Tennis Happenings

The tennis schedule is a bit light right after the US Open, but here are some interesting recent events:

Del Potro looking good.   Juan Martin del Potro defeated Andy Murray in a 5-set Davis Cup match.  This match was important to both players, so a victory over Murray in a 5-setter indicates that del Potro is back in force.  Let’s hope he stays healthy.

Raonic loses, Zverev wins in St. Petersburg.  Milos Raonic, the defending champion, was ousted from the St. Petersburg Open by Mikhail Youzhny, a good player who has not played his best tennis for quite some time.  The significance of this loss was the way Raonic lost.  He won the first set and got up 5-1 in the second set tiebreaker.  With two match points on his own serve, he failed to close it out, and lost the third set.  In addition to being unable to win key points on his own serve in the second set, Raonic was broken 4 times in the match.

Raonic, who has one of the biggest serves in tennis, has been tinkering with his first serve this year.  He has added variety by altering the spins and speeds.  The rationale for this effort is that variety will be more effective because players won’t know what’s coming.  However, the disadvantage of this approach is that if the player guesses right on a slower first serve, he can hit a better return.

This result tells me that Raonic has tinkered with his serve too much.  Considering his awesome stats on holding serve last year, I’d say that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  He should go back to the power ball more in my opinion. 

The tournament was won by Alexander Zverev, the teen star.  He was able to beat Berdych and Wawrinka on his way to the title.  This was a fabulous performance by Zverev, who didn’t make the same mistakes with Wawrinka that he did with Nadal at Indian Wells, where he missed an easy volley on match point and subsequently fell apart.  Look for Zverev to become a major force very soon.

Lucas Pouille wins in Metz.  Pouille has really announced himself this year with several big wins, including a victory over Nadal at the US Open.  In this final he downed Dominic Thiem, one of the most successful players on the tour this year.  This was a very well played match, and Pouille impressed with his power, quickness and variety.  The French have a new star here. 

On the women’s side…

Wozniaki wins.  Sporting a very attractive green outfit, Caroline Wozniaki marched through a very tough draw to win the Toray Pan Pacific Open.  After defeating Bencic, Suarez-Navarro and Radwanska, she downed the hard hitting teen Naomi Osaka in the final.  Wozniaki has always covered the court unbelievably well and simply never gets tired.  She seems to have added some sting to her forehand, and is hitting it to the ad side of her opponent’s court more often than in the past.  She has been ranked #1 in the past, so look out for her.

          Tennis pundits are very high on Osaka, who really clubs the ball.  So far her weakness has been similar to that of Madison Keys: if opponents keep the ball in play, she is first to make the error.  Hard hitters need to learn to tame their games and construct points.  Osaka is very young and has plenty of opportunity to harness her power and round out her game.  Time will tell if she is able to do it.