Tsitsipas Backhand against Nadal vs Medvedev

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Georgepeppard007

Rookie
Watching both Tsitsipas matches versus Nadal and Medvedev. Both players attacked the backhand of Tsitsipas.

Surprisingly, the Tsitsipas one-hander had a harder time against the low, flat ball of Medvedev versus the high, spinning ball of Nadal.

My guess is that the pace of the Medvedev ball was the more difficult of the two.

I wish the reporters would ask Tsitsipas a question like this rather than obvious ones like how he feels after losing...
 
T

tata

Hall of Fame
I think tsitsipas also has a fairly extreme backhand grip so it in theory is harder to get under the lower flatter ball. He has a tad more time to set up against Nadals spinny forehand with a more of swipe like motion than a pull and rotate over with the conventional eastern backhand grip. Just my theory. Could be wrong.
 
President

President

Legend
thomasferrett said:
Tsitsipas has windshield-wiper backhand follow-through - spiritual successor of Almagro's backhand. So his contact point will be higher relative to his height, and he is also tall, so it is objectively high as well.

He needs to develop a useful backhand slice; could be the key to the Medvedev match-up on faster courts.
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It’s so weird to see a one hander with such an average slice. No wonder he struggles on return of serve so much as well
 
Beckerserve

Beckerserve

Legend
Georgepeppard007 said:
Watching both Tsitsipas matches versus Nadal and Medvedev. Both players attacked the backhand of Tsitsipas.

Surprisingly, the Tsitsipas one-hander had a harder time against the low, flat ball of Medvedev versus the high, spinning ball of Nadal.

My guess is that the pace of the Medvedev ball was the more difficult of the two.

I wish the reporters would ask Tsitsipas a question like this rather than obvious ones like how he feels after losing...
Click to expand...
Spot on. Nadal was hitting quite slow by his standards so tsitispas had time. When rushed that BH is a weakness of Zverev FH proportions
 
Sport

Sport

G.O.A.T.
Nope, Tsitsipas's backhand suffered the same against both Nadal and Medvedev.

Nadal had his chances to win in 3 sets (had he won the tie-break) and Medvedev won the last set 7-5. Both matches wear close to finish with the same score and Nadal lost the tie-break due to his misses at the net, not due to Tsitsipas supposedly being more comfortable with his backhand.
 
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mike danny

mike danny

Bionic Poster
Sport said:
Nope, Tsitsipas's backhand suffered the same against both Nadal and Medvdev.

Nadal had his chances to win 3 sets (has he won the tie-break) and Medvedev won the last set 7-5. Both matches wear close to finish with the same score and Nadal lost the tie-break due to his misses at the net, not due to Tsitsipas supposedly being more confortable with his backhand.
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For once I agree with Sport :oops:
 
P

PMChambers

Hall of Fame
The biggest difference I saw was huge % of first serve non-returned. This always had Tsits under pressure he struggled to win points returning and as result never settled. Every rally counts because he was struggling to get enough into play then when the rally got long lost.
Rafael had that in 3 sets but screwed two smashes at end 3rd. Those would have got him through.
 
GhostOfNKDM

GhostOfNKDM

Hall of Fame
PMChambers said:
The biggest difference I saw was huge % of first serve non-returned. This always had Tsits under pressure he struggled to win points returning and as result never settled. Every rally counts because he was struggling to get enough into play then when the rally got long lost.
Rafael had that in 3 sets but screwed two smashes at end 3rd. Those would have got him through.
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In general too, Tsits doesn't have top tier ROS so that's one factor.
 
Beckerserve

Beckerserve

Legend
tennis_pro said:
13/20 at one major, a couple of berrettini opens, 7+ years without a win against djokovic or federer outside of clay

stay deluded about your fake goat bud
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Bud Nadal is GOAT by the standards set by people like yourself. Stay salty bud. Cannot believe you still are not over Nadal and 20.
4 USOs debunks all your comments as well. Cannot work out what is sweeter. 20 Majors 13 FOs or 4 USOs. Have to think about that.
 
ibbi

ibbi

G.O.A.T.
The Nadal forehand started out bouncing up high to Stefanos' backhand in the warmer conditions, hence the dominance of the first two sets. As the conditions cooled as the match went along the bounce gets significantly lower, and it's in a far more comfortable hitting zone, and the turnaround follows.

In the Medvedev match it's like the opposite. His flat shots to Stefanos' backhand start in the more comfortable hitting zone, thus he has the comparatively decent first set, and as it gets later and cooler and that thing is staying lower and lower it becomes tougher for him to handle. Medvedev having that slump approaching the finish line made the third I think look closer than it was.
 
tennis_pro

tennis_pro

Bionic Poster
Beckerserve said:
Bud Nadal is GOAT by the standards set by people like yourself. Stay salty bud. Cannot believe you still are not over Nadal and 20.
4 USOs debunks all your comments as well. Cannot work out what is sweeter. 20 Majors 13 FOs or 4 USOs. Have to think about that.
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wow beyond deluded, stay that way, got a pic of the nadal on your wall already?
 
Beckerserve

Beckerserve

Legend
ibbi said:
The Nadal forehand started out bouncing up high to Stefanos' backhand in the warmer conditions, hence the dominance of the first two sets. As the conditions cooled as the match went along the bounce gets significantly lower, and it's in a far more comfortable hitting zone, and the turnaround follows.

In the Medvedev match it's like the opposite. His flat shots to Stefanos' backhand start in the more comfortable hitting zone, thus he has the comparatively decent first set, and as it gets later and cooler and that thing is staying lower and lower it becomes tougher for him to handle. Medvedev having that slump approaching the finish line made the third I think look closer than it was.
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Medvedev got nervous in 3rd set and that maybe a good thing as he probably will recognise that and ensure same does not happen in the final.
 
canta_Brian

canta_Brian

Hall of Fame
Anyone seen any stats on the depth of shots from Nadal and Medvedev? Nadal looked a bit hampered as the match progressed, did his shots get shorter?
 
G

Georgepeppard007

Rookie
tata said:
I think tsitsipas also has a fairly extreme backhand grip so it in theory is harder to get under the lower flatter ball. He has a tad more time to set up against Nadals spinny forehand with a more of swipe like motion than a pull and rotate over with the conventional eastern backhand grip. Just my theory. Could be wrong.
Click to expand...

Spot on. I always thought the Tsitsipas backhand had a weird grip.

I don't think he will be able to chip and slice like Federer with that grip.

I had a front row seat at the Laver Cup in Chicago for Federer and Krygios. I was completely amazed by how effective the slice can be. Kyrgios was completely bamboozled.

Of course, Nadal was never hurt by the slice.

I wonder how Medvedev would do against the low hard slice ball? I don't think Tsitsipas can hit it, so it may be a future match up problem for these rivals.
 
G

Georgepeppard007

Rookie
Georgepeppard007 said:
Spot on. I always thought the Tsitsipas backhand had a weird grip.

I don't think he will be able to chip and slice like Federer with that grip.

I had a front row seat at the Laver Cup in Chicago for Federer and Krygios. I was completely amazed by how effective the slice can be. Kyrgios was completely bamboozled.

Of course, Nadal was never hurt by the slice.

I wonder how Medvedev would do against the low hard slice ball? I don't think Tsitsipas can hit it, so it may be a future match up problem for these rivals.
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tennis_pro

tennis_pro

Bionic Poster
Beckerserve said:
Your arguments say Nadal is GOAT. Just taking your word for it. Yes i have 4 pics of Nadal on my wall and 7 of his face masks.
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goat that needs wta draws to win anything outside of clay since his 2013, probably getting ready for monte carlo and barcelona as we speak
 
HitMoreBHs

HitMoreBHs

Professional
The discussion was going well with interesting points of view regarding the mechanics of Tsitsi’s BH, bounce heights, ball speed, court temperature etc.

And somewhere in the middle the usual GOAT crap comes up again, as with just about every thread on GPPD. Does it never get old? It was like this in rec.sport.tennis 20yrs ago. Some things never change.
 
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G

Georgepeppard007

Rookie
HitMoreBHs said:
And somewhere in the middle the usual GOAT crap comes up again, as with just about every thread on GPPD. Does it never get old? It was like this in rec.sport.tennis 20yrs ago. Some things never change.
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It will never be settled in tennis as there are too many variables. However, there is a undisputed GOAT in racquetball. I remember reading about him. I will look up and start a new thread.
 
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