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2021 Open 13 Provence...ATP 250...Marseille, France
Same deal as last week. Only this time both Daniil Medvedev, aka Mr. Pencil, and Stefanos Tsitsipas, aka Mr. Peacock, should be shoo-ins for the finals. As a bonus there is also younger brother Tsitsipas, Petros, in the field. He's ranked #1,000 in the world and is not nearly as good looking as the older brother. Top four seeds all get byes in the first round.
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Yes Petros very unlucky in the gene lottery. Not nearly as good looking, not nearly as tall, and not nearly as good at tennis as Stef. -
2021 Open 13 Provence Men's Singles Final...Daniil Medvedev vs. Pierre-Hugues Herbert
A most interesting and compelling match/matchup. Much of what I have written about Daniil Medvedev (Mr. Pencil) has been about the difficulty that opponents have in adjusting to his style of play. But along comes the now #73 ranked player in the world who has demonstrated over time that he has the "Tennis IQ" to match up with "Mr. Pencil", who is so aptly named not only for his appearance but for the diagraming of the court into an apparently confusing spectrum of angles and possibilities. Apparently a player who has experienced more success on the doubles court has figured out a counter strategy...going to the net. Congratulations to Pierre-Hugues...you have been accepted into the don_budge paradigm of teaching tennis. A shocker! A player in the year of our Lord 2021 who actually sees it as a possible viability to take the net at every opportunity as a means of putting pressure on his opponent. Herbert lost this match that nearly went the distance where Medvedev clipped him in the end by breaking his serve in the last game. It actually levels their overall head to head rivalry with all of the matches going down to the bitter end. A classic tactical matchup where one player uses the whole, entire court against an opponent who basically is glued to the baseline.
From the French Open in 2019...
From yesterday at the 2021 Open 13 Provence Finals. Herbert employing the old "one-two punch" tactic of the first volley being played to knock the opponent out of position or off balance the second volley angled off for the winner. Modern players "normally" do not play both singles and doubles. Maybe they should be. Excellent tactics in the forecourt from the approach to the volley. Good penetrating first volleys and excellent touch on the follow up. I didn't see the entire match but saw some of the third set. Herbert had a bit of a lapse in the last game but he was neck and neck with the "highly unlikely since 2005" #2 ranked player in the world. A great job of exploiting an opponent's weakest link. Force him to play the game he doesn't want to play.
Interesting service motion from Herbert. One very nice thing about it is the separation of the hand and head at the beginning of the forwards swing. It looks exaggerated but it isn't. The idiosyncratic backswing gives it a rather unorthodox appearance but this is a key element of a great serve.Comment
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Herbert also very, very comfortable dropping the two hand backhand for the one hand slice. He plays very comfortable exchanging backhands with Medvedev in this manner. It also is a reflection of his backhand volley which is really a sweet shot. Good penetration and excellent touch. Monsieur Herbert has given the tennis world some food for thought.Originally posted by don_budge View Post2021 Open 13 Provence Men's Singles Final...Daniil Medvedev vs. Pierre-Hugues Herbert
A most interesting and compelling match/matchup. Much of what I have written about Daniil Medvedev (Mr. Pencil) has been about the difficulty that opponents have in adjusting to his style of play. But along comes the now #73 ranked player in the world who has demonstrated over time that he has the "Tennis IQ" to match up with "Mr. Pencil", who is so aptly named not only for his appearance but for the diagraming of the court into an apparently confusing spectrum of angles and possibilities. Apparently a player who has experienced more success on the doubles court has figured out a counter strategy...going to the net. Congratulations to Pierre-Hugues...you have been accepted into the don_budge paradigm of teaching tennis. A shocker! A player in the year of our Lord 2021 who actually sees it as a possible viability to take the net at every opportunity as a means of putting pressure on his opponent. Herbert lost this match that nearly went the distance where Medvedev clipped him in the end by breaking his serve in the last game. It actually levels their overall head to head rivalry with all of the matches going down to the bitter end. A classic tactical matchup where one player uses the whole, entire court against an opponent who basically is glued to the baseline.
From the French Open in 2019...
From yesterday at the 2021 Open 13 Provence Finals. Herbert employing the old "one-two punch" tactic of the first volley being played to knock the opponent out of position or off balance the second volley angled off for the winner. Modern players "normally" do not play both singles and doubles. Maybe they should be. Excellent tactics in the forecourt from the approach to the volley. Good penetrating first volleys and excellent touch on the follow up. I didn't see the entire match but saw some of the third set. Herbert had a bit of a lapse in the last game but he was neck and neck with the "highly unlikely since 2005" #2 ranked player in the world. A great job of exploiting an opponent's weakest link. Force him to play the game he doesn't want to play.
Interesting service motion from Herbert. One very nice thing about it is the separation of the hand and head at the beginning of the forwards swing. It looks exaggerated but it isn't. The idiosyncratic backswing gives it a rather unorthodox appearance but this is a key element of a great serve.Comment
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Herbert a very good player with kind of Rafter like movement moving forward. I mentioned in another post that he appears to be a much better player than his ranking. And as you said, his serve is very good, just like the rest of his game.Comment
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Not sure about Rafter. Never was a fan. I couldn't get by the Prince racquet. What do you call a person who doesn't like somebody just because of the racquet they use? Racqucist? That's me. A Prince racquet hater. But excellent point. Magnificent even. The way Herbert was closing the net has been a missing link in the game for a long, long time. He would hit the first volley and then perfectly eliminate all the points that were going to be low percentage for Medvedev and then he covered all the likely responses. So many times he was in position for the easy angled winner. He was closing and cutting off the angles to "Mr. Pencil" who is really a master of the angles. Great theatre actually.Originally posted by stroke View Post
The more I think of it the more the Herbert slice backhand is instrumental in the whole ball of wax. The approach shots sliding into the corners and recesses of the court. The penetrating and angled volleys. My dear old coach used to emphasise "crisp" volleying and I don't think that I have seen such crisp volleying in a long while. I venture to say that his volleys are somewhat crisper than Federer's even. It was a game effort for the world's #90 something at the time against the world's most unlikely since 2005 #2. Don't you think so?Comment
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I really was not surprised he got so close vs Medvedev. I have seen Herbert playing singles before, and have always thought he could be ranked much higher.Comment
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I don't think enough can be made of the Pierre-Hugues Herbert slice backhand. Every time I think of what I saw, I realise how correctly he was using it under all types of different conditions. Another way that he was so effective with it was in rallying from the baseline. He gave Medvedev many slices at various depths and at no point was Medvedev able to be all out aggressive. Herbert cunningly bided his time until he had the ball he wanted to be aggressive on or on the ball he wanted to go forwards behind. There actually isn't anything magical about this. It used to be standard operating procedure for 95% of the professional tennis tour. Now it is approximately .001%.Originally posted by don_budge View Post
Maybe it should be mandatory for the professionals to play the doubles. They could double the prize money to make it worth their while. Just an idea. A great idea...that will never happen. It makes too much sense.
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Good eye...stroke. Pierre-Hugues Herberts took out #41 ranked and former top ten Kei Nishikori 6-1, 6-4 (2-2 H2H), #61 ranked Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-4 (2-0 H2H), #5 ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 (2-0 H2H), #29 ranked Ugo Humbert 6-3, 6-2 (1-0 H2H), and finally lost to #2 ranked Daniil Medvedev 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 (2-2 H2H if count a Herbert win in a Challenger event.Originally posted by stroke View Post
That is some over achieving for the number 90-something ranked player in the world at the start of the Open 13 event. Herbert is 29 which is a rather unusually advanced age to have a sudden epiphany about where one stands on the food chain. The record indicates he has been ranked as high as #36 yet this performance was even above that ranking. Performance enhancing drugs? Just a thought without anything behind it except the realisation that this was an exceptional event for him.
He's watchable from what little I actually saw of him other than highlight videos. I wish him continued success as it was a breath of fresh air and it would have been great for the sport if he would have actually beaten Medvedev...again.
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