Friday
Jun032016

Tip of the week: Give up the alleys

In doubles you will often be positioned at the net at the start of a point, and during the point the player starting at the back of the court should be looking for an opportunity to get to the net, as this is where points are more easily won. However, some players feel overwhelmed by the prospect of having to cover their half of the court with very little time to react. When at the net, don’t try to cover the whole width of the court but rather focus on shutting down the centre corridor. Giving up the alleys allows you to do this. 

Crowding the centre of the court takes the safest option for your opponents out of play and forces them to go for a riskier passing shot into the alleys (or lob). If they get a couple by you, good for them. But don't panic just because you watched a couple of balls sail past you. Tennis is a game of percentages and a point is a point no matter how you win it. At the end of the day the odds are in your favour that, by consistently forcing you opponents to go for the alleys, they will pile up significantly more unforced errors than winners. See you on the court!

Saturday
May212016

A national disgrace

Bernard Tomic is a national disgrace, there’s no other way to put it. The immensely talented 23-year-old’s behaviour on court has included some of the worst sportsmanship I’ve ever had the displeasure of witnessing. For a player representing a country with a proud tradition of producing top athletes, and where exemplary sportsmanship is expected, he will have his work cut out to ever regain the public’s respect, that is of course if he ever cares to.

Would you care if you were 23 and worth over $10 million? - Bernard Tomic

Earlier this month Tomic had tennis fans, commentators and fellow players seething when he conceded a match to Fabio Fognini at the Madrid Open by holding his racket backwards on match point. When questioned about it by a journalist after the match he replied, "Would you care if you were 23 and worth over $10 million?” This prompted his friend and hitting partner, Novak Djokovic to comment, "It’s not right and I hope he realises that.” Meanwhile, Australian Olympic team chief, Kitty Chiller, warned that he and Nick Kyrgios may not be selected for Rio if their behaviour does not improve. One might have expected the overwhelmingly negative response to his antics to serve as a wake. Instead, days later he retired from his first round match in Rome after just eight minutes, sighting illness and the heat. Just as well he wasn’t so ill that he couldn’t step on to the court thereby collecting $20,562 for his trouble!

This is just the latest in a string of incidents for Tomic that have included tanking against Andy Roddick at the 2012 US Open and recording the fastest loss in ATP history against Jarko Nieminen in 2014, acts that have earned him the nickname "Tomic The Tank Engine.” He even managed to get into a public spat with Australian sporting icon, Pat Rafter, renowned as one of the nicest guys to have played the game.

It all points to a young man who is drifting in the wind, wasting talent that once held the promise of a future world number one. And his latest move, withdrawing himself from consideration for the Australian Olympic Team, just underscores the degree to which he’s oblivious of his nation’s expectations and to the harm he’s inflicting upon himself. While this super brat no doubt thinks he’s teaching Chiller and others a lesson, his nation is breathing a sigh of relief. While us Aussies love to win, nothing is more important to us than how you play the game. Right now, even if there was a guaranteed gold medal waiting for Bernard Tomic to simply collect from Rio, I fear he’d find a way to disgrace himself and the nation yet again.

Tomic’s troubles stir up memories of Mark Philippoussis, who also squandered his talent, and Jelena Dokic, who quit playing for Australia. All three had overbearing fathers/coaches that were brought up in a culture completely foreign to their adopted nation, and their child prodigies became "chips off the old block." Perhaps it’s time Tennis Australia rethinks its criteria for choosing which up-and-coming young players to support and the way in which it supports them, because no Australian wants to see their tax dollars going to help produce another tank engine.

Saturday
May212016

Tip of the week: Build on a foundation of consistency

Every great player has a strong foundation of consistency. You might recall many a match where Roger Federer or Serena Williams hit a stack of winners while crushing an opponent. The lesson most fans take away from these matches is that to be most effective they must learn to emulate this style of play as soon as possible. But this analysis fails to acknowledge the foundation, developed over thousands of hours on the practice court, that allows great players to be successful when applying a more aggressive and risky style of play.

Think of your game as a pyramid. Much time needs to be spent developing consistency (the base) so you can simply out-rally your opponents. As you improve technically you will be able to, and will need to, move your opponent around and begin to force them into errors (middle layer). At high levels, building points to set-up opportunities for outright winners becomes more important (top).

The whole pyramid represents all of the options you have to play a point. But note that the top of the pyramid, which receives a disproportionate amount of attention, is the smallest part and is held up by the rest of the pyramid. If you try to build your pyramid ignoring the base and focusing on the top...well, you'll end up with a very small pyramid! Focus on starting with a wide base and you’ll have many more options in the long-run. See you on the court!

Wednesday
May112016

It's all about the rivalries

Great rivalries like those we’ve witnessed between Djokovic and Nadal (45 head-to-head matches), Sampras and Agassi (34 matches) and Connors and McEnroe (34 matches) are the product of two players remaining at the highest level of the game simultaneously for many years. Rivalries are the lifeblood of the pro game, as they result in the sort of allegiances and rivalries between fans of the players that are typically only seen in team sports. This in turn results in extra media attention and interest from non-tennis fans. Just try to find me someone who lived through the McEnroe/Borg era, had access to a TV, and never watched one of their matches!

Two young guns... have clearly separated themselves from the rest of the pack

The three all-time greats that are currently playing on the ATP Tour - Federer, Nadal and Djokovic - are responsible for much of the success of the tour over the past decade. But if you think about it, it’s more than their pure skill that draws most fans in, it’s how they fare when they match up against each other that intrigues us. But the luck involved in having two or more highly-skilled players’ careers overlap means these drawcard match-ups can’t be manufactured. Unfortunately the WTA Tour knows this all too well at the moment.

Serena Williams has been more successful than every male player in the history of the game. But with no one able to challenge her supremacy for years now, the result has been waning interest in the women’s game and a nightmare for the marketing department. The WTA are desperately looking for their next Navratilova/Evert rivalry, which featured a mind-boggling 80 matches. So far there are no obvious candidates. But for the ATP the good times may just keep on rolling with potential successors to the Nadal/Djokovic show having already made their mark.

Two young guns, who finished 2014 as the only two teenagers in the Top 100, have clearly separated themselves from the rest of the pack of next generation players. Nick Kyrgios, 21, famously defeated Nadal (World No 1 at the time) in the fourth round on his Wimbledon debut in 2014. He has since gone on to notch up another six wins against Top 10 players, including Federer, and he claimed his first ATP World Tour title earlier this year. Last month he reached a major milestone when he cracked into the Top 20 after reaching his first Masters 1000 semi-final in Miami. For his part, Borna Coric, 19, also scored a win against Nadal in 2014 to reach his first ATP semi-final at just 17. He continued his ascent in 2015, reaching a career-high ranking of 33. So far this season he has reached his first ATP World Tour final in India and was a finalist in Morocco last month.

The pair recently met in their first tour level match which Kyrgios won quite comfortably. Only time will tell what the duo have in store for us. But barring injuries or other unexpected mishaps, a decade from now, when we speak about the greatest rivalry in the history of men’s tennis we may very well be talking about Coric/Kyrgios. The new guard is finally arriving!

Wednesday
May112016

Tip of the week: Cross-court for safety

If you remember your high school geometry, you'll know that the distance from baseline to baseline is considerably longer when measured from corner to diagonal-opposite-corner as opposed to straight down the sideline. Add to this the fact that the net is suppose to be six inches lower in the centre of the court than over the sidelines (granted it is rarely as much as this on recreational courts), and it is quite obvious that hitting cross-court is safer than hitting down-the-line.

Furthermore, if your opponent’s cross-court shots are deep and/or powerful, trying to change the direction of your shots carries the risk of hitting late and spraying the ball wide. And, if you hit down-the-line without having worked your opponent out of position, they can easily have you scrambling from one side of the court to the other with a safe cross-court shot of their own.

So be patient and wait for a low-risk opportunity. Only if you sense your opponent is not recovering adequately, or if they give you a short ball, should you consider taking a chance and hit deep down-the-line. See you on the court!

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