On 29/03/2024 11:51 am, Sawfish wrote:

I saw it.

Alcaraz suffered from what Bud Collins referred to a "walkabout" when referring to Goolagong in years gone by. Combine this with Dimitrov
being dead on the money with his most elegant game, and we got a
straight sets loss for the Spaniard.

Comments?

Dimitrov played the match of his life just about, could have won 62 61.
Carlos didn't have a great serving day, but overall his opponent was
simply better on the day. Also he showed how much better the single
handed bh is if you take the time to develop it. Hopefully more kids
coming through will choose the 1 hander.

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On 29.3.2024 10.31, Whisper wrote:

On 29/03/2024 11:51 am, Sawfish wrote:

I saw it.

Alcaraz suffered from what Bud Collins referred to a "walkabout" when
referring to Goolagong in years gone by. Combine this with Dimitrov
being dead on the money with his most elegant game, and we got a
straight sets loss for the Spaniard.

Comments?

Dimitrov played the match of his life just about, could have won 62 61. Carlos didn't have a great serving day, but overall his opponent was
simply better on the day.  Also he showed how much better the single
handed bh is if you take the time to develop it.

I wouldn't go that far but I like the BH that finishes off this rally

https://youtu.be/8sURU9bssQc?t=129

Tsitsipas should take note.

There's also a fab volley just before this point. Although the volley is
the easiest shot in the game and basically doesn't count, this one is
dug up beautifully.

--
"And off they went, from here to there,
The bear, the bear, and the maiden fair"
-- Traditional

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On 29/03/2024 9:11 pm, Pelle Svanslös wrote:

On 29.3.2024 10.31, Whisper wrote:

On 29/03/2024 11:51 am, Sawfish wrote:

I saw it.

Alcaraz suffered from what Bud Collins referred to a "walkabout" when
referring to Goolagong in years gone by. Combine this with Dimitrov
being dead on the money with his most elegant game, and we got a
straight sets loss for the Spaniard.

Comments?

Dimitrov played the match of his life just about, could have won 62
61. Carlos didn't have a great serving day, but overall his opponent
was simply better on the day.  Also he showed how much better the
single handed bh is if you take the time to develop it.

I wouldn't go that far but I like the BH that finishes off this rally

https://youtu.be/8sURU9bssQc?t=129

Tsitsipas should take note.

There's also a fab volley just before this point. Although the volley is
the easiest shot in the game and basically doesn't count, this one is
dug up beautifully.

Not sure what sort of drugs you need to be on to conclude the volley is
the easiest shot in the game lol. Edberg, McEnroe, Roche etc made it
look effortless, the big 3 make it look very difficult. Volleying is
not just about getting it over the net - that's what a lot of modern
players do and they are easily passed on the next shot. It's incredibly difficult to hit volleys for outright winners or that put your opponent
on the defensive.

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On 30/03/2024 3:06 am, Sawfish wrote:

On 3/29/24 1:31 AM, Whisper wrote:

On 29/03/2024 11:51 am, Sawfish wrote:

I saw it.

Alcaraz suffered from what Bud Collins referred to a "walkabout" when
referring to Goolagong in years gone by. Combine this with Dimitrov
being dead on the money with his most elegant game, and we got a
straight sets loss for the Spaniard.

Comments?

Dimitrov played the match of his life just about, could have won 62
61. Carlos didn't have a great serving day, but overall his opponent
was simply better on the day.  Also he showed how much better the
single handed bh is if you take the time to develop it. Hopefully more
kids coming through will choose the 1 hander.

I agree about two things you mention: bad serve day for Alcaraz, and
Dimitrov was uncannily "on".

You know, when he's like that, he has notable similarities to Fed in
terms of graceful delivery and flexibility of shot selections especially
from the BH.

Yes, but the difference with Federer is he almost never missed. I watch Dimitrov v Zverev and you see the Fed like skills, but then he hits a
slice bh in the net off a relatively neutral ball, and you're reminded
he's not Federer as he never made those errors.

Aside from that, Alcaraz seemed to miss a lot of shots that he routinely makes. Combined with zilch serve, it did him in against a superior
opponent having an "on" day.

Yes, but I'm not overly concerned. He just won Indian Wells and beat
Sinner along the way to remind us of his pedigree. I think his ceiling
is higher than anyone. I think he's going to be a monster on clay this
year. It's funny as I think clay is his best surface but he's won the 2
fast court slams already. This is largely due to his youth and not
being around long enough, we forget how young he is. He looked awesome
on clay last year up until the cramps hit. I fully expect him to win FO
this year, and pretty easily I reckon. He'll have FO, Wim and USO at
age 20. Nadal is the youngest career slammer at 24 and Carlos is likely
to smash that.

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On 3/29/2024 3:31 AM, Whisper wrote:

On 29/03/2024 11:51 am, Sawfish wrote:

I saw it.

Alcaraz suffered from what Bud Collins referred to a "walkabout" when
referring to Goolagong in years gone by. Combine this with Dimitrov
being dead on the money with his most elegant game, and we got a
straight sets loss for the Spaniard.

Comments?

Dimitrov played the match of his life just about, could have won 62 61. Carlos didn't have a great serving day, but overall his opponent was
simply better on the day.  Also he showed how much better the single
handed bh is if you take the time to develop it. Hopefully more kids
coming through will choose the 1 hander.

Yes on the one-handed backhand! Yes, 100% yes! Not easy to do a slice,
then an angry top spin, then a fast line drive, and then a point ending
drop shot with a two-handed backhand, all in the same point.
--
---------------
Scall5

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On 3/29/2024 11:13 AM, Sawfish wrote:

On 3/29/24 7:45 AM, Whisper wrote:

On 29/03/2024 9:11 pm, Pelle Svanslös wrote:

On 29.3.2024 10.31, Whisper wrote:

On 29/03/2024 11:51 am, Sawfish wrote:

I saw it.

Alcaraz suffered from what Bud Collins referred to a "walkabout"
when referring to Goolagong in years gone by. Combine this with
Dimitrov being dead on the money with his most elegant game, and we
got a straight sets loss for the Spaniard.

Comments?

Dimitrov played the match of his life just about, could have won 62
61. Carlos didn't have a great serving day, but overall his opponent
was simply better on the day.  Also he showed how much better the
single handed bh is if you take the time to develop it.

I wouldn't go that far but I like the BH that finishes off this rally

https://youtu.be/8sURU9bssQc?t=129

Tsitsipas should take note.

There's also a fab volley just before this point. Although the volley
is the easiest shot in the game and basically doesn't count, this one
is dug up beautifully.

Not sure what sort of drugs you need to be on to conclude the volley
is the easiest shot in the game lol.  Edberg, McEnroe, Roche etc made
it look effortless, the big 3 make it look very difficult.  Volleying
is not just about getting it over the net - that's what a lot of
modern players do and they are easily passed on the next shot. It's
incredibly difficult to hit volleys for outright winners or that put
your opponent on the defensive.

That's correct about how volleying works, in my opinion.

Many people, like me, learned to volley against players with limited
skill, such that anything you put back over, even if it was puny, would
still be challenging for them and they'd blow any returns. So winning
that kind of volley is no because you won the point, but because they
lost it.

Then when you get into higher levels of competition you get pimp slapped
for a while by mobile players who get to your weak volley in plenty of
time to either pass you, or force feed the ball down your throat.

So yeah, it's not hard to take the ball out not the air and get it into
play, but it gets real hard to survive up there unless you actually
place it well.

Placement is everything in the volley shot, agreed. To do it one needs
cat like reflexes and incredible footwork. So beautiful when a player
can do it multiple times in a match.
--
---------------
Scall5

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