Mr Topspin
Semi-Pro
Tactics they say are the name of the game and never more true than in last nights 3rd round battle between Thomas and Rafa.
Berdych's strtegy was great from the start. He hit deep and flat and bossed Rafa around the court, waited for the short ball ball and hit into the space or behind Rafa and then came in for a high volley putaway. This was highy impressive from Thomas who is not known for his volleys but when your approach shots are as deep or wrong footing as his were the volleys are always going to be pretty routine but i still give him a lot of cerdit for executing this strategy so perfectly.
Rafa by contrast IMHO got his strategy completly wrong. I expected him to continue with the grass court tactics he employed on the lawns of Wimbkedon. In which he played just outside the baseline, Hit groundies flatter, served bigger and made attempts to get to the net. That tactic got him to the final albeit against some average opponents. However he still beat who was in front of him and thats all you can do. However, Rafa, chose to revert back to his clay court game of playing 3-5ft behind the baseline and playing an extremely defensive game i.e 80% as opposed to 60%. This meant he lost the 'real estate' battle and was never able to dictate play as he was too far behind the court, his groundies lacked depth, lacked penetratuion and sat up at a comfortable height for 6ft 5 Thomas to unload bombs all night long. Consequently Rafa was being rushed on his second serve, and pressured at the net by Thomas' net rushing game which caused Rafa to spill so many shots.
So IMHO the match was lost on the drawing board.
Any thoughts?
Berdych's strtegy was great from the start. He hit deep and flat and bossed Rafa around the court, waited for the short ball ball and hit into the space or behind Rafa and then came in for a high volley putaway. This was highy impressive from Thomas who is not known for his volleys but when your approach shots are as deep or wrong footing as his were the volleys are always going to be pretty routine but i still give him a lot of cerdit for executing this strategy so perfectly.
Rafa by contrast IMHO got his strategy completly wrong. I expected him to continue with the grass court tactics he employed on the lawns of Wimbkedon. In which he played just outside the baseline, Hit groundies flatter, served bigger and made attempts to get to the net. That tactic got him to the final albeit against some average opponents. However he still beat who was in front of him and thats all you can do. However, Rafa, chose to revert back to his clay court game of playing 3-5ft behind the baseline and playing an extremely defensive game i.e 80% as opposed to 60%. This meant he lost the 'real estate' battle and was never able to dictate play as he was too far behind the court, his groundies lacked depth, lacked penetratuion and sat up at a comfortable height for 6ft 5 Thomas to unload bombs all night long. Consequently Rafa was being rushed on his second serve, and pressured at the net by Thomas' net rushing game which caused Rafa to spill so many shots.
So IMHO the match was lost on the drawing board.
Any thoughts?
