Elena
Dementieva's game has been built on crunching ground strokes on both
wings. Some of her ground stroke play is breathtakingly audacious and
she has the ability to hit with excessive topspin and also to flatten
out her strokes, most impressively demonstrated when crunching high-bouncing
balls for both winners and sharp angles, and in many ways she is a hybrid
of Monica Seles and Martina Hingis.
Seles was the ultimate ball machine, who hit some of the most powerful groundstrokes
I've ever seen in the women's game... and she did it consistently. Dementieva
likewise, though the consistency level occasionally drops off; ironically,
when she is facing the same kind of deep, flat-hitting that made Monica famous,
and which has the potential to deny Elena the time to crank up her loops, especially
on fast courts.
Like Hingis, Elena Dementieva has the ability to find angles and curves in
areas where others settle for the robotic, by wedging the driven racket face
into the ball at just the right time and in all the right places, and it's
a joy to watch: it's also a reminder of the potential within the game of tennis
that caught my imagination in the first place.
Dementieva plays with an extreme forehand grip, with a full palm-under the
(square to the ground) racket, and uses a full-and-swift loop on the forehand.
However, as well as using it to whipski upski much racket head speed
for topspin, she cleverly cuts out the drop of the racket head below the
ball and also uses her swiftloop to generate raw, flat power. For example,
the next time you see Dementieva on TV, study her inside out forehand
on the high-bouncing, mid-court ball. Yes, you'll see her swiftlooping the
racket head but it's doubtful that Dementieva's racket head will stray much
below the height of the impending contact (if at all). Rather, she flattens
it out so the ball will take a more aggressive, direct route. You'll also see
Elena take the ball high and cut the inside of the ball, either deep into her
(right handed) opponents backhand corner, or hit the swerveball into the corner
of the service box.
Elena also has very intuitive hands on her groundstrokes and she is capable
of feeling out some pretty impressive angles when under the cosh.
The
state of her serve has been well scrutinised and her excessive use of
slice on her second service—rather than varying mixtures of topspin
and side-spin— is a little mystifying.
Why?
Not because it is slice, which is seriously underused and a potent weapon when
fully under control. But a slice serve is the weapon of the touchy / feely
tennis artist, like McEnroe, who, at his imperious best, would use it for myriad
purposes on both first and second serves, as opposed to the all-out ball cruncher.
To grasp the flaws of slice you need to understand the nature of both topspin
and slice (see samples of The
Serve): in its pure form, topspin makes the ball dip, whereas slice makes
it swerve from right to left (or vice versa) through the air.
When hitting with topspin, the greater the racket head speed on a second serve,
the less chance there is of hitting the ball out (because the spin makes the
ball dip). For a player like Elena, who shows little or no fear on her groundstrokes
at crucial points in a match, topspin is a far better option, because if the
situation tightens your arm, you can grit your teeth and hit your way up and
through your nerves with topspin—and the greater your efforts, the less
chance there is of hitting the ball long. You can thus hit through any nerves
by being aggressive with the topspin (take Agassi as the ultimate example).
Sure, there's a chance that the topspin will dip the ball into the net, but
not if you've overcome the various obstacles in practice.
For starters, your primary second serve objective should be
to beat the net (another well-used term from my coaching days). If you concentrate
on beating the net, with high topspin, you can then only hit the ball long
(or wide).
The next step is to eliminate hitting long by powering up
the racket head for topspin, which dips the ball in.
And when you have managed to eliminate net balls with height, and
long balls with excessive, dipping kick, the next step is to take
control of your dipping kicker with both direction and by
adding different degrees of side-spin.
By comparison, slice is a real pig of a serve to master in tight situations...
mainly because you are playing (largely) without the safety net of gravity's
friend, topspin. And, unless you have the touch and feel of an artist, and
the total self-belief that puts you way up above a tight arm; along with the
doubt that creeps in when you have time for thought (which serve-time always
gives you), you are always going to serve double faults... at all the wrong
times. Either that, or your going to offer a flimsy excuse for a service.
Apparently Fred Stolle, Richard Krajicek and most recently Harold Solomon have worked with Elena on her serve, and, judging by her recent form, the latter has had the most success at tweaking what is a good overall service action. But old habits are still evident and at the 2009 Australian Open she was clearly placing the ball slightly above her head on her first serve (suggesting a moderate topspin serve), and to the right of her head (for slice) on many of her second serves. Thus she was again hitting the most risky serve at the worst possible time.
By
chance, I was at a London hotel in which Elena was staying some time
ago, and I had half a mind to wait for her to come to the restaurant
in the evening and risk a few questions about her service action, which
has been her Achilles heel and—the other contenders apart—the
prime obstacle separating her from a top three spot.
But I had a train to catch and trains, like time, wait for no man.
Elena
Dementieva's game has been built on crunching ground strokes on both
wings. Some of her ground stroke play is breathtakingly audacious and
she has the ability to hit with excessive topspin and also to flatten
out her strokes, most impressively demonstrated when crunching high-bouncing
balls for both winners and sharp angles, and in many ways she is a hybrid
of Monica Seles and Martina Hingis.
Seles was the ultimate ball machine, who hit some of the most powerful groundstrokes
I've ever seen in the women's game... and she did it consistently. Dementieva
likewise, though the consistency level occasionally drops off; ironically,
when she is facing the same kind of deep, flat-hitting that made Monica famous,
and which has the potential to deny Elena the time to crank up her loops, especially
on fast courts.
Like Hingis, Elena Dementieva has the ability to find angles and curves in
areas where others settle for the robotic, by wedging the driven racket face
into the ball at just the right time and in all the right places, and it's
a joy to watch: it's also a reminder of the potential within the game of tennis
that caught my imagination in the first place.
Dementieva plays with an extreme forehand grip, with a full palm-under the
(square to the ground) racket, and uses a full-and-swift loop on the forehand.
However, as well as using it to whipski upski much racket head speed
for topspin, she cleverly cuts out the drop of the racket head below the
ball and also uses her swiftloop to generate raw, flat power. For example,
the next time you see Dementieva on TV, study her inside out forehand
on the high-bouncing, mid-court ball. Yes, you'll see her swiftlooping the
racket head but it's doubtful that Dementieva's racket head will stray much
below the height of the impending contact (if at all). Rather, she flattens
it out so the ball will take a more aggressive, direct route. You'll also see
Elena take the ball high and cut the inside of the ball, either deep into her
(right handed) opponents backhand corner, or hit the swerveball into the corner
of the service box.
Elena also has very intuitive hands on her groundstrokes and she is capable
of feeling out some pretty impressive angles when under the cosh.
The
state of her serve has been well scrutinised and her excessive use of
slice on her second service—rather than varying mixtures of topspin
and side-spin— is a little mystifying.
Why?
Not because it is slice, which is seriously underused and a potent weapon when
fully under control. But a slice serve is the weapon of the touchy / feely
tennis artist, like McEnroe, who, at his imperious best, would use it for myriad
purposes on both first and second serves, as opposed to the all-out ball cruncher.
To grasp the flaws of slice you need to understand the nature of both topspin
and slice (see samples of The
Serve): in its pure form, topspin makes the ball dip, whereas slice makes
it swerve from right to left (or vice versa) through the air.
When hitting with topspin, the greater the racket head speed on a second serve,
the less chance there is of hitting the ball out (because the spin makes the
ball dip). For a player like Elena, who shows little or no fear on her groundstrokes
at crucial points in a match, topspin is a far better option, because if the
situation tightens your arm, you can grit your teeth and hit your way up and
through your nerves with topspin—and the greater your efforts, the less
chance there is of hitting the ball long. You can thus hit through any nerves
by being aggressive with the topspin (take Agassi as the ultimate example).
Sure, there's a chance that the topspin will dip the ball into the net, but
not if you've overcome the various obstacles in practice.
For starters, your primary second serve objective should be
to beat the net (another well-used term from my coaching days). If you concentrate
on beating the net, with high topspin, you can then only hit the ball long
(or wide).
The next step is to eliminate hitting long by powering up
the racket head for topspin, which dips the ball in.
And when you have managed to eliminate net balls with height, and
long balls with excessive, dipping kick, the next step is to take
control of your dipping kicker with both direction and by
adding different degrees of side-spin.
By comparison, slice is a real pig of a serve to master in tight situations...
mainly because you are playing (largely) without the safety net of gravity's
friend, topspin. And, unless you have the touch and feel of an artist, and
the total self-belief that puts you way up above a tight arm; along with the
doubt that creeps in when you have time for thought (which serve-time always
gives you), you are always going to serve double faults... at all the wrong
times. Either that, or your going to offer a flimsy excuse for a service.
Apparently Fred Stolle, Richard Krajicek and most recently Harold Solomon have worked with Elena on her serve, and, judging by her recent form, the latter has had the most success at tweaking what is a good overall service action. But old habits are still evident and at the 2009 Australian Open she was clearly placing the ball slightly above her head on her first serve (suggesting a moderate topspin serve), and to the right of her head (for slice) on many of her second serves. Thus she was again hitting the most risky serve at the worst possible time.
By
chance, I was at a London hotel in which Elena was staying some time
ago, and I had half a mind to wait for her to come to the restaurant
in the evening and risk a few questions about her service action, which
has been her Achilles heel and—the other contenders apart—the
prime obstacle separating her from a top three spot.
But I had a train to catch and trains, like time, wait for no man.
