thanks for having the most insightful written tennis content out there.
i have a question regarding the sinner - dimitrov match at wimbledon last year. dimitrov’s only win against sinner was in 2020 and outside of wimbledon, has only taken a set off sinner during his second peak during 2023.
what almost never gets mentioned is that sinner injured his elbow in the second game of that wimbledon match. his groundstrokes were noticably less potent in terms of speed/spin/accuracy, and if you compare his numbers to any other match that tournament it’ll be night and day. i personally think that the argument that excessive use of the slice against sinner is a strong gameplan gets blown out of proportion by this singular match, with discussion both not mentioning sinner's injury or the fact that the impact of said injury (weakened groundstrokes) was what made dimitrov’s play style effective against sinner.
a less conventional way to disrupt sinner which i find interesting was from FAA against sinner in the US open semi last year (although sinner was also a bit out of sorts that tourney also). FAA’s slice isn't traditionally good (very floaty), but floating a slow ball deep into the backhand corner almost always forced sinner to return the ball cross court (cross court backhand/inside out forehand) due to lack of pace (line backhand very low percentage) and pushing sinner out of position if he chose to hit a forehand. it isn't conventional, but i thought it was strangely effective in terms of disrupting sinner’s rythym as it allowed FAA to return to neutral in rallies which were in sinner's favour, taking away the linear strike and moving sinner out of the middle of the court.
that's all, just wondering if you had thoughts on these ideas
It's a fair point regarding the Dimitrov Wimbledon match; the fall certainly affected his level. Hard to parse out how much was Dimitrov playing well and how much was Sinner playing poorly.
Regarding a floaty slice, that to me is a recipe for getting smoked, because it's going to give the player more time to run around, and more height to hit from. I think Sinner was out of sorts in that match also, so again it might be hard to give a clear answer on this.
Usually I've said that the slice is effective as a change-up. From the ATP Finals Alcaraz - Sinner recap:
"It’s a balancing act getting the ratio of slice correct against the power of Sinner; too much and he will adjust his rhythm and punish you, but too little means he’s also getting rhythm off your topspin ball. Tonight, I thought Alcaraz left some slice opportunities on the table. He nearly always gets the tempo and height he wants when he plays it."
My bluesky comment from just after last year's men's final at RG:
"Let's stop for a moment in the discussion about the men's #RolandGarros #FrenchOpen final and consider that we watched what was at least one of the classic matches of all time, on clay, in which by my memory one guy didn't hit one sliced backhand. (Of course, i could be wrong.)"
So, yeah, not a lot of variety from Sinner on that side, for sure. One value of an occasional bh slice, as Sinner (coaches?) may or may not come to believe/rely upon, is that it allows for disguise for the bh dropshot. Value added? Yes. Required? Evidently not (see: Sinner, #1)
In the discussion of injuries among young players (especially ATP but not exclusively), imo the aggregate strain of today's far more physical play starts in the juniors, and that's ignored. The racquets and strings, and now the technique that's developed to best exploit those two, call for more and more violent head speed. Add the leg load and rotational movement (i.e., not step through so much), and we have young players having to take time away from competition. (FWIW we might see Rune's injury as a traumatic rather than repetitive injury. Or maybe not...).
The answer *could* be a ban on poly strings, not unlike no belly putters on the pro golf tours (or pro-illegal balls), or aluminum bats in MLB. Would it work? I think so. Would we see more variety? I suspect so. Does it have a chance of happening? No better than a snowball's chances in hell.
No chance of banning poly. Best bet is to somehow change the balls to be more arm friendly (although that does little to help with the back and lower body injuries we are seeing).
Oh, I get that (no chance of banning poly). Juniors searching for ever more head speed, which works thanks to poly, will still be entering the pros w/years of strain on body parts, however. Rock/hard place
In the last year, I've seen 3 12/13 year old kids suffer repetitive arm injuries because their parents let them play with poly. Not only did they suffer injuries to their arms, but when they were forced to use multifilament strings, they had no feel or control over the ball.
Delay using poly strings as long as possible, if only to learn how to control the ball with softer strings.
Me, I say yes to that, and that I'm (sadly) not surprised. Their lack of feel and control over the ball is imo due to a) their having learned with poly (probably self-evident, don't meant to overstate the obvious), but also b) their racquet work is based on poly's response. Hit a modern forehand with multifilament and watch the ball fly; the swing path is a consequence of poly as much as anything else. Sorry to hear about the kids' problems.
Stan just lost. :( Evans, Stan, Musetti -- the loss of variety coincides with the loss of the OHBH. Your parallel to the NBA is so spot on. Basketball is still interesting and of course exciting when it's close and the clock is almost at zero, but I miss the mid-court jumper! The league is basically only using a portion of the court now; I suppose you could say the same about tennis, though the drop shot renaissance brought on via Carlitos has brought the net area back into play a bit.
the one-hander usually forces variety into a player's game via slice and height balls on topspin. Maybe Shapovalov and James Blake were outliers in this regard.
Sports have a funny way of evolving in unpredictable ways (like Carlos with the drop shot) so let's see what happens in the next 3-5 year.s
Great article, as ever! I agree with the gist of what you're saying here re. the "Sinner is boring" debate - i.e, there are two issues that should be distinguished.
One is that, with Alcaraz absent, Sinner wins everything without really breaking a sweat. I think most people (possibly including Sinner) would agree this is boring.
The second issue, which you flesh out really well, is that Sinner is the perfect example of a baseline play style wherein variety is sacrificed for power and precision. I think this style can very easily be boring, particularly when it's the dominant one.
Hopefully 1 will be rectified by Alcaraz's return, and the rise of some new players, and 2 will be rectified in due course by changes at the organisational level. Bring back drastically varying court speeds!
I think it's perfectly fine to have power baseliners -- Agassi and Safin were OG examples from different prior eras who were great to watch. The issue is if everyone becomes a power baseliner, only distinguished by how well they power baseline, there will be little contrast of styles and tactics.
Yes, Sinner doesn't use a lot of "non-core" variety, but he does use variety; no one playing now is as flexible with respect to changing patterns and being consistent in those patterns.
thanks for having the most insightful written tennis content out there.
i have a question regarding the sinner - dimitrov match at wimbledon last year. dimitrov’s only win against sinner was in 2020 and outside of wimbledon, has only taken a set off sinner during his second peak during 2023.
what almost never gets mentioned is that sinner injured his elbow in the second game of that wimbledon match. his groundstrokes were noticably less potent in terms of speed/spin/accuracy, and if you compare his numbers to any other match that tournament it’ll be night and day. i personally think that the argument that excessive use of the slice against sinner is a strong gameplan gets blown out of proportion by this singular match, with discussion both not mentioning sinner's injury or the fact that the impact of said injury (weakened groundstrokes) was what made dimitrov’s play style effective against sinner.
a less conventional way to disrupt sinner which i find interesting was from FAA against sinner in the US open semi last year (although sinner was also a bit out of sorts that tourney also). FAA’s slice isn't traditionally good (very floaty), but floating a slow ball deep into the backhand corner almost always forced sinner to return the ball cross court (cross court backhand/inside out forehand) due to lack of pace (line backhand very low percentage) and pushing sinner out of position if he chose to hit a forehand. it isn't conventional, but i thought it was strangely effective in terms of disrupting sinner’s rythym as it allowed FAA to return to neutral in rallies which were in sinner's favour, taking away the linear strike and moving sinner out of the middle of the court.
that's all, just wondering if you had thoughts on these ideas
It's a fair point regarding the Dimitrov Wimbledon match; the fall certainly affected his level. Hard to parse out how much was Dimitrov playing well and how much was Sinner playing poorly.
Regarding a floaty slice, that to me is a recipe for getting smoked, because it's going to give the player more time to run around, and more height to hit from. I think Sinner was out of sorts in that match also, so again it might be hard to give a clear answer on this.
Usually I've said that the slice is effective as a change-up. From the ATP Finals Alcaraz - Sinner recap:
"It’s a balancing act getting the ratio of slice correct against the power of Sinner; too much and he will adjust his rhythm and punish you, but too little means he’s also getting rhythm off your topspin ball. Tonight, I thought Alcaraz left some slice opportunities on the table. He nearly always gets the tempo and height he wants when he plays it."
https://hughclarke.substack.com/p/sinner-vs-alcaraz-atp-finals-recap
My bluesky comment from just after last year's men's final at RG:
"Let's stop for a moment in the discussion about the men's #RolandGarros #FrenchOpen final and consider that we watched what was at least one of the classic matches of all time, on clay, in which by my memory one guy didn't hit one sliced backhand. (Of course, i could be wrong.)"
So, yeah, not a lot of variety from Sinner on that side, for sure. One value of an occasional bh slice, as Sinner (coaches?) may or may not come to believe/rely upon, is that it allows for disguise for the bh dropshot. Value added? Yes. Required? Evidently not (see: Sinner, #1)
In the discussion of injuries among young players (especially ATP but not exclusively), imo the aggregate strain of today's far more physical play starts in the juniors, and that's ignored. The racquets and strings, and now the technique that's developed to best exploit those two, call for more and more violent head speed. Add the leg load and rotational movement (i.e., not step through so much), and we have young players having to take time away from competition. (FWIW we might see Rune's injury as a traumatic rather than repetitive injury. Or maybe not...).
The answer *could* be a ban on poly strings, not unlike no belly putters on the pro golf tours (or pro-illegal balls), or aluminum bats in MLB. Would it work? I think so. Would we see more variety? I suspect so. Does it have a chance of happening? No better than a snowball's chances in hell.
Thanks for this.
No chance of banning poly. Best bet is to somehow change the balls to be more arm friendly (although that does little to help with the back and lower body injuries we are seeing).
Oh, I get that (no chance of banning poly). Juniors searching for ever more head speed, which works thanks to poly, will still be entering the pros w/years of strain on body parts, however. Rock/hard place
In the last year, I've seen 3 12/13 year old kids suffer repetitive arm injuries because their parents let them play with poly. Not only did they suffer injuries to their arms, but when they were forced to use multifilament strings, they had no feel or control over the ball.
Delay using poly strings as long as possible, if only to learn how to control the ball with softer strings.
Me, I say yes to that, and that I'm (sadly) not surprised. Their lack of feel and control over the ball is imo due to a) their having learned with poly (probably self-evident, don't meant to overstate the obvious), but also b) their racquet work is based on poly's response. Hit a modern forehand with multifilament and watch the ball fly; the swing path is a consequence of poly as much as anything else. Sorry to hear about the kids' problems.
Stan just lost. :( Evans, Stan, Musetti -- the loss of variety coincides with the loss of the OHBH. Your parallel to the NBA is so spot on. Basketball is still interesting and of course exciting when it's close and the clock is almost at zero, but I miss the mid-court jumper! The league is basically only using a portion of the court now; I suppose you could say the same about tennis, though the drop shot renaissance brought on via Carlitos has brought the net area back into play a bit.
the one-hander usually forces variety into a player's game via slice and height balls on topspin. Maybe Shapovalov and James Blake were outliers in this regard.
Sports have a funny way of evolving in unpredictable ways (like Carlos with the drop shot) so let's see what happens in the next 3-5 year.s
Great article, as ever! I agree with the gist of what you're saying here re. the "Sinner is boring" debate - i.e, there are two issues that should be distinguished.
One is that, with Alcaraz absent, Sinner wins everything without really breaking a sweat. I think most people (possibly including Sinner) would agree this is boring.
The second issue, which you flesh out really well, is that Sinner is the perfect example of a baseline play style wherein variety is sacrificed for power and precision. I think this style can very easily be boring, particularly when it's the dominant one.
Hopefully 1 will be rectified by Alcaraz's return, and the rise of some new players, and 2 will be rectified in due course by changes at the organisational level. Bring back drastically varying court speeds!
I think it's perfectly fine to have power baseliners -- Agassi and Safin were OG examples from different prior eras who were great to watch. The issue is if everyone becomes a power baseliner, only distinguished by how well they power baseline, there will be little contrast of styles and tactics.
I think this is why I feel like Sinner, as a leading figure in the game, needs Carlos more than Carlos needs Sinner.
Carlos brings the joy no matter who he plays.
Yes, Sinner doesn't use a lot of "non-core" variety, but he does use variety; no one playing now is as flexible with respect to changing patterns and being consistent in those patterns.
Feel like only the heat can stop Sinner at RG
You were right on the money about the Ruud and FAA matches! I wish you had been right about Medvedev coming through. It's a shame.
Barty is not the only all court woman - Muchova, Townsend & some doubles specialists have variety.
I was referring to top singles women really, as Townsend barely cracked the top 50, but she does have a good slice and net game.