suwanee4712
Professional
Agreed! Helena was a bit of shotmaker. Big serves, big volleys, big passes . She was streaky and she played better from behind or staying even than with the pressure of a lead. If she could relax a little, connect on a few, she had a shot at breaking Martina and sometimes Martina had trouble getting her passing shots grooved. Evert had less trouble with Helena because she made her hit more balls that Martina, had a better return, especially if the serve was predictable hard and flat, had inevitably played a lot more passing shots in prior rounds, and she was able to move Sukova around side to side and wrong foot her. Evert took full advantage of the Giraffe syndrome from the backcourt.
Chris always did well against tall serve volleyers like Court, Stove, Shriver, Sukova and Kodhe Kilch, getting her losses mostly outside her prime years ( 1974-1986) when her reactions slowed on that big serve return, and she had more trouble getting started and keeping focused. That single1986 loss by Sukova was the only one involving those 5 players, and it was literally at the very tail end of her 'prime time' Serve volleyers who with a low center of gravity, and more mobile like King, Jordan, Garrison etc gave her more trouble.
That's an excellent observation about players with a lower center of gravity having better success vs Chris.
For some reason as I read the part about the taller players, I had a flashback to Return of the Jedi and the Ewoks rolling logs at the tall, menacing, yet awkward Imperial Walkers knocking them off balance.
I suppose that might be because the taller players were dangerous and loaded with weapons. But against someone like Evert, they were often unsure of their feet beneath them and prone to be caught off balance.