In this week’s Nerdcast, Brodie of Mind the Racket and Juan José discuss how to defeat the greatest player in women’s tennis today – Serena Williams. It not only includes tactical talk, but a lot of high praise for the many things that Serena does so very well on a tennis court. The guys also do a breakdown of what the women’s game looks like at the highest level.
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If you’ve missed any of the previous Nerdcasts, here’s a quick guide for you to catch up:
Vol 1 – What wins tennis matches?
Vol 2 – Dissecting the US Open finals (ATP & WTA)
Vol 3 – How to fix the tennis calendar/season
If I were a beer sponsor, I would give you a call… Great podcast again!
I appreciate your explanations of the catch phrases often used in tennis. Jose, you said that Williams does not get enough credit for how smart she is on the court. Could you give some examples of this, maybe a podcast on “smart players” or “players with high tennis IQs”. What makes a tennis player smart, is it knowledge, intuition, strategy, quick thinking? What does this look like on the court and how is it different than following a coach’s plan.
It seems Serena Williams is a clear cut above the rest-even Azarenka. Although I’d say that Azarenka at her best»Serena like in this year’s US Open IMHO. But she still lost. She had the bigger handful of momentum during the match which could give her a clear advatage to win. But Serena stole the first set. And then she stole the second.
In the 2st set as expected there were a lot of momentum shifts although Id say Azarenka had the upper hand. Serena took it nonetheless by totally surprising Azarenka with her shot direction patterns in a handful of crucial points(which was enough to win the set). It looked as if Azarenka never played Serena before.
In the first half of the second set Azarenka figured out Serena’s puzzle and again had the upper hand in momentum-the biggest and longest of the match but Serena’s 80% held on to Azarenka’s 100. Azarenka was mentally playing at a level way below her seed during these moments because she was making the classic mistake which almost everyone makes except for the most seasoned players like Kuznetsova,Jankovic etc who’ved already tasted Serena’s blood. Which is being pushed to play some tennis that is unrealistically out of their reach-often hiperagressive shotmaking. Thinking this is their only hope in beating Serena. Surprising that Azarenka made that mistake. She was overconfident believing rightfully so that the gap between her’s and Serena’s tennis is closer than ever. She needs to tweak her finish esp at the net which isn’t bad in fact very good-but against Williams it should bear near flawless. Opportunites don’t come so often.
Again like in the first set but to a much lesser extent but arguably even more crucial poitn she totally surprised her opponent with a couple(not more) BhDTL’s. It was the same strategy(not tactic) that Nadal used on Djokovic at the end of their last set.
Also Azarenka should work on something which most other players work on-which is her serve-esp its consistency and a more potent second???????????????????????
I mention Azarenka but could talk about other players. Perhaps anywhere from 1-7,8,9 players. Maybe 1 or 2 mmore talneted. But in real life it won’t happen because they clearly don’t have the mental game or intelligence to beat Serena.
On the other side of the court we’ve seen Serena move and defend better at the baseline than last year’s US Open. She can sustain long rallies better than before without it sucking out her momentum for the subsequent points-well not as much at least. Serena at 32»31 yr old Serena which is troublesome news for her opponenets.
The map directions on how to beat Serena is definitely long,winding often tortuous. There is a small clear path but one wrong turn can be enough…to cost you the match
One could definitely use the help of some technolgy-perhaps something along the lines of Batman gear? Hiding your service motion with your cape as one simple example.
Defensive slice could be very effective in the long run against Serena esp if you make her run and dip for the balls. In the long term this could be very draining on her physique-esp dipping for the shot.
I have to disagree:-) Sharapova’s backhand is better than Serena’s only when she’s not on the run. Just like Nadal’s vs Djokovic. Sharapova can’t believe she will beat her but its also the fault of her approach to the game-like Benoit PAire-relies too much on serve. No multi faceted game. Just one big battering ram head on.
Serena is still the much better poker player than Azarenka. That sums it up for me.
Kirilenko is a smart player like Federer,Henin who varies the pace with a good finish. A rare breed. If executed properly this style works against any player who doesn’t use it as much. Even Serena,Nadal,Djokovic,Azarenka. On the other extreme the most obvious example of a victim to this tactic is Kvitova.
Change of pace mentally drains the opponent becasue they have to invest a much more significant chunk of their concentration to think about the ball they’re hitting…constantly point after point. The opponent gets the honorable sensation that they’re playing multiple players in the same round. In Kung-Fu terms your fighting the Tiger,Crane,Elephant,Snake,Frog,Pelican,Praying Mantis etc. you can name it or eat it through force feeding. A zoo trip turned nightmare. After a while when done really well,you start to develop other ghostly but real complexes of inferiority such as ‘omg this person can add and subtract better than I do’. Thus handing the game over to your opponent through an inferiority complex. Federer,Henin are very good at sitting on that table top which you are upholstering for them with your backside. Ask Murray and Djokovic.
The only difference in Henin’s case as opposed to Federer’s is you might have Djokovic or Murray asking for more. I emphasize ‘might’ because they probably will never meet on opposite sides of that thick veneer of lingerie…publicly at least. Let alone for charity. Just my 2 cents
I feel horrible saying this but you cannot talk about Graf’s resume without at least mentioning Seles, for comparison imagine if that had happened to Nadal, wouldn’t Federer’s resume look like Graf’s?
For me Graff at least should be mentioned in the debate ofcourse but its a bit too easy to say that she’s the goat when she’s won more titles with a much longer career than Seles. Tell me I’m wrong-Seles before that ‘incident’ was getting the better of Graff-she did obtain the year no.1 twice and won 8 majors before she was 20 yrs old. Thats astounding-obviously she had the potential to steal many of GRaff’s majors had she continued to play. It doens’t do any justice when you hardly hear name mentioned in the debate for goat. I would think she should be the first. Just my opinion.
Appearances can be deceiving. Murray might be begging. But Djokovic would be very polite-I mean you can be sure he would throw in a ‘please’ and address in the first person with the proper appellation. Just my 2 cents. Oh well…We would definitely need Batman in his own gear for this one.
A possible marketing ploy (and please be open-minded about it)-for tennis lingerie is labelling(obviously!):’Isner proof’,’Mcenroe resistant’,Roddick prevention,
In any case PREMIUM QUALITY has got to be Nalbandian proof with a musclar arm as insignia. Needless to say the better source of revenue would come from the WTA.