciously try to mold his form half as much as those dissecting and trying to copy it do.

This article also points out something important about grips. The standard advice on grips dates to Rod Laver's time, when equipment and court surfaces were much different. Likewise with the standard advice to hit approach shots with underspin.

And so, though the standard advice lives on, the Eastern Forehand grip and the Continental grip are disappearing from the professional tour. More and more players hit approach shots with topspin and never dare to hit them crosscourt.

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Australian Open: Unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga destroys Rafael Nadal to Reach the Final!

6-2, 6-3, 6-2. Less than two hours. 'Nuff said.

In that short match, Tsonga hit 49 winners, 17 aces and broke Nadal's serve five times.

Nadal:

He played better than me, and for that reason he beat me. His running was unbelievable, physically he was very explosive, everything. What I can say? There was nothing bad about his game.

A few days ago I thought about a post contesting the proposition that France is about to dominate the tennis world. Not on the grounds that France doesn't have a whole passel of great tennis players, but on the grounds that none seem to have that "fire in the belly" of a great champion.

I think maybe I was wrong!

Hey, you gotta like a guy who looks so much like "the greatest and the prettiest," don't you?


Tsonga is ranked 38th in the world and eliminated Andy Murray, Richard Gasquet, and Mikhail Youzhny before doing his thing to Rafael Nadal today. He will face either world number one Roger Federer or third seed Novak Djokovic (who play on Friday) in the final on Sunday.

Nina Rota over at Tennis Diary has a nice piece on Tsonga's game: Is Tsonga Only a Serve and Volleyer?

Judging by his defeat of Andy Murray in the first round, you'd probably say so. Especially when he's so successful at charging the net like that on a relatively slow hardcourt. Indeed, his friend and compatriot, Richard Gasquet, who knows Tsonga's game well, felt compelled to do the attacking himself. Taking the net to keep it away from Tsonga? No matter, Tsonga won from the baseline, looking like Federer beating Gasquet from there.

So, it appears that we may have something new here, a truly all-court player.

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Wimbledon: Afterword

If you'd like to read a good report (with great photos) on yesterday's Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, see this one at Craig Hickman's Tennis Blog. I'll highlight some of the points I'd like to comment on.

I remain surprised by how many players don't recognize Raja's tendency to serve flat out wide in the ad court on big points.

It is surprising, isn't it - even pros miss an awful lot of what goes on in the heat of the battle. Andre Agassi once said that people would be surprised to discover how little pros' play has to do with tennis, because they are so busy thinking nothing but, "Win the next point!"

It is the consequence of a noisy mind. Understandable on Centre Court during a Wimbledon final, but still a hindrance.

When your mind is thinking, it automatically distracts your attention inward, onto your thoughts. You WILL then fail to notice things out on the court. All tennis players struggle with this, even the pros.

I think that today's pro players aren't as good at controlling and quieting their minds as past tennis greats were. Why? Simply because they have a crutch = a coach. They expect their coaches to notice these things for them.

Unfortunately, your coach can't tell you that Raja serves flat out wide to the ad court on big points until the match is over. Besides, your coach is an aide, not someone you should depend on to do your observing and thinking for you.

How often does it happen that a player, even at this level, wins an intense tiebreak and drops serve immediately in the next set? I wish I had the stats.

So do I. It's the letdown that occurs in that situation. You must be ready for it, adjust you tactics (not strategy) accordingly, and mentally stoke your fire.

Then Hickman goes on to relate Federer's unravelling to the point that he asks for Hawk-Eye to be turned off. Of course the request was denied, so Federer started sarcastically whining as though Hawk-Eye and Company are "homering" him here in England, in favor of the guy from Spain.

I guess Andy Roddick is in the final, because Raja continues a dialogue with no one in particular, asking after a Rafa shot misses just over the baseline, "How was that one? Was that in?"

An unraveling that has silenced the entire stadium. The fans can barely applaud any of the points won or lost. Raja fights off a deuce after a double fault, and yet another flat serve ace out wide gets him on the scoreboard in the fourth set. Fans, still stunned, applaud tepidly.

Can you blame them? Atta way to take yourself down off that pedestal, Roger: act like a child.

Federer is on the verge of a breakdown, but guess what saves him at that very moment?


Hickman makes the crucial point that the rain delays are what caused unfairness - in Federer's favor, not against him. The rain delays created a final in which Federer was physically and mentally fresh, while Nadal was physically and mentally exhausted. Not fair.

Rafa's mental exhaustion showed through in the tiebreakers, where mental strength is most tested. And his physical exhaustion showed through in this inflammation of the knee injury.

True, this was no deliberate favoritism. But that doesn't make it any less unfair. Wimbledon should do everything possible to make sure that rain can't create such an unfair situation, especially in the finals, ever again.

Do read the rest.

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Roger Federer Wins Wimbledon Championship

Women's Singles Champion: Venus Williams (seeded 23) of the United States defeated Marion Bartoli (seeded 18) of France in yesterday's final.

Men's Singles Champion: Top seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland defeated second seeded Rafael Nadal of Spain in the final today.

This was before the match...

Kinda like Yin and Yang, eh?

Image, image, image. If you ask me, they're both a little silly. But, boy, can they play tennis.

Women's Doubles Champions: Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Liezel Huber of South Africa defeated Katrina Srebotnik of Slovakia and Ai Sugiyama of Japan

Men's Doubles Champions: Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra of France. Seeded 10th, today they defeated top seeded Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States in the final.

Mixed Doubles Champions: yet to be determined.

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