A second comment. Isn't a better approach to use slice against Djokovic? Nadal showed that he was better off slicing like crazy against him and waiting for a forehand that he could unload on. Ironically, I have been playing around with this in my own game lately. My one handed backhand is my best shot. I can hit clean winners with it. Bu…
A second comment. Isn't a better approach to use slice against Djokovic? Nadal showed that he was better off slicing like crazy against him and waiting for a forehand that he could unload on. Ironically, I have been playing around with this in my own game lately. My one handed backhand is my best shot. I can hit clean winners with it. But it is more of a wildcard and I miss if I get too excited. It also sits up more and if the person has time to setup, they can take time away. Lately, I have been finding that if I slice, it really bothers my opponent. This is especially true against two handers. After two or three slices, my opponent will hit to either corner. If they hit to my backhand and I have lots of time, I can just change to topspin without any great risk. The change in spin throws them off and most of the time I win the point outright or generate a short ball I can then attack. If they hit to my forehand, then it naturally allows me to either wrongfoot them back to the backhand or hit a short angle. The slice sets up a situation with no good solutions on their part.
Of course, there is the Wawrinka approach but no one IMHO has a backhand that matches his and that can simply change the equation of a match so drastically that he is virtually like a lefty. Wawrinka in his prime when he was on was virtually unstoppable. Federer would scrape his way through but no two hander could handle him. So unless someone has a Wawrinka-like backhand and game, shouldn't they just slice a bunch on the backhand or mix the slice with topspin and/or flat backhands? Allowing Djokovic to hover near the baseline with balls near waste height is worse.
I love my one handed backhand and take pride in hitting people off the court. But maybe the solution is to use Brad Gilbert's approach of finding an opponents weakness and exploiting it. Even if it means underutilizing a strength.
I know pro tennis is a whole other ball game. But strategy is strategy and maybe Sinner, Alcaraz and company will have to learn to win ugly to beat Djokovic.
Yeah but it is difficult to ask a player to do a 180 on their usual style/game plan when they face Novak. It's not a huge weakness of Novak's either; he still handles slice well, it's just not his strength to attack low slice balls. you have to have the slice game as part of your DNA to make that work, like an evans or lopez. Sinner needs to get better (as he has done) with his change-of-direction backhand more than anything and continue finding control in his bread-and-butter ground game I think. He's made big strides in the last year or so.
A second comment. Isn't a better approach to use slice against Djokovic? Nadal showed that he was better off slicing like crazy against him and waiting for a forehand that he could unload on. Ironically, I have been playing around with this in my own game lately. My one handed backhand is my best shot. I can hit clean winners with it. But it is more of a wildcard and I miss if I get too excited. It also sits up more and if the person has time to setup, they can take time away. Lately, I have been finding that if I slice, it really bothers my opponent. This is especially true against two handers. After two or three slices, my opponent will hit to either corner. If they hit to my backhand and I have lots of time, I can just change to topspin without any great risk. The change in spin throws them off and most of the time I win the point outright or generate a short ball I can then attack. If they hit to my forehand, then it naturally allows me to either wrongfoot them back to the backhand or hit a short angle. The slice sets up a situation with no good solutions on their part.
Of course, there is the Wawrinka approach but no one IMHO has a backhand that matches his and that can simply change the equation of a match so drastically that he is virtually like a lefty. Wawrinka in his prime when he was on was virtually unstoppable. Federer would scrape his way through but no two hander could handle him. So unless someone has a Wawrinka-like backhand and game, shouldn't they just slice a bunch on the backhand or mix the slice with topspin and/or flat backhands? Allowing Djokovic to hover near the baseline with balls near waste height is worse.
I love my one handed backhand and take pride in hitting people off the court. But maybe the solution is to use Brad Gilbert's approach of finding an opponents weakness and exploiting it. Even if it means underutilizing a strength.
I know pro tennis is a whole other ball game. But strategy is strategy and maybe Sinner, Alcaraz and company will have to learn to win ugly to beat Djokovic.
Just wondering.
Yeah but it is difficult to ask a player to do a 180 on their usual style/game plan when they face Novak. It's not a huge weakness of Novak's either; he still handles slice well, it's just not his strength to attack low slice balls. you have to have the slice game as part of your DNA to make that work, like an evans or lopez. Sinner needs to get better (as he has done) with his change-of-direction backhand more than anything and continue finding control in his bread-and-butter ground game I think. He's made big strides in the last year or so.