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Originally posted by don_budge
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The women's Austalian Open final was on again here in Sweden on Eurosport. I picked up on it for the last few games of the deciding set. Both players were really battling nerves. The other women was only seeded 22 so it is no surprise she was battling nerves. Sabalenka, for her part looked as skittish as a cat. Particularly as the match was nearing the finish line. I have watched bits and pieces of this thing several times. For one reason only...this thread and the interview sticks in one of the small recesses of my mind.
What I gathered from watching different parts of this match is that Sabalenka hit two first serves the entire match from what I can tell. Not only that...it almost seemed as if she was hitting the second serve harder while trying to create just a little more spin at the same time. This was no biomechanics adjustment...nope. It was more case of hit and hope. Or just possibly...hit and believe. My tennis coach told me that in the case of the second serve you have to be a bit fatalistic about it. You cannot just try and steer it in there. You have to swing at it. It reminded me of a problem I was having at one point in my playing career.
I was in my early twenties and I had been married for a rather short time before things unraveled. Unravel they did. I lost my marriage, I wrecked my car and lost my job in a very short span of time. A learning experience by the way. There really wasn't much more to lose, so I did what I had to do. I picked up my stuff and headed straight into the storm. More losing wasn't an option. When the weather turned, I turned back to tennis and began to enter tournaments again. It was going surprising well but I hit a rough patch. For the first time in my life I was having problems with my serve. I was without a coach to consult with and I had developed some tendinitis in my elbow which was excruciating pain. I was reaching the later rounds and making the finals in local tournaments and things seemed to start adding up. Perhaps some post-traumatic shock syndrome. We didn't call it that in those days...it was called a rough patch. Life is like that sometimes.
My first serve was unpredictable. I really had no idea where it was going or why. The second serve was a complete disaster. Since I had zero clue as to what was wrong I was indecisive and the result was really wild. I was in between just trying to get it in and just having no idea. The fix was very simple...just cast all doubt to the wind and hit the second harder than the first. I think at first the result was unpredictable but sure enough...I started to reconnect to my motion. Something about the nervousness of competition and the tendinitis created some bit of indecision in my reptilian brain and created a rather profound disconnect. I don't remember actually losing any matches as a result of not being able to trust my serve. That is the strange part of the memory of this problem. I don't remember if it cost me.
So sure enough...it looked to me as if Sabalenka just sort of decided to wing it. Her motion is absolutely full of friction as a result of a quirky backswing. You see...between her problems tossing the ball and the timing of the backswing she has a rather pronounced hitch somewhere south of the transition part of the swing...between the backswing and forwards swing. To serve with a hitch as pronounced as that under pressure could certainly produce a bunch of double faults. Her decision to just pound on the second serve made a lot of sense in this case. It was a choice to go out looking foolish and double faulting her way to the lockerroom or to go out looking brave and being fatalistic. As it went though she eventually had to serve out the match. This is what I was waiting for today when I saw the end of the match. What was this game going to reveal in hindsight?
What it revealed was that she had zero trust in her motion. She really made a job of it getting the horse in the barn. Serving out the match. What a nervous finale. She could barely contain herself between the fatalistic second serve and misfiring first serve. She actually did double fault on one match point. The game went back and forth and fortunatley for her, her opponent was just as nervous as she was if not more. It would have been very entertaining if she would have been broken and had to come up with some clutch second serves in the tiebreak. When she finally managed get it over the finish line, courtesy of a rather unforced error on the part of her opponent...she collapsed in a pool of mental exhaustion. She really struggled that game and to her immense credit and fortune she managed to get the job done.
She is still in need of a serve motion "surgeon" though. Biomechanics or not. Whatever you want to call it. A very pronounced hitch in the transitional part of the motion. Friction. Oh my...the friction. Making the second serve a demon you do not want to face under your bed. Particularly in crucial stages of a match. I love to watch players serve out sets, matches and even championships. It is a special time in a tennis match. So mental. So psychological. So emotional. Best to have a motion with zero friction. Take Roger Federer for instance...how many times did we watch him serve it out bing, bang, bye. I miss that guy. I knew that I would.
PS...thanks for posting seano. You are perhaps the best forum biomechanics expert.
What I gathered from watching different parts of this match is that Sabalenka hit two first serves the entire match from what I can tell. Not only that...it almost seemed as if she was hitting the second serve harder while trying to create just a little more spin at the same time. This was no biomechanics adjustment...nope. It was more case of hit and hope. Or just possibly...hit and believe. My tennis coach told me that in the case of the second serve you have to be a bit fatalistic about it. You cannot just try and steer it in there. You have to swing at it. It reminded me of a problem I was having at one point in my playing career.
I was in my early twenties and I had been married for a rather short time before things unraveled. Unravel they did. I lost my marriage, I wrecked my car and lost my job in a very short span of time. A learning experience by the way. There really wasn't much more to lose, so I did what I had to do. I picked up my stuff and headed straight into the storm. More losing wasn't an option. When the weather turned, I turned back to tennis and began to enter tournaments again. It was going surprising well but I hit a rough patch. For the first time in my life I was having problems with my serve. I was without a coach to consult with and I had developed some tendinitis in my elbow which was excruciating pain. I was reaching the later rounds and making the finals in local tournaments and things seemed to start adding up. Perhaps some post-traumatic shock syndrome. We didn't call it that in those days...it was called a rough patch. Life is like that sometimes.
My first serve was unpredictable. I really had no idea where it was going or why. The second serve was a complete disaster. Since I had zero clue as to what was wrong I was indecisive and the result was really wild. I was in between just trying to get it in and just having no idea. The fix was very simple...just cast all doubt to the wind and hit the second harder than the first. I think at first the result was unpredictable but sure enough...I started to reconnect to my motion. Something about the nervousness of competition and the tendinitis created some bit of indecision in my reptilian brain and created a rather profound disconnect. I don't remember actually losing any matches as a result of not being able to trust my serve. That is the strange part of the memory of this problem. I don't remember if it cost me.
So sure enough...it looked to me as if Sabalenka just sort of decided to wing it. Her motion is absolutely full of friction as a result of a quirky backswing. You see...between her problems tossing the ball and the timing of the backswing she has a rather pronounced hitch somewhere south of the transition part of the swing...between the backswing and forwards swing. To serve with a hitch as pronounced as that under pressure could certainly produce a bunch of double faults. Her decision to just pound on the second serve made a lot of sense in this case. It was a choice to go out looking foolish and double faulting her way to the lockerroom or to go out looking brave and being fatalistic. As it went though she eventually had to serve out the match. This is what I was waiting for today when I saw the end of the match. What was this game going to reveal in hindsight?
What it revealed was that she had zero trust in her motion. She really made a job of it getting the horse in the barn. Serving out the match. What a nervous finale. She could barely contain herself between the fatalistic second serve and misfiring first serve. She actually did double fault on one match point. The game went back and forth and fortunatley for her, her opponent was just as nervous as she was if not more. It would have been very entertaining if she would have been broken and had to come up with some clutch second serves in the tiebreak. When she finally managed get it over the finish line, courtesy of a rather unforced error on the part of her opponent...she collapsed in a pool of mental exhaustion. She really struggled that game and to her immense credit and fortune she managed to get the job done.
She is still in need of a serve motion "surgeon" though. Biomechanics or not. Whatever you want to call it. A very pronounced hitch in the transitional part of the motion. Friction. Oh my...the friction. Making the second serve a demon you do not want to face under your bed. Particularly in crucial stages of a match. I love to watch players serve out sets, matches and even championships. It is a special time in a tennis match. So mental. So psychological. So emotional. Best to have a motion with zero friction. Take Roger Federer for instance...how many times did we watch him serve it out bing, bang, bye. I miss that guy. I knew that I would.
PS...thanks for posting seano. You are perhaps the best forum biomechanics expert.
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