I think Shelton is the american that would have most benefitted from more time on the dirt growing up, to me rally tolerance and concentration feel like his biggest weaknesses.
The Ruud / Tsitsipas vs Tabilo / Shelton was really a returning disaster class, but always nice to see that those left sliders trouble some pro's just as much as us park hackers.
Yeah probably. I still think Shelton has the most upside from the Americans at this point. Tommy Paul has kind of maxed out his strengths of movement and court-craft, and he played an amazing match against Sinner at the US but the forehand just wasn't good enough. Fritz has maxed out his movement but there's low-hanging fruit to get better moving forward (maybe not that low-hanging though).
If Shelton can get a little quicker and defend the backhand a little better, plus improve the serve accuracy, that alone would make him that much harder to contain.
I think the Ruud/Tsitsipas partnership was a *doubles* disaster class - well worth watching in contrast to the Ruud/Alcaraz pairing for what a difference a good intercepting net player makes to someone who might otherwise be a bit down. So many times Tsitsipas just let the ball sail by at the net, leaving Ruud to pick up the mess in the middle of the court with no angle to hit at and the opposing net player sensing a chance. Then put him on the court with Alcaraz, who is bothering the opponents by popping up everywhere and making volleys, and Ruud plays (or seems to play) three times better.
Can you elaborate on the point "keeps his left arm low and close to the torso on the forehand chip return to keep his upper body side on and still"? Does this setup apply to doing FH drop shots where torso rotation is not necessary?
keeping the non-hitting arm low tends to stop the body from rotating. It means your hips and shoulders stay more turned, so it's easier to keep the path of your racquet going towards a target on the other side of the net, rather than across your body like a typical groundstroke forehand.
A bit off topic, but Alcaraz occasionally executes a unique move where he takes a volley between the service line and baseline, either after a serve or when he hits a powerful groundstroke but doesn’t immediately move up. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a player perform this move as frequently as he does, but regardless, he makes it look so smooth and effortless! What are your thoughts on this play?
Do you think learning on Har Tru has enough of the benefits as learning on clay (maybe it depends how wet or dry it is)? There seem to be many more Har Tru courts in the U.S. than red clay.
I think Shelton is the american that would have most benefitted from more time on the dirt growing up, to me rally tolerance and concentration feel like his biggest weaknesses.
The Ruud / Tsitsipas vs Tabilo / Shelton was really a returning disaster class, but always nice to see that those left sliders trouble some pro's just as much as us park hackers.
Yeah probably. I still think Shelton has the most upside from the Americans at this point. Tommy Paul has kind of maxed out his strengths of movement and court-craft, and he played an amazing match against Sinner at the US but the forehand just wasn't good enough. Fritz has maxed out his movement but there's low-hanging fruit to get better moving forward (maybe not that low-hanging though).
If Shelton can get a little quicker and defend the backhand a little better, plus improve the serve accuracy, that alone would make him that much harder to contain.
I think the Ruud/Tsitsipas partnership was a *doubles* disaster class - well worth watching in contrast to the Ruud/Alcaraz pairing for what a difference a good intercepting net player makes to someone who might otherwise be a bit down. So many times Tsitsipas just let the ball sail by at the net, leaving Ruud to pick up the mess in the middle of the court with no angle to hit at and the opposing net player sensing a chance. Then put him on the court with Alcaraz, who is bothering the opponents by popping up everywhere and making volleys, and Ruud plays (or seems to play) three times better.
Can you elaborate on the point "keeps his left arm low and close to the torso on the forehand chip return to keep his upper body side on and still"? Does this setup apply to doing FH drop shots where torso rotation is not necessary?
keeping the non-hitting arm low tends to stop the body from rotating. It means your hips and shoulders stay more turned, so it's easier to keep the path of your racquet going towards a target on the other side of the net, rather than across your body like a typical groundstroke forehand.
Chip forehands, forehand volleys work for this.
Here's Jamie Murray: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2016/07/06/jamie-murray-volley-what-makes-it-one-of-the-best-shots-in-tenni/
and Leander paes: https://m.rediff.com/sports/report/the-realistic-goal-for-me-is-the-2016-olympics-leander-paes-harish-kotian/20141126.htm
It's the opposite look of a backhand volley, where the arms separate to make a cross: https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/tennis/serve-and-vollye-game-is-pretty-much-gone-says-leander-paes/
But both do the same function: keep the body turned.
Coaches will sometimes say "handcuffs" to keep the hands close together on forehand volleys
fwiw, the DC tickets in Manchester were rather cheap (I believe starting from 20GBP). A bit of a shame that it was so empty
sad yet predictable
A bit off topic, but Alcaraz occasionally executes a unique move where he takes a volley between the service line and baseline, either after a serve or when he hits a powerful groundstroke but doesn’t immediately move up. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a player perform this move as frequently as he does, but regardless, he makes it look so smooth and effortless! What are your thoughts on this play?
Do you think learning on Har Tru has enough of the benefits as learning on clay (maybe it depends how wet or dry it is)? There seem to be many more Har Tru courts in the U.S. than red clay.