Fascinating reading as always ! I have couple of questions regarding some tactical insights you discussed ! i will try to be quick ( doubt it ) but so many stuff going through my head rn lmao:
1- firstly in that alcaraz goffin match, you mentionned how of a reminiscent of that djokovic alcaraz AO clash that was with goffin opting for the same tactic ! what really suprise me is how alcaraz seemed to have NOT learn at all from that previous match ? You litteraly spotted back in january that alcaraz didnt slice enough, didnt change return postions enough, didnt chip the forehand return enough ect ect and he did the same mistakes all over again ! What I really understand from your analysis is that alcaraz main problem rn its not that much from a technical stand point but more from a TACTICAL perspective ! obviously we discused the backhand and the serve as improvable but what seem to cost the majority of alcaraz matches is his lack of awareness and adaptibilty during adversity ! It hasnt always been the case imo but here its very obvious ! Vs goffin i felt he didnt play that bad...he missed, like you highlighted in some videos, some "easy" put away forehands that he usualy makes but seemed to be in shape physically ( with some unreal points ). Yeah tacticaly wasnt clever btw no idea why ferrero didnt say a word abt that ???
2- You brillantly wrote abt the return dynamic and dynamic players like fed alcaraz dimi ...slicing that return in play against "players who don’t excel at producing their own racquet and ball speed (Zverev, Medvedev, de Minaur) and who may not excel at the net (Rublev, Fritz, Medvedev)." My question is multiple :)
- How can those guys ( servers that will face this situation of playing off a low slice) counter attack this play to make the rally back on their own term ? change the serve speed, body serve ? or something else i guess.... cause for exemple this is so effective like u said against novak at wimbledon ect but how could novak ( who doesnt like dead balls and net approches) flip that around and make carlos unconfortable ?
- Is it a wrong tactic if it is used the other way around against Fed, carlos...like if a guy like zverev decided to drag carlos to the net off dead balls, you feel its not the best stuff to do considering ,carlos or grigor whatever, have unreal net games ?
I always ask myself abt that cause love to understand abt tactic one guy can put in play but also understand how the opponent can adjust and make it tough for him !
3- Now abt the Fonseca deminaure match coming up ! wanted to know quicly ur opinion on it ! Should fonseca use that alcaraz tactical theme he performed in rotterdam ( short slices to force deminaure come to the net off difficult approach shots he often struggle with his technique) or should he be aggressive from the first ball ! fonseca obviously doesnt have the court coverage and stealing percentage of carlos which why if I answer to that question myself i would say stick to aggressive play but who knows i might be wrong...
and lastly ( Finally ) Fils Tiafoe tactical approach ? obvisously my immediate thought is fils wanting to keep frances in that forehand crosscourt exchange but regarding serve and return patter what should he do ?
Thanks hugh if you ever reach to that point :)) almost wrote a whole article myself
1) I think Alcaraz has made an effort in the past few months - maybe even since US Open, to be more aggressive on hardcourts (Beijing was a good example of it working well). It's almost like he has made an effort to move away from some of the stuff that makes him special in my mind.
2) Hard for someone to counter attack a good low slice if you are Zverev's forehand, BUT, it isn't easy to block the ball low there consistently well. If you hit it too deep, or too high, it becomes an easy ball, so it's not a great strategy unless you have an elite slice. I don't think Zverev would do well slicing and enticing Alcaraz into the net. Carlos has too many options: he has great racquet speed and could hit a quality ball form a short low slice, he can drop shot, he can slice approach, plus he volleys very well.
3) Fonseca I think is more in a Sinner mold; he is very good at going toe-to-toe in a baseline battle. Doesn't need to make things too complicated with slices and variation yet. He needs to continue to develop his body and prepare his mind for these long tough matches.
How about that court change by the so called Schedulers. A new level of incompetence. They announced a court change from Grandstand late in the Draper match. All the Brazilian fans, who were already there waiting to see Fonseca, were very unhappy, justifiably so. It caused about a 10 minute delay in the Draper match as the fans all filed out, while booing. It is hard to believe how little they know about tennis.
Like the Djokovic AO match, I feel like Carlos hasn't been able to make tactical adjustments during a match that's not going in his favor. It's now been 12 months of subpar hardcourt play from him outside of a couple of 500s - Beijing and Rotterdam. At least he should be fully healthy during the clay season, where he has chances to gain ATP points since he was injured for parts of it last year.
yeah if he performs well on clay he can gain a LOT of points ! Nothing to defend on monte carlo, barcelona and roma ! and a quarter in madrid ( where i feel he can do much better this year in his home tournament where he has alyawys been succesful (last year he was injured)
Love the analysis on chips and blocks. As an older player with no ability to rally with 'heavy ball' hitters, taking away their pace and working to make sure they have challenges generating pace/net clearance is my go to strategy.
Forgot to ask about Fonseca. He loves high forehands. Has a semi on his backhand. What happens when people start chipping low to his forehand and or backhand? With his extreme grip he most likely will have to switch which opens up a door for others to attack.
I know my hair color is bleeding through the screen here.
But the new school stuff may end up like Coco Gauff's forehand. Great in the juniors, solvable in the pros but not ideal if someone faces an opponent willing to approach the net.
Men are more likely to approach the net and cutoff a defensive slice. The problem is the new schoolers don't slice very well. Alcaraz is an odd duck in this way. Have not seen Fonseca enough to see how he defends low shots. But if he follows the script we may end up in the same place with other phenoms (Tsitispas, Tiafoe, Shapo, one handed and two handed alike). The modern game leaves a hole that eventually someone finds and leads to a truncated ascension.
I wonder at what point they will start to pick on Fonseca as well.
Do we have a double slice male version of Tatjana Maria (the female one handed slice machine) coming to haunt the men's tour?
Fonseca's forehand racquet speed is so extreme I don't know if slice will be all that effective, but if you bait him into the net then it could be a strategy. But I ask, who will do that??
Interesting on João you mentioning how the guy can take on FH's above above his shoulders with ease. Why do you think he is comfortable with this? He isn't the tallest dude on tour and aversion to hitting groundstrokes above shoulders is a universal issue whether you're 5'11" or 6'6" plus although João is listed as a healthy 6'2" (188cm) on his ATP bio that doesn't explain how this kind of bludgeoning on shoulder height FH's is something exclusive to him at this point in time. Majority of players even the former champions/ATGs usually lose power the further the ball is above their shoulders so how is João capable of the defying physics on this one? Thoughts?
P.S. - Hugh just so you know you are my guy bro, but as a massive Roddick fan and ultimate FRAUDerer hater please NEVER PUT RODDICK BEING HUMILIATED BY THE FRAUD AS EXAMPLES AGAIN!!!!!.
Great analysis as always! Funny that Alcaraz resembles Federer in so many ways. Great slice. Great attacker, counterpuncher and defender. Prefers the inside out forehand. You nailed it in death of a forehand some time ago. The modern forehand has incredible attacking skills but sacrifices the ability to manage the corner among other speciality shots. The older school ones could handle the corners better. I still think an old school adjustment would make sense by allowing variability. I have been watching how Andreeva uses the slice forehand to defend corners. Her forehand seems very semi western to me. So she has to switch grips to handle the corners. Sampras opted for a more eastern version very similar to the one Fed would later use. Fed managed to generate topspin and flatter shots with a very conservative grip. Sampras would reverse the forehand to generate topspin. It is always a tradeoff between managing low balls and generating topspin on high ones. People have different solutions. It feels like Alcaraz has not quite worked out what to use when and under what conditions.
Maybe like Fed there are a bit too many tools in the shed and he does not know which one to use at any given time yet.
I still don't like the deep return position. I think any decent serve and volleyer will just come up all day over and over again. This puts a lot of strain on the returner who has to generate more power from the deep position. Then has to run up continually to cover the short ball.
Carlos is better off chipping like Stan (and Fed in his own way). Rather than taking full cuts. He won't be young forever so better to start now. People are picking on him so one would think that frustration would lead him to try something else sooner or later.
I did notice how Goffin was just picking at Alcaraz all night long. Maybe one of his coaches will read your articles and think about how to coach him. I suppose in an even bigger dream scenario they could hire you. :)
The top guys in the tour generally have outstanding end-range skills, sometimes being able to turn a point in a counter-attack shot, either a down-the-line gut-punch or a sharper-angled cross-court strike. However, except for the extreme pain enjoyers such as Medvedev or Djokovic who can play "underwater" for a long time, "sometimes" is not the same as "often", and I wonder if the occasional successful shot leads folks to underrate the value of recovering time with a slice reset (or even moonball-ish shots) instead of letting Jesus take the wheel with a hail-mary or just producing a weak top-spin reply. Maybe the situation is not as extreme as it is in the WTA, where many players* insist on playing weaker versions of their rally shots from outside the court in essentially unrecoverable positions, considering the tighter constraints on sprinting speed and acceleration and the widespread open-court redirection proficiency in the women's tour. But, coming back to the ATP tour, I think that the contemporary full-throttle power game may be missing some numerical value by relegating defensive shots** such as the slice to truly desperate situations when you just can't physically hit a regular shot. On the other hand, if I can lean into the caricature, I guess it's easier on the brain if you simplify your shot selection strategy to the "orc game plan" where you basically aim to hit the ball hard.
* One of the areas where Andreeva stands out, I'll keep saying. Not just great execution on the slice forehand, but also a much lower threshold to use it when pressured wide right. It often gives her second and third chances on a losing point.
** "Defensive" here not meaning entirely harmless, as in the examples you highlight.
I think it's a good point and one only has to look at someone like Dan Evans to show how successful (and painfully restricting for an opponent) a good slice can be; resetting points, getting it into uncomfortable court positions, using it to bring guys in on bad terms, etc.
It's true that players want simple strategies, but Alcaraz has the skill to weave in this stuff because we've seen it before in big matches
Reading your analysis one does wonder how well the Alcaraz coaching team has figured out a strategy ahead of time. “Make him hit from low near the service line when you need to force a point”, for example. I do wonder how detailed the strategy goes beyond HIT BOL RUN
I don't mind Alcaraz starting with that strategy he has. When it comes off, good luck to anyone, but it's the lack of adjustment during these matches where he is missing, and the opponent is redlining with the pace, that has me scratching my head a bit sometimes
Fascinating reading as always ! I have couple of questions regarding some tactical insights you discussed ! i will try to be quick ( doubt it ) but so many stuff going through my head rn lmao:
1- firstly in that alcaraz goffin match, you mentionned how of a reminiscent of that djokovic alcaraz AO clash that was with goffin opting for the same tactic ! what really suprise me is how alcaraz seemed to have NOT learn at all from that previous match ? You litteraly spotted back in january that alcaraz didnt slice enough, didnt change return postions enough, didnt chip the forehand return enough ect ect and he did the same mistakes all over again ! What I really understand from your analysis is that alcaraz main problem rn its not that much from a technical stand point but more from a TACTICAL perspective ! obviously we discused the backhand and the serve as improvable but what seem to cost the majority of alcaraz matches is his lack of awareness and adaptibilty during adversity ! It hasnt always been the case imo but here its very obvious ! Vs goffin i felt he didnt play that bad...he missed, like you highlighted in some videos, some "easy" put away forehands that he usualy makes but seemed to be in shape physically ( with some unreal points ). Yeah tacticaly wasnt clever btw no idea why ferrero didnt say a word abt that ???
2- You brillantly wrote abt the return dynamic and dynamic players like fed alcaraz dimi ...slicing that return in play against "players who don’t excel at producing their own racquet and ball speed (Zverev, Medvedev, de Minaur) and who may not excel at the net (Rublev, Fritz, Medvedev)." My question is multiple :)
- How can those guys ( servers that will face this situation of playing off a low slice) counter attack this play to make the rally back on their own term ? change the serve speed, body serve ? or something else i guess.... cause for exemple this is so effective like u said against novak at wimbledon ect but how could novak ( who doesnt like dead balls and net approches) flip that around and make carlos unconfortable ?
- Is it a wrong tactic if it is used the other way around against Fed, carlos...like if a guy like zverev decided to drag carlos to the net off dead balls, you feel its not the best stuff to do considering ,carlos or grigor whatever, have unreal net games ?
I always ask myself abt that cause love to understand abt tactic one guy can put in play but also understand how the opponent can adjust and make it tough for him !
3- Now abt the Fonseca deminaure match coming up ! wanted to know quicly ur opinion on it ! Should fonseca use that alcaraz tactical theme he performed in rotterdam ( short slices to force deminaure come to the net off difficult approach shots he often struggle with his technique) or should he be aggressive from the first ball ! fonseca obviously doesnt have the court coverage and stealing percentage of carlos which why if I answer to that question myself i would say stick to aggressive play but who knows i might be wrong...
and lastly ( Finally ) Fils Tiafoe tactical approach ? obvisously my immediate thought is fils wanting to keep frances in that forehand crosscourt exchange but regarding serve and return patter what should he do ?
Thanks hugh if you ever reach to that point :)) almost wrote a whole article myself
1) I think Alcaraz has made an effort in the past few months - maybe even since US Open, to be more aggressive on hardcourts (Beijing was a good example of it working well). It's almost like he has made an effort to move away from some of the stuff that makes him special in my mind.
2) Hard for someone to counter attack a good low slice if you are Zverev's forehand, BUT, it isn't easy to block the ball low there consistently well. If you hit it too deep, or too high, it becomes an easy ball, so it's not a great strategy unless you have an elite slice. I don't think Zverev would do well slicing and enticing Alcaraz into the net. Carlos has too many options: he has great racquet speed and could hit a quality ball form a short low slice, he can drop shot, he can slice approach, plus he volleys very well.
3) Fonseca I think is more in a Sinner mold; he is very good at going toe-to-toe in a baseline battle. Doesn't need to make things too complicated with slices and variation yet. He needs to continue to develop his body and prepare his mind for these long tough matches.
thanks for your reply hugh !
How about that court change by the so called Schedulers. A new level of incompetence. They announced a court change from Grandstand late in the Draper match. All the Brazilian fans, who were already there waiting to see Fonseca, were very unhappy, justifiably so. It caused about a 10 minute delay in the Draper match as the fans all filed out, while booing. It is hard to believe how little they know about tennis.
Like the Djokovic AO match, I feel like Carlos hasn't been able to make tactical adjustments during a match that's not going in his favor. It's now been 12 months of subpar hardcourt play from him outside of a couple of 500s - Beijing and Rotterdam. At least he should be fully healthy during the clay season, where he has chances to gain ATP points since he was injured for parts of it last year.
yeah if he performs well on clay he can gain a LOT of points ! Nothing to defend on monte carlo, barcelona and roma ! and a quarter in madrid ( where i feel he can do much better this year in his home tournament where he has alyawys been succesful (last year he was injured)
Love the analysis on chips and blocks. As an older player with no ability to rally with 'heavy ball' hitters, taking away their pace and working to make sure they have challenges generating pace/net clearance is my go to strategy.
Short slice is massively under-rated in club level tennis!
Forgot to ask about Fonseca. He loves high forehands. Has a semi on his backhand. What happens when people start chipping low to his forehand and or backhand? With his extreme grip he most likely will have to switch which opens up a door for others to attack.
I know my hair color is bleeding through the screen here.
But the new school stuff may end up like Coco Gauff's forehand. Great in the juniors, solvable in the pros but not ideal if someone faces an opponent willing to approach the net.
Men are more likely to approach the net and cutoff a defensive slice. The problem is the new schoolers don't slice very well. Alcaraz is an odd duck in this way. Have not seen Fonseca enough to see how he defends low shots. But if he follows the script we may end up in the same place with other phenoms (Tsitispas, Tiafoe, Shapo, one handed and two handed alike). The modern game leaves a hole that eventually someone finds and leads to a truncated ascension.
I wonder at what point they will start to pick on Fonseca as well.
Do we have a double slice male version of Tatjana Maria (the female one handed slice machine) coming to haunt the men's tour?
Fonseca's forehand racquet speed is so extreme I don't know if slice will be all that effective, but if you bait him into the net then it could be a strategy. But I ask, who will do that??
Interesting on João you mentioning how the guy can take on FH's above above his shoulders with ease. Why do you think he is comfortable with this? He isn't the tallest dude on tour and aversion to hitting groundstrokes above shoulders is a universal issue whether you're 5'11" or 6'6" plus although João is listed as a healthy 6'2" (188cm) on his ATP bio that doesn't explain how this kind of bludgeoning on shoulder height FH's is something exclusive to him at this point in time. Majority of players even the former champions/ATGs usually lose power the further the ball is above their shoulders so how is João capable of the defying physics on this one? Thoughts?
P.S. - Hugh just so you know you are my guy bro, but as a massive Roddick fan and ultimate FRAUDerer hater please NEVER PUT RODDICK BEING HUMILIATED BY THE FRAUD AS EXAMPLES AGAIN!!!!!.
I have no idea. I'll have to think about that a bit more.
hahaha. Noted Swirly. I love A-Rod but that match came to mind so clearly when I was writing about the short slice.
He has a bit of an unorthodox FH grip, so I would imagine that has a lot to do with it? this is according to an analysis by two minute tennis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AyWjrDoUks
Great analysis as always! Funny that Alcaraz resembles Federer in so many ways. Great slice. Great attacker, counterpuncher and defender. Prefers the inside out forehand. You nailed it in death of a forehand some time ago. The modern forehand has incredible attacking skills but sacrifices the ability to manage the corner among other speciality shots. The older school ones could handle the corners better. I still think an old school adjustment would make sense by allowing variability. I have been watching how Andreeva uses the slice forehand to defend corners. Her forehand seems very semi western to me. So she has to switch grips to handle the corners. Sampras opted for a more eastern version very similar to the one Fed would later use. Fed managed to generate topspin and flatter shots with a very conservative grip. Sampras would reverse the forehand to generate topspin. It is always a tradeoff between managing low balls and generating topspin on high ones. People have different solutions. It feels like Alcaraz has not quite worked out what to use when and under what conditions.
Maybe like Fed there are a bit too many tools in the shed and he does not know which one to use at any given time yet.
I still don't like the deep return position. I think any decent serve and volleyer will just come up all day over and over again. This puts a lot of strain on the returner who has to generate more power from the deep position. Then has to run up continually to cover the short ball.
Carlos is better off chipping like Stan (and Fed in his own way). Rather than taking full cuts. He won't be young forever so better to start now. People are picking on him so one would think that frustration would lead him to try something else sooner or later.
I did notice how Goffin was just picking at Alcaraz all night long. Maybe one of his coaches will read your articles and think about how to coach him. I suppose in an even bigger dream scenario they could hire you. :)
I would gladly accept the role!
The top guys in the tour generally have outstanding end-range skills, sometimes being able to turn a point in a counter-attack shot, either a down-the-line gut-punch or a sharper-angled cross-court strike. However, except for the extreme pain enjoyers such as Medvedev or Djokovic who can play "underwater" for a long time, "sometimes" is not the same as "often", and I wonder if the occasional successful shot leads folks to underrate the value of recovering time with a slice reset (or even moonball-ish shots) instead of letting Jesus take the wheel with a hail-mary or just producing a weak top-spin reply. Maybe the situation is not as extreme as it is in the WTA, where many players* insist on playing weaker versions of their rally shots from outside the court in essentially unrecoverable positions, considering the tighter constraints on sprinting speed and acceleration and the widespread open-court redirection proficiency in the women's tour. But, coming back to the ATP tour, I think that the contemporary full-throttle power game may be missing some numerical value by relegating defensive shots** such as the slice to truly desperate situations when you just can't physically hit a regular shot. On the other hand, if I can lean into the caricature, I guess it's easier on the brain if you simplify your shot selection strategy to the "orc game plan" where you basically aim to hit the ball hard.
* One of the areas where Andreeva stands out, I'll keep saying. Not just great execution on the slice forehand, but also a much lower threshold to use it when pressured wide right. It often gives her second and third chances on a losing point.
** "Defensive" here not meaning entirely harmless, as in the examples you highlight.
I think it's a good point and one only has to look at someone like Dan Evans to show how successful (and painfully restricting for an opponent) a good slice can be; resetting points, getting it into uncomfortable court positions, using it to bring guys in on bad terms, etc.
It's true that players want simple strategies, but Alcaraz has the skill to weave in this stuff because we've seen it before in big matches
Reading your analysis one does wonder how well the Alcaraz coaching team has figured out a strategy ahead of time. “Make him hit from low near the service line when you need to force a point”, for example. I do wonder how detailed the strategy goes beyond HIT BOL RUN
I don't mind Alcaraz starting with that strategy he has. When it comes off, good luck to anyone, but it's the lack of adjustment during these matches where he is missing, and the opponent is redlining with the pace, that has me scratching my head a bit sometimes