BringBackWood
Professional
Why did Mcenroe choose to consistently stand 'wide' when serving on the deuce side and how much (if at all) did it hurt him?
I get that he wanted a better angle for the serve out wide, but I think particularly in his later career when he was a step slower and players were tending not to merely chip the return, it made him very vulnerable to the FH DTL return. He simply couldn't make up the ground in time.
I think it generally worked in his early career partly because his serve was simply better for some reason (anyone ever got a good answer from John on what happened?), and partly because the rackets were making returns made with bigger backswings easier.
I get that he wanted a better angle for the serve out wide, but I think particularly in his later career when he was a step slower and players were tending not to merely chip the return, it made him very vulnerable to the FH DTL return. He simply couldn't make up the ground in time.
I think it generally worked in his early career partly because his serve was simply better for some reason (anyone ever got a good answer from John on what happened?), and partly because the rackets were making returns made with bigger backswings easier.