Norrie overcomes Machacβs questionable medical timeout
βAnd then Nori breaks Mahaj serving for it at five four, and Mahaj takes a total bogus BS medical time out. I mean, his injury was his feelings were hurt. There's no other way to say it because he looked totally fine. He was moving great.β
Machacβs high-risk style struggles against consistent depth
βCan he make it a lot? Yeah. Can he make it enough? Not really. So when Nori kept it deep, he was getting errors. When Nori kept it low off of his cross court backhand, he was getting some errors. Same thing. Mahaj and he did adjust to it a little bit.β
Koprivaβs backhand power leads his analytical surge
βLast year, he led the tour in backhand winners per match. Part of that is because he does a good job of stepping in and taking time away. Part of that is because he has a standout backhand drop shot. That'll up the winner count. But also part of it is he he hits it very, very hard.β
Jodar and Fonseca represent the next teenage generation
βIt's been awesome to watch the only two teenagers in the top 100, the only two players born in 2006 or later to have won an ATP title, to face off on a huge stage in Hodar's home city. This has been awesome. It's lived up to it.β
βI think the reasons why Spanish tennis has lost some footing in recent years has been, they've come out with just too too many kinda subpar servers. Now, obviously, they've lost footing other than Carlos Alcaraz. You know what I'm talking about. It's just in terms of the depth, it's been nowhere near what it was.β
Underarm serves remain a low-percentage tactical gamble
βDisguise. Well, you can get it off quickly, but it's not ever gonna be a super well disguised technique. It looks nothing like a regular serve. And then you have balance. You wanna hit a drop shot when your opponent is retreating. So their momentum is going backwards, and you're making them redirect forwards.β
Umpires prioritize judgment over strict rules during cramping
βTennis also needs to make a decision about what they want from umpires. Do we want judgment, or do we want letter of the law rule following? Because if we want letter of the law rule following, then that that wasn't gravy. Like, that wasn't kosher, whatever term you wanna use.β