Dinara Safina fought hard to win her first Slovenia Open WTA tournament against Sara Errani with the final score of 6-7, 6-1, 7:5.

Dinara Safina wins Slovenian Open 2009 / Photo by HRVOJE POLAN/AFP/Getty Images

Errani proved to be an extremely tough nut to crack as she played Nadal style by looping high top spin shots on her forehand and hitting fast flat shots on her backhand. She is also very fast and brings back more balls than most girls on the tour.

This made Safina go for more and more and eventually she would aim too close to the lines and play too fast and the unforced errors count was going higher and higher.

Safina requested coaching a few times in the match and Zeljko Krajan, her coach, was telling her a few interesting tactical choices. The Slovenian TV was broadcasting his coaching on TV so we could her what he was saying.

He wanted Safina to get out of the backhand cross court rallies with Errani and play soon to Errani forehand (by playing down the line) from which she would most likely get a shorter higher ball which Safina could take inside the court and hit on the rise. (more…)

Dinara Safina stays on course to win her first Slovenia Open tournament in Portoroz. Dinara won 6-3, 6-0 against Maria Elena Camerin although the score doesn’t reflect what really happened on court.

Dinara first went ahead and Camerin seemed tight to me – she wasn’t hitting well and especially if she went for her shots she missed a lot.

But eventually Maria Elena relaxed, found her rhythm and broke back. Dinara was at 3:2 in the first set struggling to with her form on the forehand (her backhand always works ) and I liked how Dinara switched into lower gear and rallied a few games with Camerin to find her feel again.

Of course, she could afford to do that against Camerin as Maria Elena cannot blow Dinara off the court with winners. Dinara found her forehand again and routinely finished the set. (more…)

Roman R asks: In your article about tennis forehand and backhand technique you say: “at the point of contact the racquet is parallel to the ground and the arm is bent in the elbow.”

Please explain to me, how, this aspect of the stroke, which has been in the game for so long, and is still used by the majority of tennis players, except the best 2!, should be spread to new tennis players. Why not teach the way of federer and nadal.

They both his their forehands with almost no elbow bend. This gives them more fluidity, more acceleration, more reach, and less shoulder problems.

If you hit a forehand with a bent elbow, you end up hitting the ball using your rotary cuff as a substantial source of power – this is why many players have shoulder injuries. If you hit with your elbow straight, there is no stress on your rotary cuff – all the shoulder strain is on your bigger muscles, your pecs.

Golf, racquetball, baseball, all have you hit at full extention, and yet you are saying to hit with a bent elbow? Just cause many do it, doesn’t make it right. What makes it right is that the first people to do it are magically at the top of the game.

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Hi Roman,

I understand your point. I believe the reason why only 2 players (and what a coincidence, top 2 in the world) play like that, is because they are super talented and can control the ball despite letting go of their racquet almost completely. (more…)

Roger Federer has just surpassed Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slams with his 15th win at Wimbledon but one common argument that keeps repeating is that Federer had easier opponents than Sampras.

Roger Federer and Pete Sampras / Photo by Getty Images

I had the same feeling too and while it doesn’t matter for the record books, it’s an interesting topic to discuss.

The goal of this post is to measure the difficulty of winning 14 Grand Slams for Pete Sampras and for Roger Federer. (more…)

Let me just say for the record , that I would really like to see Andy Roddick win at least one Wimbledon since he is a great player, has been improving his game and is really an honest guy.

I’d also like to see Roger Federer crack that record of Pete Sampras too since he is really in a league of his own when it comes to the mastery of the complete tennis game.

So I basically wanted both players to win but that’s of course not possible. So let’s see how the match went…

Roger Federer wins against Andy Roddick in the Wimbledon 2009 / Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images

Roddick started the match very relaxed, hitting his first serves around 135 mph and easily won the first game. Federer showed in his first service game that he can serve well too although the players did engage in 2 baseline rallies.

But the games went really fast as there were many first serves in (around 80% for both players!) and the Federer and Roddick finished the first 3 games in 5 minutes… (more…)

Andy Murray and Andy Roddick started the first set of their Wimbledon 2009 semifinal playing their typical grass court tennis; Roddick relied on his big serve and controlling points with a forehand and Murray changed pace and rotation of the shots all the time; from fast flat forehands to slow backhand slices.

One of Murray’s tactics at the beginning was to lob a lot but none of the attempts was really good. If you read Brad Gilbert’s Winning Ugly, you may remember Brad suggesting that it’s good to lob early in the match in order to keep the attacking player from closing in on the net too much.

You need to instill some doubt in the player at the net by lobbing regularly and then it’s going to be easier later to pass with a short cross court for example since the attacking player will stand further back to cover the possible lobs.

Both players held serves, keeping the first serve percentage very high. Andy Roddick’s first serve percentage at 5:4 in the first set was 85% which is unbelievable for the speed with which he serves… (more…)

Tommy Haas started the first set against Roger Federer with his usual tactic at this year’s Wimbledon; serve & volleying on almost all first and second serves.

But even in the first game it was evident (to me at least) that this will not work against Federer.

Roger Federer winning against Tommy Haas in Wimbledon2009 / Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP/Getty Images

Federer was hitting returns early and cleanly and putting them low to Tommy’s feet. Tommy held his service games thanks to first serves which he nicely varied between forehand and backhand sides of Federer.

Haas was too emotional on a couple of missed shots and that’s not a good sign. Being so tense prevents a player from playing in the zone and that’s what’s needed to win a semifinal match in a Grand Slam…

Luckily for Haas, Federer lost his feel for a few games and made a few unforced errors that allowed Haas to win his service games. Very high first serve percentage helped too.

Tommy served very well throughout the first set even on his second serves. He forced the serves, played very aggressively and prevented Federer from getting into the return rhythm. Perhaps Tommy felt the power and control of Federer’s returns from the first two games and decided to up the risks a little bit. (more…)