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US OPEN ANALYSIS
by Robert Soloway PhD
Sports Psychologist
DAY 13
IT'S SERENA
I just watched Serena win the Championship. It turned out to be an exciting match, with great offense vs. great defense. If the Open proved anything, it is that the US Open surface is very fast, and favors the hitter that will stand up on the baseline, and step onto the court on short ball.
I see the following style of play everywhere. Two baselines are battling it out, banging groundstrokes back and forth. All the shots are allowed to bounce, reach their peak, and then get struck behind the baseline as the ball falls.
This is a style of Junior play that will not translate well to the “Big leagues”. Let me explain.
When a youthful player first learns the game, they always hit a ball, after it bounces up to its peak and then settles back down. It is really all they can do most of the time because at a young age, many of the balls are very loopy. They go up, bounce back up high and then are hit as they fall. At a young age, the players possess much of their eventual speed but little of their eventual power. That means they can almost always run to the spot they want to be in to hit the next ball, just at their favorite height, as it falls from the height of its bounce.
This becomes a habit. That spot becomes the option of choice for every ball. But as you get older, the ball doesn’t go up quite so high so hitting the ball sooner becomes a viable option.
This is a transition the best players make. If you watched the Serena match you saw two players that understand this. When they are forced back on defense, they retreat, but immediately they step back up onto the baseline to be ready to attack a ball early after its bounce.
If you are a baseline, you must eventually make the transition from a player who waits for a ball to come to them behind the baseline, to a player who spots a short ball as soon as it is hit and steps onto the court to punish it.
Many Juniors never make this shift. As they advance, they win fewer and fewer matches from the players who have learned to attack the ball.
Many Juniors don’t even like short balls. It throws them off. They prefer to stay at the baseline and wait for an error from their opponent. Is that your strategy? Try this mindset instead, “I play to create the short ball, which I then punish”.
On a fast hard surface, this is the style the champions play.
DAY 9
The Baseline: Revisited
This morning, I awoke to find the Nadal/Fish match being replayed on USA, after I stayed up ‘til 2:15 AM to watch it.
I decided to check over on The Tennis Channel, as if I’m not getting enough tennis lately, and they were showing the finals of the Mexican Open, between Chela and Horna, 2 South Americans. They looked quite at home on clay.
Flipping back and forth between the 2 channels made it clear how different the games are. On clay, from right up on the baseline in the middle of the court, a player can hit a very sharp angle, to just behind the service line on the sideline, and not have an outright winner. At the US Open, Fish was hitting winners from the baseline, middle, by hitting much less angle, deep near the corners, against Nadal, maybe the best defender on the tour.
That is why the aggressive player must get up on the baseline against a great topspinner like Nadal. Fish really did it in the first set. I didn’t count, but he hit lots of outright winners because he was standing up at the baseline.
Standing up at the baseline has another big advantage, which Fish also made clear. You are that much closer whenever Nadal hit short, which he does quite often because of his spin. There is tremendous advantage to being closer to short balls.
When you get in to a short ball faster, you get to hit bigger angles. On a surface like the US Open, those are winners. Second, if you are hitting an approach shot you usually catch the ball higher and have many more options.
There is another important reason to get to a short ball before it falls below the net: you avoid telegraphing your approach. If you are forced to hit an approach shot off a low ball, while you are running forward, you must prepare for your backswing by moving your feet out of the way, so your opponent knows 2 steps earlier, where you are aiming. Watch a Roddick match. If he approaches from his usual spot, many feet behind the baseline, he catches the ball very low. Watch his opponent. He is already running into position before Roddick strikes the ball. In today’s game, giving away your approach is fatal.
Watch an early Federer match (HINT: Roger, you are playing deeper now!). When he hits a short ball, he closes fast, reaches it up high, and freezes his opponent by not revealing his approach. Then, half the time, his opponent guesses wrong or moves early and Roger just hits a winner. The rest of the time, because he has caught the ball up high, he drives it with pace, and gets an easy volley back.
Off course, all this is contingent upon your willingness to stand at the baseline and be willing to hit many more balls on the rise.
It takes guts. It takes confidence. On clay it is more difficult because of the uneven bounces, and frankly it isn’t even worth it. At the US Open, on a hard court, against someone like Nadal, that is where the advantage lies.
DAY 7
Murray & Djokovic Final???
I am watching the Andy Murray/ Stanislas Warwrinka match. Murray is making it perfectly clear that if you can play up on the baseline on a hard surface, it has tremendous advantages. The ball is moving faster, so your opponent has less time to run down the angles you can hit from the baseline. Also Murray is taking advantage of every short ball to come in or hit winners. In addition, being that close in give you a drop shot option that you simply never get if you are 6 feet or more behind the baseline. Murray has already hit 8 or more drop-shot winners.
When you commit to a game standing up at the baseline, an entirely new hitting strategy kicks in.
If you stand significantly behind the baseline, then for each ball your opponent hits, you can move to a location where you are hitting a ball at a fairly consistent height. This is because you are allowing yourself more freedom to move forward and back, not just left and right. Also, you have more time to get into position to get the ball just at the height you want it.
If you stand up at the baseline and refuse to retreat, like Murray is doing, then you are committing yourself to hitting balls at all different heights, coming in at all different angles.
Balls that land deep must be hit on a short hop, while short loopy stuff is taken high up and pounded down.
I think this is a transition that some players should make, and could make, but don’t make. Not everyone. Nadal’s game is suited for being behind the baseline. He doesn’t like hitting short hops or high strokes. His topspin is best hit from a low consistent height.
If you have flatter, more direct strokes, like Murray, you should consider moving in. Since you catch the ball sooner, you do not have to supply all the pace. It becomes easier to just redirect the ball and use the angles. If you are getting older (not from 12 to 13), and you don’t have the endurance you used to have, this strategy saves you a lot of running. If you have lost some of your power, you can make up for it by hitting the ball sooner.
I think part of Federer’s problem is that he has moved back, probably because he could win from there and it is easier, and lazier, mentally. It probably matched his attitude most days when he was just going through the motions. Unfortunately, he has forgotten his best game is played closer in.
For some players, this is a transition they make on their way to greatness. I think Andy Murray is ready.
If Roger wants to be reminded, he should watch the Murray/Nadal match, I am predicting for the semis (although Nadal could go down to Fish). Murray will be able to dictate play and might take Nadal in straight sets.
If Roger persists in playing his present game, which has real differences from his old game (besides moving back), he will probably lose to Djokovic.
I am expecting a Murray/Djokovic finals, with Murray winning it all.
The Happy Spot
Have you ever noticed that most players don’t play “straight up”; meaning they don’t stand in the center of the baseline. Most play over towards their backhand side. I’m watching the Roddick/Seppi match and each player is standing considerably towards his backhand. Even players with better backhands, like Gasquet, never run around to hit a backhand the way most players run around to hit a forehand.
I call that spot at the baseline, about 2/3 to ¾ of the way over to the backhand side, “The Happy Spot”, because your opponent is probably happy to be standing there hitting forehands.
This situation arises at every level. Almost all beginners stand over to protect bad backhands. The same pattern continues all the way into the professional ranks.
Your job, if you choose to accept it, is to not allow your opponent to stand in the happy spot and hit forehands. From the happy spot, a player can easily go up the line or inside out, meaning to his opponent’s ad court sideline. It is a lot of court to have to cover.
Depending on your skill level and the type of strokes you like to hit, you have several options. If you can hit sharp enough to still make them hit backhands, you need to make them do that, often. If you have to slice to do this, it is still worth doing. Next, you must PROVE to your opponent that you can go up the line on your backhand (right-hander to right-hander). This is the only shot that keeps them honest. If you can go up the line backhand, they will not be able to stand in the happy spot.
Many players make the mistake of thinking that when they go up the line backhand, usually to their opponent’s very good forehand, they have to hit a winner. Here is what I have found. If you have an opponent in the happy spot, they have a lot of ground to cover to get to their forehand corner. If you can loop a ball deep, into the forehand corner, they will usually be forced to hit a running, moving backward forehand. These are tolerable, even from a big hitter, and then you get at least one shot to make him hit a backhand, and a running backhand at that. The trick is to play it consistently safe and deep. If they try to short hop it at the baseline, instead of moving backward, it is still not their big weapon.
I do a drill where I play the opponent in the Happy Spot and my student has to see to it that I don’t hit 3 happy spot forehands in any rally. A happy spot forehand is any forehand I hit from the baseline between about ¾ of the way to my backhand side, all the way to ¾ of the way to my forehand side, and sometime even beyond that. Any forehand I set up on and hit well, is considered a happy spot forehand and I call out the number. If I get 3 in a rally, I win the rally. My student learns what to do to move me out of there and keep me hitting from unhappy locations. It keeps the student thinking on every stroke.
The biggest benefit of hitting lots of backhands up the line, even loopy ones, is that the Happy Spot player can’t get comfortable in his favorite place. Every foot you move him towards the middle of the court will increase the number of backhands they must hit, and reduces the angle on inside out forehands.
Besides, anything you can do to keep your opponent from hitting his favorite shots from his favorite spots, is beneficial.
Don’t let your opponent linger in his Happy Spot.
DAY 4
I Miss Justine Henin
I always watch a tennis match to try to learn something about the game or about a particular player.
Here is what I learned last night. I miss Justin Henin. No, that’s not really it.
I heard that the rankings are so close that any of 6 or 7 women could become Number 1 by winning the US Open. Well, we know it won’t be Ivanovic, who put on the best demonstration of how not to be number 1, for 2 consecutive matches, finally losing, thank goodness, to Coin. I don’t have the official box-score, but I’ll bet she made 40 or more unforced errors and 8 or more double faults. That’s 48 points. You can win 2 sets of tennis with 48 points. This is a clear demonstration of what NOT to do when you play a lesser opponent.
On the Future’s circuit there are players with 130+ mph serves and huge forehands and great speed, everything a pro needs, except consistency and an understanding of the fine points of the game.
When number 1 in the world plays a kid from the challenger’s circuit or below, the key is not making errors. Ivanovic must have made Coin feel right at home, inconsistent play mixed in with great shots. That is Future’s play. If you play a weaker opponent, you should come out and not miss. Don’t try to impress with great winners, they see that all the time. What they don’t see is someone who gets everything back, deep and hard and as soon as you make a mistake, they make you pay. Ivanovic, is too new at the top to understand this. You don’t have to beat a newcomer the same way you beat another top player.
Here is the lesson. Who is on the other side of the court? Be realistic about your play and your opponent’s play. What do they do to win points or lose points? Can you win by shear repetition? Can you win by coming to the net even if it isn’t your game? If your opponent comes to the net, remember, this isn’t Federer. You don’t have to thread the needle and hit a passing shot 3 inches from the sideline. Hit a good one, but make them volley. If your opponent is short, hit lobs when they come forward. If your opponent is 6’4 and 230 lbs, but has Ace bandages on both knees, this might be a day for slices, low and out wide.
Understanding what you have to do to win, is part of the game. You might begin beating opponents with more skill than you, if you understand who they are and who you are.
DAY 2
Andy
I just learn tonight that Patrick McEnroe is now coaching Andy Roddick. That’s in addition to his job as Captain of the Davis Cup Team. Oh yeah, he is also General Manager for Elite Player Development for the USTA, and commentator for major tennis events.
He is obviously a talented guy.
However, one must wonder about the diversity of training that is available to an American tennis player, if every aspect of the process, from training and coaching, through competing, and even up through the media, is available to the same man.
Tonight’s primetime match was a real David and Goliath affair: Andy Roddick and Fabrice Santoro, 36 years old, all 5’7” of him. Here is a player that has been to 65 Majors in his career. Tonight he lost to a very sharp looking Roddick. Santoro also looked a little flat after a lengthy layoff. What was important to notice, however, was that Santoro played a different style of tennis. It is a style that is more common among Europeans. John McEnroe commented that another European, Andreas Seppi, also plays a game that involves a much larger variety of strokes.
Why aren’t there Americans that play that style?
Could it be the same reason Patrick McEnroe holds all those jobs? American tennis training is all of one style. We play power tennis.
Okay, so you are 6’3” and 200 lbs, like Roddick, Blake, Fish. You can play American Tennis. Maybe you are the William’s sisters, you can play American Tennis.
What if you are 5’7”, 140 lbs like Fabrice Santoro? Too bad! Look at Donald Young. He is perfect for the kind of game that Santoro plays. He has all the strokes and good touch. Unfortunately, he is being encouraged to play American Tennis.
So how big and strong are you? Are you playing an inappropriate power game? Are you too old to blow someone off the court, but you keep trying?
Consider putting some effort into learning a larger assortment of strokes. Here is a drill I use.
I put a couple of targets on the court, usually one deep in one corner and the other shorter near the opposite sideline, maybe midway between the service and baseline.
Now I rally with the player and the only rules are, they must aim at one of these targets, AND, they can’t hit the same ball twice. They must mix up a slice, a drive, and a loopy topspin.
This gives you practicing deciding and aiming a variety of shots, one after the other. The “one after the other” part is important. If you practice these stroke separately, you won’t get the feel for dishing out variation.
So next time you play, consider beating your opponent with variety. It got Fabrice Santoro to 65 Majors.
DAY 1
On and Off
Ana Ivanovic, the number 1 seed, is a great example of a player who can be on and off, hot and cold. Today she looked awful against Douchevina. She managed a 6-4 in the third set victory. Not a great start for the number 1 seed.
In fact, Jankovic, the number 2 seed, is only slightly more predictable.
Now that I think about it, there is tremendous inconsistency among the top women players. Venus has looked good, and bad. Serena hasn’t won a major but she is seeded higher. She may be the most consistent player.
My favorite inconsistent player is Petrova. She can be great and crap in the same set. I saw her once lose 5 games in a row and then win 11 games immediately after.
How is it that so many players, even top-notch players, are so inconsistent?
It has to be mental.
The weaker the mental game, the more likely it is to break down.
What makes a mental game strong?
A player has a strong mental game when they have a clear idea of what their mental focus is, when they are “on”. That is, they know what they should be thinking in order to play well. Then, when their game goes “off”, they know what they have to do to find their way back; at least, they know where “back” is.
If you have no mental focus when you play well, how can you find your way “back” when you play badly? Back where? The answer is, you don’t know. Circumstances might help you find your game, but you are almost no help to yourself. In fact, you might become your worst enemy.
A player, who has a good idea of what they are suppose to do mentally and emotionally, can at least try to find their game when it goes off. Over time, these players develop techniques, conscious and nonconscious, that help them get their good game back. Even Federer and Nadal get cold and struggle. However, many times they save themselves during the same match and manage to win.
So, what are you doing mentally when you play well? Do you know? Do you know what you should be doing mentally when you play? If the answer is “no”, you might consider finding out. Particularly if you are a player who runs hot and cold, you must know how to find your game when it leaves you.
Next time you play (a practice session); see if you can tell what you are doing mentally when you hit good ones, that you don’t do on the bad ones, or visa versa. Don’t kid yourself if you hit an accidental winner; mentally that counts as a bad one. Try to find a time to look at your strokes, when you are being emotionally stable. If you do it while you are having a very emotional time, it will be hard to discern what is mental and what is emotional.
So, can you find something good to focus your mental attention on? See how often you can concentrate your attention on that thought while you are hitting. That is concentration. When your game goes off, look there to get it back.
Dr. Robert Soloway
Sports Psychology Specialist
rmsolo@comcast.net
DAY 6
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