christos_liaskos
Professional
For the last 2 or 3 years atleast I've watched virtually no women's tennis. Even before that I never followed it as much as the men's. I watch so much men's tennis that when the women come on that is the time for me to get up off my bum to actually do something lol or I just leave it on in the background in situations like now where I meet be on the computer etc. I like Serena though and Maria and have seen a few more of their matches over the years, to the point where I feel comfortable on making comments about their games.
Last night however before I went to bed Wozniacki was the first evening match on. While I was busy messing about on my computer I realised that I don't really know anything about the world no1's game, and couldn't think of one match that I'd ever watched of her. So I decided to watch a few games to see what she was like, especially since she seems to get so much hate on this forum.
I was pleasantly surprised. Yes there seemed to be a lot of chasing balls down and defending like people complain about on here (for some reason). But I liked how she actually seemed to have her brain engaged in the match. Moving the ball around, giving herself time to recover and cover the court, and unlike what people on here seem to say, when she had time on the ball she would move her opponent around and eventually get them out of position. Yes she didn't have the massive weapons of a Maria, Serena or Kim, but she was able to outmanouver her opponent instead using her tactical sense. I was impressed enough to the point where after recording the remainder of the night session, when I woke up this morning instead of fastforwarding straight to the men's match I watched the rest of Woznicki's match. I'm glad I did.
On a forum where there have been so many threads titled "WTA is full of mindless ball bashing" etc etc, I don't get why people don't appreciate Wozniacki's game a little more. She definitely didn't fit the 'defender only' category for me either as she had some pace and weight on her shots as she lent into them, OK it wasn't enough to hit outright winners over and over but as I said that sort of tennis seems to get blasted on here all the time. Especially when those sort of players have bad days (which most of the WTA seem to have 90% of the time) and they just hit a load of errors.
In the way she defended the court, and when able to would mover her opponent around, she reminded me of Murray, a comparison which I think many have already made(?) Maybe she didn't have some of the outright power that Murray is starting to show he has more and more (although I always knew he had it there) but she showed the same tactical ability as Murray. Maybe that's the problem on this forum atleast. There seem to be a lot of members who are probably lacking in this department themselves and are not able to understand or appreciate this side of the game. Over the years it's most likely these people who have bashed Murray as a pusher etc etc.
Last night however before I went to bed Wozniacki was the first evening match on. While I was busy messing about on my computer I realised that I don't really know anything about the world no1's game, and couldn't think of one match that I'd ever watched of her. So I decided to watch a few games to see what she was like, especially since she seems to get so much hate on this forum.
I was pleasantly surprised. Yes there seemed to be a lot of chasing balls down and defending like people complain about on here (for some reason). But I liked how she actually seemed to have her brain engaged in the match. Moving the ball around, giving herself time to recover and cover the court, and unlike what people on here seem to say, when she had time on the ball she would move her opponent around and eventually get them out of position. Yes she didn't have the massive weapons of a Maria, Serena or Kim, but she was able to outmanouver her opponent instead using her tactical sense. I was impressed enough to the point where after recording the remainder of the night session, when I woke up this morning instead of fastforwarding straight to the men's match I watched the rest of Woznicki's match. I'm glad I did.
On a forum where there have been so many threads titled "WTA is full of mindless ball bashing" etc etc, I don't get why people don't appreciate Wozniacki's game a little more. She definitely didn't fit the 'defender only' category for me either as she had some pace and weight on her shots as she lent into them, OK it wasn't enough to hit outright winners over and over but as I said that sort of tennis seems to get blasted on here all the time. Especially when those sort of players have bad days (which most of the WTA seem to have 90% of the time) and they just hit a load of errors.
In the way she defended the court, and when able to would mover her opponent around, she reminded me of Murray, a comparison which I think many have already made(?) Maybe she didn't have some of the outright power that Murray is starting to show he has more and more (although I always knew he had it there) but she showed the same tactical ability as Murray. Maybe that's the problem on this forum atleast. There seem to be a lot of members who are probably lacking in this department themselves and are not able to understand or appreciate this side of the game. Over the years it's most likely these people who have bashed Murray as a pusher etc etc.
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