Wow. Down 2-5 and later down 4-5, 0-40, three match points against, and pulls it out against the much more experienced player. I hadn't heard of her before this tourney. She seems to have a world of potential.
Yeah, it's all there in the first point of the highlights of the match. She smacks a pretty good serve, plays some solid defense, moves reasonably well, and finishes the point with a tough overhead. As you note, all the ingredients are there, and you can also see how she can beef up the serve a bit, tighten up her defense, and move more fluidly. A solid offseason in the weight room should help a lot.
Shes 17 and still fighting in the trenches, andreeva at the same age wins 2 master 1000
Sure and Chang and Raducanu won the first of many slams as teens.
In many ways, it was a great match for her even though she didn’t play all that well, because for many young players, matches in which you don’t play well often turn out to be easy losses. Obviously easy wins against lower ranked competiton is still the strongest correlative factor for young rising players, but I think this was good for her.
Oh man! I had hopes that she will get through, atleast she should get into the main draw in RG.
I’m really excited to see her on clay.
Apart from Wawrinka, none of Mug-Handers on the ATP are capable of hitting a down-the-line winner with this much authority and panache. Maybe Shapo....once every three years.This is a thing of beauty!
Not dissimilar to Henin's one-hander, though Lilli is obviously much taller. Go, Lilli!
For me, what's more similar to Henin is the attitude.
I always liked the way Fred would hit the one-hander slightly inside out, and under big pressure, too. Chutzpah..
One handers are such a giant handicap, especially in the women's game that it'll probably cause a pretty hard ceiling.
That's a possibility, for sure. A One hander is definitely a big handicap, unless you develop a great one. Why do you think it is a bigger handicap in the women's game? the flatter hitting probably makes it a little easier to overcome, or so I assume.
Because women's tennis I think is more about getting in the first strike and rushing the opponent and a OHBH basically has to give up some court positioning to buy time for a OHBH. I also do not think at all that height and wingspan are great for a OHBH, it just makes it clumsy and difficult to time. It's why Karlovic regretted learning a OHBH so much. If anything, I think it makes more sense for shorter players who are also great movers to add weight of shot and RPM to the backhand on a player that would otherwise be likely to be underpowered on that wing. That is totally the opposite of the archetypical WTA player that dominates off clay. It's all flat first strike power.
Interesting thoughts. Thanks.
One-handers are massive handicaps on both tours, especially on return. Aside from Federer, there have been basically zero one-handers on the men’s tour over the past 25 years who have return games that make them consistent threats on tour. There aren’t any one-handed who appear anywhere near the top in RPW% or TPW%. There’s been very few weeks spent in the top 3 by one-handers in the past 25 years and it’s not an accident. Federer himself shouldn’t have won as much as he did playing with an outdated stroke and severe racket disadvantage, but he had once in a lifetime racket talent as well as once in a life time serve toss/placement.
