From: clin@eng.umd.edu (Charles Lin)
Subject: Ramblings
Date: Mon, 09 Nov 92 15:45:38 GMT
Organization: College of Engineering, Maryversity von Uniland, College Park
Originator: clin@capacitance.eng.umd.edu


    Nice to have the "Taylor Stamp of Approval".   My personal feelings
are that the amount of posts to this group are rather low, and I can
skip the ones I don't want to read.  But, rather than rehash that
argument, onto other stuff.

    I was watching a point in the Becker-Forget match which went something
like this.  I'll put it as two righties playing each other, because I
don't remember the point exactly.

    Suppose you are returning a serve in the ad court.  The server serves
wide to your backhand, and you return it down the line.  The server comes
in and volleys it crosscourt.   As you are moving to your right to cover
the shot, there are some options.  (1) Go down the line.  This is the
"percentage" choice since you opponent has just left a gap down the
line.   However, if your opponent is smart, he/she will be trying to
cover this shot.  (2) Go back crosscourt on a wide angle return.
Since you know your opponent will be attempting to cover the down
the line, you go back crosscourt and attempt to wrongfoot or dip
the ball so low that it will be difficult to deal with.

    It seems (2) is most commonly seen among the men's.  I don't know how
hard this shot is to hit compared to a down the line shot, but it seems
to be in most good passers' repetoire.   I have thought of a third option
which I don't see very often.  Namely playing a down-the-line lob.   It
doesn't have to be particularly deep nor particularly down the line.  It
just has to be moderately high.   The advantages I see in this shot are
the following.  First, hitting down-the-line is the obvious opening,
Second, hitting a lob will insure a little safety over the net.  Third,
your opponent will have to stretch to the ball, in any case, making
it tougher to volley.   The only problem I see is that the usual
tendency is to hit the lob directly over an opponent.  Maybe it's due
to the quickness of the volleyer, but I rarely see lobs that go anywhere
besides over someone's head.

    Second comment -- I like the looks of Forget's racquet, but it seems
they don't sell it in the US.

    Third comment -- Isn't it interesting how people have favorite
tournaments?   You see it happen all the time.  Lendl and the Canadian
Open, for example.   Also, Forget and Becker in the Paris Open.  The
Paris Open was a very strong field.  Forget and Becker were 11th and 9th
seed respectively.  However, Forget was defending champ, and Becker had
won it twice(?) before.  Forget may not have been *so* unexpected as
he played well last week, but Becker's revival is something of
a surprise.

    Finally, it's always a shame when they cut away a few games.  ESPN
skipped a few games and went into the fourth.   By then, I knew Forget
had lost because if it had gone a fifth, they would have skipped to the
fifth set.   Still, Forget almost broke back in the fourth.  However,
Becker seemed to play a lot of shots to Forget's backhand in the
deuce court which Forget couldn't handle.

--
Charles Lin
clin@eng.umd.edu