Interesting how tennis has progressed through the years from serve being the be all and end all when starting a point to now return almost taking that advantage away.
Agassi, anointed by McEnroe as the game's best returner following his 1992 Wimbledon semifinal destruction of the New Yorker, said Novak Djokovic's elastic ability to both attack and defend off the return makes the second-ranked Serbian the best returner tennis has seen.
"When Lleyton Hewitt came along I remember thinking, 'How does Hewitt's return game compare?' Because Hewitt has so much lateral coverage and he puts so many balls back in play," Agassi said. "The same with Federer—he gets so many balls back in play. Well, if you can take the best of me, the best of Hewitt, and the best of Federer and then you stick it in one guy, that's Djokovic. Because the truth is Djokovic can stay right up on the baseline and hurt you with the return if he chooses to, or he can stand back and defend if he needs to.
"See, Hewitt really didn't have the ability to hurt you off the first serve. He could hurt you occasionally off the second serve. I had the ability to always hurt you, but I got aced a lot because I took educated chances. Djokovic has the ability to do both and his pocket is bigger than mine and the ball above his shoulder—he handles that better than I did."
Is return, consolidate and attack the new serve and volley?
The Returning Game
posted on 19/7/12
Fed is just as good as any, probably better than Murray.
Agassi didn't have to deal with the likes of Isner to start with.
The point is not in returning itself, but in the way that a good return enables a player to turn it around into instant attack.
If it was that easy, rotla, they'd all be doing it.
Return has always been an unsung shot, and is one of the most diffiucult ones , in my opinion. It's much easier to volley than return.
posted on 19/7/12
Agassi didn't deal with Isner and Karlovic but certainly dealt well with Goran, Kraji, Becker, Pete.. certainly well enough for me to say he wouldn't have any more trouble facing Karlovic and Isner than he did against them.
Fed's returning has been always among the best, it has to be for any player who commands the success as he does.
I agree about your point of making a good return and not just a return. I didn't say its easy, but it certainly has become easier, to a good extent.
Look here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soJ_FVnijAw
Would you not agree that it became easier to return? Certainly looks to me.
Returning a volleying are different skills. It hard for me to say which is more difficult. It varies from player to player.
posted on 19/7/12
TBH, I don't know if it's become easier to return. Playing conditions have changed, and I am not qualified to comment on how they affect returning, I can only guess.
I'm interested in how difficult it is to return aggressively like Novak does. To me that's an exceptional skill that is the key in his game at the moment.
I also think it may become another shot that the players will be working on (if they can) and add to their arsenal in future.
posted on 19/7/12
Some players' serving can kind of simulate the older conditions, eg. Berdych's serve: it's fast and low, and very difficult to return.
Then you have Isner's which is a terrible one as it kicks so high it comes to you at a shoulder's length.
They are both terrible to return on any surface.
posted on 20/7/12
@nitb
I'm interested in how difficult it is to return aggressively like Novak does. To me that's an exceptional skill that is the key in his game at the moment.
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His aggressive returns are also aided by the fact that he is helped by slow conditions. It allows him more time to see the ball. But I wouldn't put too much into this 'aggressive returning' of his as 'exceptional'. This is due to the following reasons. [ A little discretion needed here, they are just my opinions based on how I see tennis ]
1. His aggressive returns were mostly seen last year. That was a stellar year and his form and confidence was so high, it was like whatever he touched turned gold.
2. His aggressive returns were a lot against Nadal. Nadal isn't the best of servers. This year it was only in AO after 2nd set that I saw some aggressive returning. AO surface is as slow a HC can get ( maybe Miami is a bit slower still ) . But what happened at Dubai MC and Rome and RG?
3. He returned good against Fed in FO 2012 semis. Again we know about the how slow were those Balobat balls. Fed didn't serve well in that match, his first serve % was lowering with the match and went way too low by the 3rd set. Anyway I don't rate that match very high, Lots of BP and breaks for both players lots of errors.. So nothing much about his returning.
5. Djo's opus in this returning is mainly due to the USopen 2011 semis return winner to save the match point. I'm not much fan of one point. It was very close, he was already in 'nothing to lose' mode, on the other day it could have gone wide easily.
6. I see him as a very good returner, indeed he is. but 'exceptional'?? Not so much. Certainly not in these times where everything is in slo-mo.
posted on 20/7/12
The reason why I think it's exceptional is because not many are able to do it even in the present conditions.
You have to take the ball early and the timing must be immaculate.
Yes, conditions definitely help, and there's no secret Nole playes his best tennis on slower (not slow) hard courts, like at AO, but he's just as great at USO.
It all boils down to how he hits his forehand.
I think that's one area he can gain most advantage on in terms of improvement. Quite a lot actually.
His forehand was better last year, and I found it passive most of this year (compared to last) except at Wimbledon. He was beginning to utilise it great and I thought he was going to win it, but then stg happened against Fed.
Can't wait for part 2 at the Olympics
Do you know that the final is best of 5, and the rest best of 3?
posted on 20/7/12
btw, rotla, I don't know if you know, but we have some more topics you'd be interested in here :
http://ourtennisforum.forumotion.co.uk/f1-welcome
posted on 20/7/12
@ nitb
The reason why I think it's exceptional is because not many are able to do it even in the present conditions.
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Who are not able to return well now? Nadal makes so many return, all the top players do. That was the point Federer said seeing Rosol beat Nadal. "Today it's virtually impossible because you make so many more returns these days and conditions are so much slower." . Nadal Murray Djokovic all. Did you see how Ferrer handles the serves of Delpo and Isner? You have any doubt about his good returns? Not me. As I said Djokovic's exceptional returning have mainly been attributed to his last year performance. Prior to that perhaps even an avid fan like you might not have spotted anything about those returns to be calling it exceptional. So his the case this year, they have been good I agree, it has to be, but nothing like what it was last year.
@ Do you know that the final is best of 5, and the rest best of 3?
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Yes read it, it was in the wimbledon website itself given. Good to see that.
posted on 20/7/12
@btw, rotla, I don't know if you know, but we have some more topics you'd be interested in here :
http://ourtennisforum.forumotion.co.uk/f1-welcome
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Did you all move to another forum? I didn't know about this one. Lets explore. Not sure I can handle multiple forums all together, even one is difficult for me.
posted on 20/7/12
We're coexisting at the moment