Is anyone else as excited as I am about the show Janowicz is putting on in Rome. The announcers keep saying he should do better when he gets to the faster surfaces like the grass and US summer hardcourts. They are missing the point. The red clay slows down the ball and gives him a little extra time he needs to get to almost everyone else's balls, but it doesn't slow down his weapons enough for his opponents to be able to get to his shots. Last November, I wrote that I thought Jerzy was the best mover
(http://www.10sballs.com/2012/11/02/w...erzy-janowicz/)
I'd seen over 6' 5" tall, but I want to revise that to include the 6'5" guys. He doesn't move like a big lumbering guy on the dirt; he looks really great on it and he covers court really well using his reach.
It's so exciting to see someone going forward to finish points. If he starts to settle the groundies down just a little bit, quits trying for too much on the serve and hitting so many doubles (cost him a key break today) and gets just a little more judicious with the drop shot, he is going to be knocking on that top 5 neighborhood. Double his last 6 months (and he's only got 215 points from the US Open, Wimbledon and Australian Open) and he'd already be at 15 in the world (up from 212 at the beginning of 2012). But he's going to do much better than that. He's going to have seedings the rest of the year and maybe even top 16 seedings by the time Wimbledon rolls around if he keeps this quality of play up through Roland Garros. I love his strokes: forehand, backhand, serve and volleys. The dropshot: forgetaboudit! Just think what happens when he puts on the 10 to 15 pounds of muscle he will naturally add the next 2 years as well as a whole other level of match maturity that he is still sadly lacking. He is like a teenager out there. I'm really excited for his prospects. Who else outside the top 6 has beaten 5 top 10 players since November 1?!
I'd like to see him add or improve his Rosewallian slice to further disguise his drop shot. I'd also like to see him use more kicker first serves as a change of pace and a few more serve-and-volleys on second serves to force his opponents to try to do more with those returns. It's right in line with the great all court tennis Tommy Haas demonstrated a few weeks ago to surprise Djokovic and Simon at Miami. The old guy and the young guy are both showing the veterans that there is still room for the volley in the pro game.
Come on don_budge, haven't you seen the difference here?! This is exciting. Wawrinka, Dimitrov, Janowicz, Haas and even Gulbis. There are actually some interesting challengers presenting themselves...finally! Doesn't anybody else see it?
don
(http://www.10sballs.com/2012/11/02/w...erzy-janowicz/)
I'd seen over 6' 5" tall, but I want to revise that to include the 6'5" guys. He doesn't move like a big lumbering guy on the dirt; he looks really great on it and he covers court really well using his reach.
It's so exciting to see someone going forward to finish points. If he starts to settle the groundies down just a little bit, quits trying for too much on the serve and hitting so many doubles (cost him a key break today) and gets just a little more judicious with the drop shot, he is going to be knocking on that top 5 neighborhood. Double his last 6 months (and he's only got 215 points from the US Open, Wimbledon and Australian Open) and he'd already be at 15 in the world (up from 212 at the beginning of 2012). But he's going to do much better than that. He's going to have seedings the rest of the year and maybe even top 16 seedings by the time Wimbledon rolls around if he keeps this quality of play up through Roland Garros. I love his strokes: forehand, backhand, serve and volleys. The dropshot: forgetaboudit! Just think what happens when he puts on the 10 to 15 pounds of muscle he will naturally add the next 2 years as well as a whole other level of match maturity that he is still sadly lacking. He is like a teenager out there. I'm really excited for his prospects. Who else outside the top 6 has beaten 5 top 10 players since November 1?!
I'd like to see him add or improve his Rosewallian slice to further disguise his drop shot. I'd also like to see him use more kicker first serves as a change of pace and a few more serve-and-volleys on second serves to force his opponents to try to do more with those returns. It's right in line with the great all court tennis Tommy Haas demonstrated a few weeks ago to surprise Djokovic and Simon at Miami. The old guy and the young guy are both showing the veterans that there is still room for the volley in the pro game.
Come on don_budge, haven't you seen the difference here?! This is exciting. Wawrinka, Dimitrov, Janowicz, Haas and even Gulbis. There are actually some interesting challengers presenting themselves...finally! Doesn't anybody else see it?
don
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