ATP…Rio de Janeiro ATP 500, Marseille ATP 250, Del Ray 250

[don_budge]

Three more ATP tournaments this week. Same as last week…one 500 event and two 250 events. All zero's in my book…no Roger Federer. But there must be some interest in these events. The best tennis players in the world! Come on aficionados.

Juan Martin Del Potro to attempt yet another comeback in Del Ray Beach, Florida. Nadal playing in Rio. Somebody must be playing in Marseille…I guess Stan Wawrinka is. I wonder if he will show up to win…or just show up.

[klacr]

Three more ATP tournaments this week. Same as last week…one 500 event and two 250 events. All zero's in my book…no Roger Federer. But there must be some interest in these events. The best tennis players in the world! Come on aficionados.

Juan Martin Del Potro to attempt yet another comeback in Del Ray Beach, Florida. Nadal playing in Rio. Somebody must be playing in Marseille…I guess Stan Wawrinka is. I wonder if he will show up to win…or just show up.

Del Potro in my neighborhood. The Big Argentine has decided to make my home tournament the first stop on his comeback. Delray Beach is only a
250 event, but for players who have given it a chance, usually return. You can't beat the weather, the beaches and Atlantic Avenue, full of restaurants and shops.

Kevin Anderson is the top seed, he lives in Delray Beach, so fortunately for him, he's sleeping in his own bed this week. Bernard Tomic makes an appearance, as does Big Ivo Karlovic, who uses the player's lounge as his own personal basketball gym. (The player's lounge is literally in a indoor basketball court) Dr. Ivo shooting some hoops and showing off his dunking skills.

Grigor Dimitrov makes an appearance as well. Many fans excited to see him and tourney director delighted that he committed to the event. Raonic was supposed to be the headliner but with his late run in Melbourne and an injury sustained he had to bail.

I'll be watching the action this week up close and personal. The Delray Beach tennis stadium is a "quaint" and "intimate" venue so there really is no bad seat in the house. But I also have tickets for what they call "Best seats in the house" which is literally on the court. I have those for Friday.

Outside of those 4 names I mentioned earlier, the Delray draw is fairly suspect. If they got really desperate, they'd put someone in the draw the South Palm Beach County Tennis fans love...Me! I actually was discussing with a Aussie pal of mine and fellow teaching pro that we should push the tourney directors (whom we know) for a doubles wildcard. They said best they could do was put our names on alternate list and hope for the best.

ATP would not know how to handle us

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[klacr]

Bad weather be damned, this tournament is getting their matches complete.

Last night the Aussie John-Patrick Smith upset Defending Champ Ivo Karlovic. Nice battle between the serve & volley style.

Dimitrov won pretty handily in tough conditions. Wind was wicked and Dimitrov's one-hander was not the most consistent in the conditions. Fortunately for him, his opponent Dudi Sela has a one-handed backhand as well, and was struggling even more with it.

Tonight at 8pm is the return of Del Potro. Crowd will be pumped up!

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stroke]

I saw Tomic's match, not much of an effort by Tomic the tank engine in a straight set loss. The Tennis Channel then switched their coverage to Marseille for the Kyrgios vs Popisil match, which was a real routine win by Nick. I wonder how many Majors David Ferrer would have won if he had Nick's game and physical attributes.

[klacr]

Tomic comes to Delray Beach for the sand, surf and attractive women. He was out late last night enjoying all three. Oh, you mean he was supposed to play tennis?

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[gzhpcu]

Glad to see Del Potro win last night. He hits his serve like Kuerten: straight arm toss forward, no rotary toss. http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...eTossSide1.mov

[klacr]

He's still thumping that forehand as well. Last night, Delray Beach turned into Tandil, Argentina. Loaded with latin fans, at some points, I could've sworn I was the only gringo there.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stroke]

Delpo has one of the best forehands in tennis to me, right there with Fed, Nadal, Verdasco

[klacr]

Seeing it in person, up close, I can't disagree with you stroke. It's an awesome site when he unleashes it.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[stroke]

That is a key, I have seen all 4 of those up close also. As you know, it is much easier to access and appreciate these fh's when you see them up close in person.

[stotty]

Half rotary...

Glad to see Del Potro win last night. He hits his serve like Kuerten: straight arm toss forward, no rotary toss. http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...eTossSide1.mov

Del Potro does have a half-rotary. A half-rotary cannot be detected so well from the side view. A rear view picks it out better.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/juan_martin_del_potro/jmd_serve/jmd_toss/jmd_toss.html?JMD1stSAdTossRear.mov

The front view also reveals how much of a rotary toss there is. There is usually always some. Tim Henman has the least I can think of.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/timhenman/th_serve/th_toss/th_toss.html?TH2ndSDeuceTossFront1.mov

I saw a tour player with virtually no rotary toss...purely linear. His name escapes me but if I can think of it I'll post it. But I know what Phil means. Some players lower their tossing arm to the thigh then retrace the same route back up, while other players lower the tossing arm to the thigh and then circulate the arm outwards and up.

Soderling has a minimal rotary toss.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/robin_soderling/rs_serve/rs_1st_serve/rs_1st_serve.html?RS1stSDeuceRear1.mov

Sampras was had an extreme rotary.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/petesampras/ps_serve/ps_serve_toss/ps_serve_toss.html?PS2ndSAdTossRear.mov

McEnroe started in a full rotary and then went to an extremely rotary as the serve commenced.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/modern_legends/johnmcenroe/mac_serve/mac_1st_serve/mac_1st_serve.html?Mac1stSDeuceSide1.mov

But of course perfection belongs to Pancho Gonzales at 1:04 on this clip. The tossing arm rotates until perfectly inline with the baseline and goes up...wonderful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oaZ-49eebo

[bottle]

Useful! A whole range of possibilities to think about. If somebody isn't willing to play around with toss once in a while perhaps he should take up tiddlywinks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-pdglP7J8Y).

[don_budge]

Del Potro versus Gonzalez…Advantage Del Potro (tossing motion)

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/pro_men/juan_martin_del_potro/jmd_serve/jmd_toss/jmd_toss.html?JMD1stSAdTossFront1.mov

I don't care for this term…"rotary". There already is a similar term in play…"rotarded".

Besides…I don't know what it means. I'm afraid that I would have to keep a 3x5 card with me at all times.

But it looks to me that Del Potro takes his tossing hand directly to the inside of his front leg and then he goes straight back in the same direction even though his shoulder are rotating. This is a superb motion as both of the hands and arms are going down together, then OUT together. In this manner he places his toss at about one o'clock in relation to his head.

He gives it a pretty hefty toss as you can see from this front view. This is the view to gain perspective on his toss. Look at how high he tosses it and how far it comes down before he connects with it. He throws it so high because of his pin-point motion. Bringing that rear leg forwards takes some extra time so he has to buy some time with his toss.

I actually prefer this tossing motion to the Gonzalez motion.

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/panchogonzales/panchogonzales.html?PGServeFront1.mov

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/panchogonzales/panchogonzales.html?PGServeFront2.mov

http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/strokearchive/golden_legends/panchogonzales/panchogonzales.html?PGServeCourtlevelSide.mov

Gonzales doesn't appear to make much of a downward motion with his tossing hand. But he doesn't make a total downward backswing with his racquet either. Interesting to note that the three motions in the archive are all rather different.

It's great to see the "Jolly Argentine Giant" back in play and I hope that his injury can withstand the rigours of the tour and he gets back to top form. His absence along with Robin Söderling's have created a void at the top of the game. What a shame…the tour can ill afford these absences.

[stotty]

Del Boy

Del Potro’s absence been a big loss to the game. He is one of the few players who can take the big names down so losing him for such long periods here and there has been a big blow. Let’s just hope he remains injury free for the rest of his career.

[gzhpcu]

Staholvsky had match balls against Wawrinka, but lost. Still, he played a great serve and volley match. Too bad, because apparently by losing he will sink down to about 95... Can't understand it, he is a lot better... Anyway, an interesting player like Dustin Brown - low ranking, but high entertainment value.