weirdest players there ever was?
jet_g...@hotmail.com
clones but who you would rate as the weird ones .
Karsten Brach ?
Leander Paes ?
Those Russians before they had slam winners ?
Edberg himself was bit of weirdo with that camp forehand of his but at
least it had uniqueness that it pratically dead in todays game..
I noted Soderling has somewhat of intersting service action and of
course Rios used to do that one legged thing on the backhand.
The thing is it's the weirdos that usually have the mark of greatness
on them because their biomechanics or skill allow them to pull of
things that otherwise would not be possible , so when I look for
greatness I usually look for weird.
Pete could touch his shoulder blades
Mac obviously had similiar sort of flexibility given his service windup
Graf had and still has the most aggressive slice I ever saw
Courier had the smallest backswing of any player I evee saw on both
wings
so on...
jet-g
Dudewaba
generated more topspin than anyone in history as a result. I think
it's the most unique forehand motion I've ever seen, and the most
difficult to emulate and execute by far. It's really a very awkard
shot to try and immitate, the body movements feel almost contortionist
like. But the spin and power you can generate are nothing to sneeze
at, but at the same time, I think it's a motion that requires a lot of
maintenance and a lot calibration to get the feel and timing for it
right, particulary when facing pro pace.
Bruguera's backhand was also unconventional. As Cliff Drysdale said,
"it's a unique shot" because of the way he cocks his wrist with that
box beam take back. Again, this is very awkard to immitate, and unlike
the awkardness of his forehand, I do not think this little added
idiosyncratic signature adds anything to the shot, just makes it harder
to time in my opinion while simultaneously requiring more prep time
than say the simple straight take back motion of Rios. Bruguera's
two-hander, I thought was rather stylish, but it was weird because the
motion and technique was actually that of a one-handed backhand the way
he stayed sideways throughout the shot, just with another hand
attached. I guess it was kind of like the opposite of the
Youhzny/Berasategui backhands, looks like a two-hander but ends up a
one-hander...weird.
Nevertheless, as one friend said who ball boyed for Bruguera at his
best, he said his groundies were UNBELIEVABLE...as is in good, that if
they were on, he could beat anyone in the world. Obviously, that was
true.
BUT, can you say the same for Berasategui's backhand? VERY unorthodox
shot, but VERY ineffective. If he had a half-way decent backhand, he
would have been regularly competing for slams because his forehand was
soooo, so good, and he was so gnat like quick. Berastategui in many
ways was just like Bruguera in that he had completely unorthodox
technique from both sides, not duplicated by anyone else. But with
Berasategui, his groundies lacked the regal appearance of a slam
champion...in other words, I thought they looked raggedy, like the
flailing punches of a street fighter with one black eye, and a cut in
the other.
I don't really think of Paes as being unorthodox at all. I think he's
truly textbook in every facet of the game.
TOTALLY agree with Graf's slice backhand. I honestly believe having
tried to emulate every pro groundstroke motion there is that Graf's
slice and Bruguera's forehand are BY FAR and BAR NONE the two single
most difficult strokes to emulate/copy. They were in a way counterpart
shots, polar opposites but kindred spirits. One was the most viscious,
nastiest, most knifing SLICE ever and the other the craziest dipping
TOPSPIN hurricane ever. Haha, maybe Steffi should have married Sergi
instead. Can you imagine? A young Jaden-Graf Bruguera hits the
circuit and starts randomly oscillating between MAD topspin and CRAZY
slice. It would completely drive opponents NUTS, they wouldn't know
whether to back up or scoot up, braces themselves for a heavy, high
bouncing ball or dig the ball out of the dirt.
As for Braasch, his serve is unparralelled...unfortunately, not for
effectiveness.
I'd like to agree with you about the top players being a little mutated
or something, but I don't believe that idiosyncrasie is always a good
thing. For example, Edberg. His chicken wing take back was rigid, it
was like he locked his elbow and hence was biomechanically prevented
from generating racket head speed off this "wing." He would have been
better served with a little more flexibility in his elbow action a la
Sampras and Lendl don't you think? Those guys, it was like they loaded
their elbow up...then BAM!
Mac's serve is obvious. It's main benefit was that it absoulutely
could NOT be read. Coming from a lefty, that's a HUGE advantage. It
was like a phantom serve, he could really, pardon the pun, blind-SIDE
you with it.
Courier, I agree with...but again, his backhand was different but not
that effective.
Goran, Becker, and Guy Forget all had uncommonly good serves but also
uncommonly WEIRD serves. Ain't nobody serve like those guys,
particularly Forget with his hanging hind leg like a grass hopper
serve. I really didn't get the purpose of that at all. I can honestly
say he invented a new component to the serve with that technique. But
who can argue with the results? Again, I hate to be redundant,
but...BAM!
blande...@hotmail.com
Dudewaba wrote:
> I'd like to agree with you about the top players being a little
mutated
> or something, but I don't believe that idiosyncrasie is always a good
> thing. For example, Edberg. His chicken wing take back was rigid,
it
> was like he locked his elbow and hence was biomechanically prevented
> from generating racket head speed off this "wing." He would have
been
> better served with a little more flexibility in his elbow action a la
> Sampras and Lendl don't you think? Those guys, it was like they
loaded
> their elbow up...then BAM!
Sampras and Lendl obviously had bigger forehands than Edberg, but I
think Edberg's forehand was more adapted to getting into net behind it
than those guys. Lendl and Sampras would hit those big forehands a bit
more planted than Edberg.It was Edberg's driving instinct to get to
net, and that relatively simple forehand motion allowed him to hit the
ball more consistently when he was wanting to hit and get in. As a
stand-alone baseline shot, Edberg had a forehand that could stand some
improvement in technique. I doubt he changed his grip going from the
forehand to his volley grip. For a guy who was looking at every ball
struck as a possible approach, I can see its merits within the context
of that mission--or at least why it evolved the way it did. He did
change grips and rip the backhand with topspin, but it is easier to
transition to net off a BH topspin than it is FH.
Jérôme
<jet_g...@hotmail.com> a écrit dans le message de news:
1107962152....@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
Berasategui was really unothodox with his FH and BH hit with the same side
of the racket.
Leconte managed to hit weird and almost impossible shots. I remember him
hitting a winning BH passing shot against Sampras in the Davis Cup final
'91. He hit the shot BEHIND his body, and he passed Pete with a CROSSING
shot. I can't really figure out how he managed to do it, especially with
that power. I think he used his wrist a lot. Leconte generally speaking was
really weird because he could play as a n°1 and then lose to a 150th.
blande...@hotmail.com
Leconte is one of my favorites ever to watch. Just looking at the guy
is pretty entertaining. That ungainly looking body, funny looking face
and the theatrics that always ensued as he pouted and strutted around
the court. Somewhat of a narcissist like that other beautifully quirky
lefty, McEnroe. Leconte had the flashiest looking shots of anyone that
comes to mind, my favorite being that swizzle stick backhand that he
would load up and then uncork. Very clean hitter. There have been a
few players who would keep me absolutely glued to my seat for the
duration and Leconte was one of them.
Yama
: There doesn't really seem to be so much of them now in this age of
: clones but who you would rate as the weird ones .
Not a contest, really...Fabrice Santoro. He is almost like some
Evil Mirror Universe player, he violates just about all known,
accepted and decent rules of tennis technique.
Rastafarin
Does another player volley in a two-handed way ? Not sure.
Jérôme
Leconte is one of my favorites ever to watch. Just looking at the guy
is pretty entertaining. That ungainly looking body, funny looking face
and the theatrics that always ensued as he pouted and strutted around
the court. Somewhat of a narcissist like that other beautifully quirky
lefty, McEnroe. Leconte had the flashiest looking shots of anyone that
comes to mind, my favorite being that swizzle stick backhand that he
would load up and then uncork. Very clean hitter. There have been a
few players who would keep me absolutely glued to my seat for the
duration and Leconte was one of them.
Leconte used to be my favorite player, just after Mecir. But obviously, with
time going, we don't remember the times when he was unfit and/or out of his
mind, and when the ball hit everything but the court. I saw some ugly games
when he would have lost to the 500th in the world. But just for the Davis
cup final of '91, he will stay in my memory.
Sawfish
>Dudewaba wrote:
This is just my opinion, but the way Edberg addressed the ball on the FH
side sorta seemed to me like a guy who, at one point in his tennis
development, sliced, or scooted, the forehand so that it would stay low
and hence be a good approach. It would seem that later he had to be much
more selective about approaches (as his opponents got better), and he
found that he had to rally a bit more, but that he never really abandoned
the grip that would permit him to scoot the ball flat.
One thing for sure: watching him rally on the FH side was like watching a
laborer dig a trench with a shovel.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Man! I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!"
--Sawfish
Amy Cottrell
<jet_g...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1107962152....@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> There doesn't really seem to be so much of them now in this age of
> clones but who you would rate as the weird ones .
Among the great players, McEnroe and Graf certainly take top honors for
unconventional and/or nearly impossible (if not flatly impossible) for
anyone else to duplicate shots and tactics. To borrow the line from "Tennis"
magazine, their televised matches should have had the disclaimer: "Do not
try this at home." Those two could do things so wrong it was perfect.
> Karsten Brach ?
His serve was weird, but the rest of his game was more ugly than weird.
> I noted Soderling has somewhat of intersting service action and of
> course Rios used to do that one legged thing on the backhand.
I've also seen Safin and Husarova do that donkey-kick backhand. I don't know
whether they were trying imitate Rios or if it's just something they
naturally do sometimes.
Santoro has the most unique overall game right now. Roddick's
service motion, though ugly, is unique. As is Schalken's ;-). I also think
Schalken's backhand has a degree of weirdness. As for the rest of the
current players, I'm not sure if you would classify the general playing
style of guys like Gonzalez or Labadze (hit the stuffing outta everything)
as weird.
> The thing is it's the weirdos that usually have the mark of greatness
> on them because their biomechanics or skill allow them to pull of
> things that otherwise would not be possible , so when I look for
> greatness I usually look for weird.
But not too weird. Koulikovskaya is pretty weird (hits a forehand off both
sides), but not very effective. And Luke Jensen had an ambie serve. Again,
not exactly a world beater. There are quite a few lower ranked players who
have quirky technique, but it's not a good (or even neutral) kind of quirky.
Sakari Lund
<amy.cottrell...@gte.net.To.Reply> wrote:
>But not too weird. Koulikovskaya is pretty weird (hits a forehand off both
>sides), but not very effective. And Luke Jensen had an ambie serve. Again,
>not exactly a world beater. There are quite a few lower ranked players who
>have quirky technique, but it's not a good (or even neutral) kind of quirky.
I didn't even see the player I am trying to describe, but few years
ago there was some woman in a mixed doubles match. People posted here
that the opponents couldn't help laughing when she served. It was
maybe against Graf/McEnroe when they played or something, why else
would a mixed doubles match been televised. I didn't see that, but I
wished I did, based on the posts here. Does anyone remember who it
was?
nsal...@netscape.net
hit these bizarre spins on her shot, lots of slice forehands, etc.
Zina Garrison's return-serve stance always weirded me out a little bit.
Mirjana Lucic used to stand 2m inside the baseline to return serve
(which I thought was pretty cool, but sometimes a bit stupid)
And I'd say Monica Seles seemed like she'd just landed from Mars when
she first came on the tour, with all her bleached hair, grunting and
double-handed shots of both wings, yet no seeming ability to lob,
volley or serve...
blande...@hotmail.com
Ah, there is intelligent life here. I think you are largely correct.
Edberg was probably a regular Mike Scarpitti of the kiddie circuit,
carving them all up with the forehand slice until they started whooping
up on it as he got older and better competition.
>
> One thing for sure: watching him rally on the FH side was like
watching a
> laborer dig a trench with a shovel.
I always thought that understanding its evolution and purpose eased the
pain of looking at it a little.
StephenJ
> This is just my opinion, but the way Edberg addressed the ball on the FH
> side sorta seemed to me like a guy who, at one point in his tennis
> development, sliced, or scooted, the forehand so that it would stay low
> and hence be a good approach.
Yes, Edberg's forehand was designed to be an approach shot, he never wanted
to stay back and rally so it wasn't designed to be a rally shot. The idea
was to hit the FH with an eye to following it in.
--
I do not think the United States would come to an end if
we lost our power to declare an Act of Congress void. I do
think the Union would be imperiled if we could not make
that declaration as to the laws of the several States.
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, on the SCOTUS
StephenJ
> shot, but VERY ineffective.
B's backhand was the most "mutant" shot i've ever seen. He essentially
didn't change his FH grip - an extreme top-spin grip - to hit his bh...
> Bruguera's forehand .....the craziest dipping
> TOPSPIN hurricane ever.
You must never have seen Borg's return of serve...or even some of conchita
martinez's forehands...
> For example, Edberg. His chicken wing take back was rigid, it
> was like he locked his elbow and hence was biomechanically prevented
> from generating racket head speed off this "wing."
Yes, but it served a purpose: the "wing" stroke allowed him to scoop over
the ball and drive it very low over the net, which was pretty effective as
an approach....
Amy Cottrell
"Sakari Lund" <sakar...@welho.com> wrote in message
news:ea8l01h5q434v55kj...@4ax.com...
She was one of the lower ranked players I was thinking of :-). Melicharova.
Her serve had so many hitches in it that she would have been great at tying
knots. Graf and Mac didn't laugh during play, but on the first change over
McEnroe had a "Wow, that's bad!" look on his face and Graf covered her mouth
with a towel. The crowd had to be asked not to laugh during Melicharova's
serve, which they tried to do with some measure of success. I'm sure there
are many more serves like that (and balky forehands and floppy backhands) to
be seen at Challengers and satellite events.
The Terminator
Unfortunately she never improved on that and that eventually led to her
downfall
nsal...@netscape.net
abilities speaks silent volumes...though her serve improved
dramatically after 1993
Robert B. Waltz
[ ... ]
> She was one of the lower ranked players I was thinking of :-). Melicharova.
> Her serve had so many hitches in it that she would have been great at tying
> knots. Graf and Mac didn't laugh during play, but on the first change over
> McEnroe had a "Wow, that's bad!" look on his face and Graf covered her mouth
> with a towel. The crowd had to be asked not to laugh during Melicharova's
> serve, which they tried to do with some measure of success. I'm sure there
> are many more serves like that (and balky forehands and floppy backhands) to
> be seen at Challengers and satellite events.
Surprisingly few at Challengers. Most players who play at that
level are fairly sound. Satellites are another thing.
Over the past four years, I've seen about 60 different players
at our local Challenger, with notes on all of them. Only two
really stand out for their goofy strokes: Kulikovskaya, who is
a hoot to watch, and Galina Voskoboeva, who has the stupidest
serve motion I've ever seen. Given that she's about as tall as
the Empire State Building, she should be able to win just on
pure serving prowess -- but she doesn't look at the ball on
her first serve, and just sort of flails the racquet on her
second serve. It's almost scary.
Most Challenger players, though, have standard strokes; they
just don't hit them very hard. E.g. I've seen only about
four players with what I would consider Tour-level serves:
Molik, Majoli, Stosur, and Bianca Lamade.
--
You see yon birkie ca'd, a lord, Wha' struts, and stares, and a' that,
Though hundreds worship at his word, He's but a coof for a' that.
For a' that, and a' that, His ribband, star, and a' that,
The man of independent mind, He looks and laughs at all that. -- Burns
StephenJ
> she first came on the tour, with all her bleached hair, grunting and
> double-handed shots of both wings, yet no seeming ability to lob,
> volley or serve...
I don't recall how she was when she first came on tour, but when she was
stabbed, she had one of the best serves on tour.
LNC
> clones but who you would rate as the weird ones .
The Francoise Durr backhand. Woman must have had triceps like Popeye had
forearms.
L.N.C.
Ted of Ted's Tennis
news:1107962152....@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:
> There doesn't really seem to be so much of them now in this age of
> clones but who you would rate as the weird ones .
Patty Schnyder. :-)
--
Ted Schuerzinger
http://tedstennis.tripod.com/index.html
An infallible method of conciliating a tiger is to allow oneself to be
devoured. -- Konrad Adenauer
Amy Cottrell
<nsal...@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:1107994255....@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Natasha Zvereva liked to use the drop shot more than most, she always
> hit these bizarre spins on her shot, lots of slice forehands, etc.
Yes, Zvereva played funky tennis, tactically speaking (when she put forth
the effort), but there was nothing too non-standard about her strokes.
> Zina Garrison's return-serve stance always weirded me out a little bit.
> Mirjana Lucic used to stand 2m inside the baseline to return serve
> (which I thought was pretty cool, but sometimes a bit stupid)
Only sometimes?
> And I'd say Monica Seles seemed like she'd just landed from Mars when
> she first came on the tour, with all her bleached hair, grunting and
> double-handed shots of both wings, yet no seeming ability to lob,
> volley or serve...
Two-handed backhand and no net game, lob, or serve was nothing new at the
time. The only thing weird about Seles is the two-handed forehand,
especially since she doesn't switch grips between forehand and backhand.
nemanja
Amy Cottrell wrote:
> <jet_g...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1107962152....@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> > course Rios used to do that one legged thing on the backhand.
>
> I've also seen Safin and Husarova do that donkey-kick backhand. I
don't know
> whether they were trying imitate Rios or if it's just something they
> naturally do sometimes.
I'm pretty sure it was Chang who first popularized this particular
shot, in the early 90s he used to do it all the time. And I've even
seen Goran do it, so I doubt those two were doing it in deference to
Rios.
Nemanja
nemanja
Amy Cottrell wrote:
> <nsal...@netscape.net> wrote in message
> news:1107994255....@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> > Natasha Zvereva liked to use the drop shot more than most, she
always
> > hit these bizarre spins on her shot, lots of slice forehands, etc.
>
> Yes, Zvereva played funky tennis, tactically speaking (when she put
forth
> the effort), but there was nothing too non-standard about her
strokes.
I always thought her strokes were a little bit slappy, but that was
just a function of getting good racquet head speed through the ball.
> > Zina Garrison's return-serve stance always weirded me out a little
bit.
> > Mirjana Lucic used to stand 2m inside the baseline to return serve
> > (which I thought was pretty cool, but sometimes a bit stupid)
>
> Only sometimes?
She did this all the time, in a kind of extreme imitation of Seles, but
without the ungodly timing it required. She would often be embarassed
by totally average servers.
> > And I'd say Monica Seles seemed like she'd just landed from Mars
when
> > she first came on the tour, with all her bleached hair, grunting
and
> > double-handed shots of both wings, yet no seeming ability to lob,
> > volley or serve...
>
> Two-handed backhand and no net game, lob, or serve was nothing new at
the
> time. The only thing weird about Seles is the two-handed forehand,
> especially since she doesn't switch grips between forehand and
backhand.
Seles was always a pretty unconventional player - she took the ball on
the rise and used the short court more than any other player before or
since. She also was the first truly aggressive returner, ushering in
the later era of big returning girls like Pierce and Davenport.
Nemanja
nemanja
jet_g...@hotmail.com wrote:
> There doesn't really seem to be so much of them now in this age of
> clones but who you would rate as the weird ones .
I don't know if Pozzi still plays but he had a pretty bravely
unconventional style, I'm pretty sure 90% of club players hit harder
than he did. Yet he still made top 50.
Nemanja
Robert B. Waltz
Pozzi played Milan qualifying this year, but he's pretty well
vanished. His unconventional style brought him to the top only
briefly, and at a very advanced age. Might have been different
were there more grass in the world -- that seemed to be the
one surface where his junkballing technique worked best.
Javier Gonzalez
> I noted Soderling has somewhat of intersting service action and of
> course Rios used to do that one legged thing on the backhand.
The "one legged thing on the backhand" gives better flow to the body
when doing a fast/hard backhand, usually a very angled one. Kinda like
the non-hitting arm motion in volleyball.
Didn't stop Rios from retiring with a ton of back problems, tho ;)
--
Javier Gonzalez Nicolini
Ingeniero Civil en Computacion - Universidad de Chile
Lloyd
<blande...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> Sampras and Lendl obviously had bigger forehands than Edberg, but I
> think Edberg's forehand was more adapted to getting into net behind it
> than those guys. Lendl and Sampras would hit those big forehands a bit
> more planted than Edberg.
This was because Edberg was the only one to use a continental which is most
suited to leaning in on the ball.
I doubt he changed his grip going from the
> forehand to his volley grip.
No, he didn't - which is one of the virtues of the continental.
Another thing is that it was a flat, relatively soft FH approach which
didn't sit up in the way topspin drives do.
Lloyd
"Dudewaba" <dude...@aol.com> wrote in message > TOTALLY agree with Graf's
slice backhand. I honestly believe having
> tried to emulate every pro groundstroke motion there is that Graf's
> slice and Bruguera's forehand are BY FAR and BAR NONE the two single
> most difficult strokes to emulate/copy.
Odd you say this about Graf's slice. In fact this is the only shot she
played that was TEXTBOOK in its technique. In what way was it weird?
Lloyd
"nemanja" <nemanja.d...@discreet.com> wrote in message
> Seles was always a pretty unconventional player - she took the ball on
> the rise and used the short court more than any other player before or
> since.
Seles was definitely extremely unusual. Before her (or even after her,
Bartoli not excepted) two-hands off both sides was considered taboo except
maybe for doubles.
She also was the first truly aggressive returner, ushering in
> the later era of big returning girls like Pierce and Davenport.
One of the great myths of our time (well, in tennis circles anyway). What do
you think Navratilova used to do on return? Any time she could she used to
move in , take it early, and rush the net. Sukova used to blast the ball off
both sides and Graf constantly ran around the backhand to try to blast
winners.
Daniel Fuchs
jet_g...@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> Leander Paes?
What do you find weird about Leander Paes? Nothing comparable to Mahesh
Bhupathi's service motion, is there...?
Daniel
Dudewaba
reality CHANG is the originator. He was actually quite good with it,
but it's just that people remember Rios as the orginator simply because
he's deemed "cooler."
As far as crazy dipping topspin...you havn't seen Bruguera vs. Leconte
from the Paris Indoors I bet...time and time again he came up with
dipping topspin crosscourt passes that almost seemed to float in the
air then just dip inconcievably into a delicate pocket of the court on
the pass.
It was almost a routine shot for him, and Leconte really was playing at
or near his most inspired in this one too.
Borg's technique was in my opinion not that extreme, not at all, in
fact, by today's standards. He generated a lot of topspin for his day,
but technique has evolved since then. With the wood rackets, you
couldn't really get away with a Berasategui or Bruguera type
technique...or, rather grip...in my opinion. These guys used extreme
western grips, Borg did not. The thing is they are not alone...that is
the "modern" basis of the "modern" topspin forehand. In my opinion,
having tried out all the grips in depth, you can generate a lot of
topspin with semi-western grips, even eastern grips, but you simply can
NOT generate as much as you can with an extreme western. It's a
limitation of the technique, NOT ability that I'm getting at here.
I have the utmost respect for Borg's game, but there is a reason why
tour observers unanimously pointed to Bruguera as having the most
extreme topspin motion in the game when John Yandell conducted his
studies on topspin in the game. As he said, not suprisingly, Bruguera
generated more topspin by a good margin than any of the tested players,
Muster included.
Again, I'm not equating this to "greatness," I'm equating this to the
reality of a technique that was conceived of to do one thing, and that
is create TOPSPIN. It's just like how Korda's technique on the
forehand was conceived of to do one thing, SMASH the ball FLAT.
Two polar opposites of technique, both capable of either hitting flat
or topspin, but CLEARLY they are designed to do only one thing really
well. That is a function of technique, plain and simple. Had Borg
used a Berasategui grip he would have generated more topspin, but at
the same time, using a wood racket he also would have begun mishitting
to an unacceptable degree. Quite simply, the modern rackets made it
feasible to hit with these truly extreme grips. Without them, the
technology was simply not up to the task.
Whisper
> Totally agree. It's a misconception that Rios is the first, when in
> reality CHANG is the originator. He was actually quite good with it,
> but it's just that people remember Rios as the orginator simply because
> he's deemed "cooler."
If Rios is cool I'm Waltz's uncle....
Dudewaba
Graf cocked her wrist backwards on the shot during the preparation, and
then violently "flinged" it forward on impact...VERY difficult to time.
I've not seen any other pros do this, simply because it's SOOO hard to
time. What makes it amazing is that Graf did this ALL the time against
every kind of ball, and rarely mistimed the snapping forward of her
wrist. A textbook slice is like that of Stich and Edberg, where they
chop through the ball firmly with little "play" in their wrist.
Check out the photo analysis comparison on tennisforall.org
Well, maybe it's just me, but i always found this an incredibly
difficult technique to emulate.
Lloyd
> I thought it was weird, because unlike the textbook slice of say Stich,
> Graf cocked her wrist backwards on the shot during the preparation, and
> then violently "flinged" it forward on impact...VERY difficult to time.
> I've not seen any other pros do this, simply because it's SOOO hard to
> time. What makes it amazing is that Graf did this ALL the time against
> every kind of ball, and rarely mistimed the snapping forward of her
> wrist. A textbook slice is like that of Stich and Edberg, where they
> chop through the ball firmly with little "play" in their wrist.
Are you sure Graf had a lot of wrist "play" on her slice? In fact if she did
what you say it'd be a "chop" rather than a slice and wouldn't skid as it
did. The chop, which was used a lot in the 20's, died on the grass rather
than shot through as the slice did.
Whisper
> As far as crazy dipping topspin...you havn't seen Bruguera vs. Leconte
> from the Paris Indoors I bet...
You'd win that bet...
The Terminator
hitting the forehand very late and also a very unusal topspin backhand
(which she used very well against net rushers). Other weird weird shots
were McEnroe service action, Borg scooping backhand for low balls (more
like a hockey shot) , Lendl's scooping backhand for low balls (like a
miner) and also Lendl's very high toss and very unothodox volleys (with
minimum wrist movement).