Interactive Forum April 2023: Aryna Sabalenka Serve

[don_budge]

There are many ways to skin a cat. You are pretty well versed in service motions going all the way back to Brian Gottfried. That is surely a blast from the past. An excellent tennis player who had superb volleying skills and was an extremely good doubles player. The game has sure changed and not necessarily for the better. Every player has his own idea how to initiated and synch the motion. My focus as a teacher is always fundmentals and always leave it up to the student to find their own bells and whistles. Until, that is, they cross the line of being Fundamentally Correct (FC). My focus is always, setup/backswing. All about aiming. Setting up to aim. Backswing on track to deliver the ball to a precise target.

Here is another excellent example of two players with slightly interpretations about the motion. About how to initiate it. Kevin Curren makes a rather deliberate bobbing motion with the head of his racquet and the number can vary slightly at times. Depending upon what he is feeling at the moment. Boris Becker has a very slight and almost perceptible "bob" as he initiates his motion. But I believe it is there. McEnroe looks a little funny but I wonder how much of it is due to his side saddle approach. Before he changed to this technique his motion was very conventional.

So in the case of Aryna...she has to be setup in order to execute a proper "bob" or "waggle" of the racquet. To synch her body and arms to go back in one smooth motion to arrive at the point where she is aligned to go forwards. As it stands...hers is all out speed. No fine strategy. Little thought about precise aiming with spin and placement. Just guns blazing. This is what the modern game is all about. In the times of Brian Gottfried and John McEnroe it was all about setting up the player to be in position to make that first volley or at least the speedy journey to the net. Don't forget...until the mid 1970's three of the four majors were played on grass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edfiZt05uvE

Thanks for you thoughtful and knowledgable comments...dimbleby69.

[doctorhl]

Net play setup to baseline play setup, to just guns blazing: evolution or devolution of a game?

[don_budge]

Net play setup to baseline play setup, to just guns blazing: evolution or devolution of a game?

Ah...what an interesting question. Evolution or devolution? How about engineering? We tinker and tinker. Knowing not where it leads us. Well...here we are. It's Wimbledon and the wear and tear is on the baseline. What happened to the trailblazer's going to the net? What happened to classic service motions that were all more or less within three standard deviations from the baseline service motion. Exit Roger Federer...enter Sandman. Artificial Intelligence. AI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZj6jaKCjzk

Arnya Sabalenka plays at one in the afternoon here in Europe. I have a vested interest in this one. The service motion has become the poster child of modern serve "dysfunction". I hope one day to have the opportunity to help her out. I would dearly love to design the perfect serve for Aryna. I would love to show her how to implement it. I feel she deserves it. A beautiful woman who plays this sport with such passion and exuberance. She deserves it I tell you!

[jimlosaltos]

It's only fair that having dwelled on the former world number one, Arnya Sablenka's double faults to a fault, that we recognize her progress.

Saby still had a significant number of doubles at 281 for this year, but that's down from 428 in 2022 and 328 in 2021.

And, for perspective, as world number uno for much of the year, she played a lot of matches, 69 which is more than any in this list of the Top (Bottom?) 20 DFers.

Per Tennis 365: "Sabalenka enjoyed quite the turnaround with the service game the past year as last year she topped the double fault list with an astonishing 428 while in 2021 she made 328 double faults. Alexandrova was a distant second last year with 289 double faults, Mertens was on 263, Gauff on 260 and Sakkari completed the top five with 226 double faults."
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2023 WTA Tour season double fault ranking top 20:


1. Ekaterina Alexandrova – 357 (54 matches)
2. Elise Mertens – 324 (49)
3. Alycia Parks – 308 (34)
4. Aryna Sabalenka – 281 (69)
5. Jelena Ostapenko – 281 (59)
6. Liudmila Samsonova – 267 (58)
7. Marta Kostyuk – 260 (39)
8. Donna Vekic – 255 (49)
9. Petra Kvitova – 240 (43)
10. Anastasia Potapova – 237 (47)
11. Anna Blikova – 235 (50)
12. Qinwen Zheng – 230 (54)
13. Daria Kasatkina – 226 (64)
14. Bernarda Perra – 225 (40)
15. Linda Fruhvirtova – 223 (37)
16. Leylah Fernandez – 222 (47)
17. Camila Giorgi – 221 (35)
18. Coco Gauff – 215 (66)
19. Marketa Vondrousova – 214 (53)
20. Caroline Garcia – 209 (64)


Might as well include the Ace list while we're at it. So, yes, lots of doubles but third in aces.
Caroline Garcia leads WTA in aces for the second year in a row. Rybakina is close on her heels in 4 fewer matches, Saby in third well back of those two.
Qinwen Zheng, subject of another of our Tour Portraits, is fourth, with Samsonova the only other women with over 300 aces on this year.
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2023 WTA Tour season ace ranking top 20:


1. Caroline Garcia – 462 (64 matches)
2. Elena Rybakina – 455 (60)
3. Aryna Sabalenka – 401 (69)
4. Qinwen Zheng – 363 (54)
5. Liudmila Samsonova – 337 (58)
6. Veronika Kudermetova – 279 (56)
7. Alycia Parks – 269 (34)
8. Ekaterina Alexandrova – 265 (54)
9. Coco Gauff – 259 (66)
10. Maria Sakkari – 235 (63)
11. Jelena Ostapenko – 233 (59)
12. Karolina Pliskova – 231 (36)
13. Petra Kvitova – 222 (43)
14. Petra Martic – 201 (42)
15. Donna Vekic – 190 (49)
16. Tatjana Maria – 188 (48)
17. Jessica Pegula – 183 (75)
18. Madison Keys – 183 (48)
19. Ons Jabeur – 183 (53)
20. Elise Mertens – 182 (49)

Source: Tennis365 https://www.tennis365.com/wta-tour/2...na-iga-swiatek

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[jimlosaltos]

Coincidence? : Couldn't help but notice that the image of Saby serving in that Tennis 365 article looks suspiciously like ISR to this layperson.

Photo; Shahia jacobs Nov 10, 2023

filedata/fetch?id=102609&d=1699744395&type=thumb

[stroke]

That image seems to indicate to me that her issue is more her contact posture, bending forward at the waist(collapsing) rather than any ESR issue. A Sampras/Fed/Roddick stays much more upright, head and back posture at and just after contact(certainly no inkling of a collapse). They seem to do more of a side bend through contact, rather than a bending forward at the waist. A completely different look.

[jimlosaltos]

That image seems to indicate to me that her issue is more her contact posture, bending forward at the waist(collapsing) rather than any ESR issue. A Sampras/Fed/Roddick stays much more upright, head and back posture at and just after contact(certainly no inkling of a collapse). They seem to do more of a side bend through contact, rather than a bending forward at the waist. A completely different look.

Just noting that in our earlier video and stills, we couldn't find such shoulder rotation. So, wondering if she made changes?

Regardless, she's substantially reduced double faults.

[stroke]

Just noting that in our earlier video and stills, we couldn't find such shoulder rotation. So, wondering if she made changes?

Regardless, she's substantially reduced double faults.

I had just never noticed this slight jacknife/collapse in her serve. To me, that would be the number 1 thing to fix.

[jimlosaltos]

Rick Macci, “Sabalenka deserves so much credit. Any player that hits 428 double faults in 55 matches in 2022 and then wins the 2024 Australian open final with not one Double the rest of the tour is in Trouble."

[stotty]

I saw a clip in the Daily Telegraph of Sabalenka working on her serve just this week. She appears to be using the hesitation point. Not sure if you can view this as I am as subscriber to the Daily Telegraph and not sure non-subscribers can view it.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2024/03/19/aryna-sabalenka-boyfriend-konstantin-koltsov-dies-miami/

Anyway there is a definite change...for the better. It's simpler with less of the previous wrist-coiling around the trophy position.