I really like your take on Musetti as an updated type Gasquet. They are very similar, I would say Gasquet has a better backhand, even though Musetti's is as good as any one hander out there now that Fed, Gasquet, and Wawrinka are either gone or close to. Musetti has a better forehand than Gasquet certainly. They both have great hands, all the shots, and both tend to retreat too deep behind the baseline.
in my experience players (especially the better ones) have no idea what they are doing with their arm, which is a good thing, but maybe coaches need to start looking at this more closely.
Great post Hugh! Just a couple of questions: I may sound a bit clueless, but what do you mean by "extended wrist vs. flexed wrist"? Now, slightly off track: is something going on with Casper Ruud this year? I checked out his results of late and it feels like he's been consistently playing a couple of good matches in a tournament and then losing either quarters or before. His only final so far this year is Dallas, and even then he lost to Shapo and didn't really beat anyone of note. Plus he lost second round Australia. Why is all this happening, and is it something he should be worrying about?
an extended wrist is when you pull the back of your hand towards your forearm. A flexed wrist would be when you curl your hand so your palm pulls into your forearm.
I don't know for sure what Casper is going through. I haven't watched a lot of him this year to be honest, but he seems to have lost that hard court aggression he harboured in the early parts of 2024. We'll see how the rest of the clay season shakes out, because if he doesn't make some deep runs here, it will be a disappointing season most likely
I had always struggled to figure out Musetti’s fh grip - the way he keeps his wrist cocked I had thought it was Eastern, but at the same time thought that impossible. Thanks for the clarification. And yes, that seems like a lot of wasted potential in having the racket low during prep.
Looks like he’s smacking it pretty well! But my guess would be that it was a combination of weaker competition and a small sample size. Last year he played a lot of matches on the challenger tour, and only maybe 20-odd main draw matches at ATP/slam/olympic level that would be analysed by TI. I think tennis insights may include qualifier data, and because his ranking was lower last year he played quite a lot of qualifier matches for certain atp events ( 13 last year) so it’s possible he boosted some stats against weaker competition. But he does have a great forehand.
Oh good point! I guess the opponent quality argument could also apply in the opposite direction for some top players here, since they face other top players more often, meaning the forehands of for example Alcaraz, Sinner, and Djokovic may actually look slightly great than they really are on a plot like this.
yes exactly. Plus, if you are Sinner or Alcaraz etc., you are often facing guys who are playing you with a "nothing to lose mentality", so you are having to weather that as well.
I wonder if set 2 completely demoralized Musetti ? It was a thrashing after a much closer set 1.
It seems to me that Alcaraz was the pioneer of the modern drop shot, and he executes this better than anyone, by a fair margin. This has changed the strategy of modern tennis, and players that have not perfected the drop shot on both FH and BH - or at least have trained sufficiently to be adept - are at a considerable disadvantage.
Sharp observations on the court-positioning and ball-trajectory angles. From Carlos' side, I wonder if there was an element of "fighting the last battle" and handling the mixed results of the early hard-court campaign as he transitions to clay. His groundstrokes are more "punched" than redirected, and thus he enjoys having a bit of time and distance. Therefore, when moving into the European clay, taking a step back, grinding the points and leveraging his outstanding athleticism to cover the court is not just a natural tactical adjustment to the surface; it's possibly a way of nursing the scar tissue after some painful defeats against folks like Djokovic or Goffin who outperformed him at taking the ball early in the close-quarters, hold-the-baseline rallies. It's a reasonable plan, but probably one that worked against him in the first set, because Musetti is a player on the other end of the spectrum, and thus he likes to have even more time to complete the swing preparation and play the long-distance artillery battles. In this match-up, Alcaraz wants to be the one who rushes Lorenzo, and indeed the match turned in his favor as he moved forward*. Ultimately, I agree that being able to put the Jazz in Alcaraz will be the critical success factor for his spring and summer season.
* Always a bit tricky to assess cause-and-effect in tennis tactics, you never know how much is a conscious choice (surely some of it, in this case) and how much comes from the confidence that comes from even small rhythm, form, and accuracy shifts.
Hey hugh so glad to read new posts from you ! I am so glad alcaraz found a way to win this tournament to build back some momentum ! What is also very encouraging is that he won it while clearly not playing his best !
What are your thoughts on the deep return position on clay from alcaraz ? Cause he does it a lot since his debuts and it often paid off but can be costly ( Olympics final Novak exposed it) so do you think it’s great for him to use it this clay season a lot or really have a closer offensive position ! With his north south movement and his speed I like the far position for 2nd serve return !
Btw I loved Fils game and mentality since Indian wells ! He can make damages on clay and hope he performs well
I really like your take on Musetti as an updated type Gasquet. They are very similar, I would say Gasquet has a better backhand, even though Musetti's is as good as any one hander out there now that Fed, Gasquet, and Wawrinka are either gone or close to. Musetti has a better forehand than Gasquet certainly. They both have great hands, all the shots, and both tend to retreat too deep behind the baseline.
I wonder how many of the, let's say, U15 elite tennis players are realizing that the next gen forehand isn't as good as an extended wrist
in my experience players (especially the better ones) have no idea what they are doing with their arm, which is a good thing, but maybe coaches need to start looking at this more closely.
Great post Hugh! Just a couple of questions: I may sound a bit clueless, but what do you mean by "extended wrist vs. flexed wrist"? Now, slightly off track: is something going on with Casper Ruud this year? I checked out his results of late and it feels like he's been consistently playing a couple of good matches in a tournament and then losing either quarters or before. His only final so far this year is Dallas, and even then he lost to Shapo and didn't really beat anyone of note. Plus he lost second round Australia. Why is all this happening, and is it something he should be worrying about?
an extended wrist is when you pull the back of your hand towards your forearm. A flexed wrist would be when you curl your hand so your palm pulls into your forearm.
I don't know for sure what Casper is going through. I haven't watched a lot of him this year to be honest, but he seems to have lost that hard court aggression he harboured in the early parts of 2024. We'll see how the rest of the clay season shakes out, because if he doesn't make some deep runs here, it will be a disappointing season most likely
I had always struggled to figure out Musetti’s fh grip - the way he keeps his wrist cocked I had thought it was Eastern, but at the same time thought that impossible. Thanks for the clarification. And yes, that seems like a lot of wasted potential in having the racket low during prep.
Outside scope of this article, but what's going on with Thiago Monteiro's outlier forehand on that chart?
Looks like he’s smacking it pretty well! But my guess would be that it was a combination of weaker competition and a small sample size. Last year he played a lot of matches on the challenger tour, and only maybe 20-odd main draw matches at ATP/slam/olympic level that would be analysed by TI. I think tennis insights may include qualifier data, and because his ranking was lower last year he played quite a lot of qualifier matches for certain atp events ( 13 last year) so it’s possible he boosted some stats against weaker competition. But he does have a great forehand.
Oh good point! I guess the opponent quality argument could also apply in the opposite direction for some top players here, since they face other top players more often, meaning the forehands of for example Alcaraz, Sinner, and Djokovic may actually look slightly great than they really are on a plot like this.
yes exactly. Plus, if you are Sinner or Alcaraz etc., you are often facing guys who are playing you with a "nothing to lose mentality", so you are having to weather that as well.
Beautiful article.
So just to summarize the beginning, style really shouldn't be a concern for recreational players, right?
Right. But if you keep it simple you'll have good style.
I wonder if set 2 completely demoralized Musetti ? It was a thrashing after a much closer set 1.
It seems to me that Alcaraz was the pioneer of the modern drop shot, and he executes this better than anyone, by a fair margin. This has changed the strategy of modern tennis, and players that have not perfected the drop shot on both FH and BH - or at least have trained sufficiently to be adept - are at a considerable disadvantage.
Many thanks for this Sontag distillation
Sharp observations on the court-positioning and ball-trajectory angles. From Carlos' side, I wonder if there was an element of "fighting the last battle" and handling the mixed results of the early hard-court campaign as he transitions to clay. His groundstrokes are more "punched" than redirected, and thus he enjoys having a bit of time and distance. Therefore, when moving into the European clay, taking a step back, grinding the points and leveraging his outstanding athleticism to cover the court is not just a natural tactical adjustment to the surface; it's possibly a way of nursing the scar tissue after some painful defeats against folks like Djokovic or Goffin who outperformed him at taking the ball early in the close-quarters, hold-the-baseline rallies. It's a reasonable plan, but probably one that worked against him in the first set, because Musetti is a player on the other end of the spectrum, and thus he likes to have even more time to complete the swing preparation and play the long-distance artillery battles. In this match-up, Alcaraz wants to be the one who rushes Lorenzo, and indeed the match turned in his favor as he moved forward*. Ultimately, I agree that being able to put the Jazz in Alcaraz will be the critical success factor for his spring and summer season.
* Always a bit tricky to assess cause-and-effect in tennis tactics, you never know how much is a conscious choice (surely some of it, in this case) and how much comes from the confidence that comes from even small rhythm, form, and accuracy shifts.
Hey hugh so glad to read new posts from you ! I am so glad alcaraz found a way to win this tournament to build back some momentum ! What is also very encouraging is that he won it while clearly not playing his best !
What are your thoughts on the deep return position on clay from alcaraz ? Cause he does it a lot since his debuts and it often paid off but can be costly ( Olympics final Novak exposed it) so do you think it’s great for him to use it this clay season a lot or really have a closer offensive position ! With his north south movement and his speed I like the far position for 2nd serve return !
Btw I loved Fils game and mentality since Indian wells ! He can make damages on clay and hope he performs well
I think it depends on the opponent, but he certainly should use it sometimes.
Is Jacob Fearnley peak next gen forehand? It's full merry go round