Kralingen
Talk Tennis Guru
On Sunday, an ATP Masters final was played, over 300 groundstrokes hit, and I barely counted even one slice. Perhaps some of the defensive gets could be counted as 'slices', but neither player employed a traditional slice as a rally shot from a standing position more than once. The highest RPM shot in tennis, totally discarded. In short, two players at the highest level of the game had no use for slice whatsoever.
Why?
This is far from the first time, either - having watched close to a thousand matches since the 2010s, I have seen less and less slices as players from the old generation died out and retired. Just in 2022 we lost two of our greatest slicers ever - Roger Federer and Ashleigh Barty - with fellow slice connoisseurs Lopez, Kohlschreiber, Del Potro, Almagro joining them recently.
Trying to rank the top 10-15 slices on Tour is a disturbing adventure. You look down the list and draw blank after blank. The slice is not officially dead, of course, as long as Evans, Murray, Dimitrov, and play, we will still see it used to good effect. Even Djokovic and (especially) Nadal have improved their slices into consistently useful shots in crucial matches over the past years.
But almost no player under 27 even uses it more than occasionally - and the usage rates are even lower amongst the best of the Next Gen.
Statistically, slice rates have dropped dramatically from the 80s and 90s - with ~12% of groundstrokes being classified as slice by ATP data in 2021. And the situation is even more dire on the WTA side, with only Sara Sorribes Tormo and Viktoria Golubic hitting more than 10% of her BHs as slices.
The obvious explanation is that most players in the old ages used a 1HBH and the slice came logically. But, even our best 1HBH players hardly use it anymore; Thiem is essentially a non-factor at this point, Shapovalov's is tragic, Tsitsipas attempts it, but his technique is awful, and Musetti prefers a BH drive despite possessing a decent slice. Even Berrettini, the player widely touted as the slicer of the NextGen, makes a lot of errors with it and has high levels of inconsistency slicing. Ironically, the best slice under age 35 may come all the way from ITF world with Mr. Bernard Tomic, who can hardly move explosively anymore, but still has excellent racquet talent.
So my question is, why has the slice died out as a shot?
Is it a logical continuation of the light racquet poly era, where players can attack slices effortlessly with poly? Is it a function of the academies shifting away from the slice and copying the BH drive model? Is it a lack of racquet talent? Is the pace of the game too fast?
Why does no one slice anymore?
Why?
This is far from the first time, either - having watched close to a thousand matches since the 2010s, I have seen less and less slices as players from the old generation died out and retired. Just in 2022 we lost two of our greatest slicers ever - Roger Federer and Ashleigh Barty - with fellow slice connoisseurs Lopez, Kohlschreiber, Del Potro, Almagro joining them recently.
Trying to rank the top 10-15 slices on Tour is a disturbing adventure. You look down the list and draw blank after blank. The slice is not officially dead, of course, as long as Evans, Murray, Dimitrov, and play, we will still see it used to good effect. Even Djokovic and (especially) Nadal have improved their slices into consistently useful shots in crucial matches over the past years.
But almost no player under 27 even uses it more than occasionally - and the usage rates are even lower amongst the best of the Next Gen.
Statistically, slice rates have dropped dramatically from the 80s and 90s - with ~12% of groundstrokes being classified as slice by ATP data in 2021. And the situation is even more dire on the WTA side, with only Sara Sorribes Tormo and Viktoria Golubic hitting more than 10% of her BHs as slices.
The obvious explanation is that most players in the old ages used a 1HBH and the slice came logically. But, even our best 1HBH players hardly use it anymore; Thiem is essentially a non-factor at this point, Shapovalov's is tragic, Tsitsipas attempts it, but his technique is awful, and Musetti prefers a BH drive despite possessing a decent slice. Even Berrettini, the player widely touted as the slicer of the NextGen, makes a lot of errors with it and has high levels of inconsistency slicing. Ironically, the best slice under age 35 may come all the way from ITF world with Mr. Bernard Tomic, who can hardly move explosively anymore, but still has excellent racquet talent.
So my question is, why has the slice died out as a shot?
Is it a logical continuation of the light racquet poly era, where players can attack slices effortlessly with poly? Is it a function of the academies shifting away from the slice and copying the BH drive model? Is it a lack of racquet talent? Is the pace of the game too fast?
Why does no one slice anymore?
