The Australian Open provided much food for thought about how to play and teach tennis.
Here are four observations, and perhaps lessons, about the year's first Grand Slam tournament.
Technique and tactics form two of the main pillars of a winning offense and defense in tennis. Indeed, that’s precisely why these pillars inspired the subtitle for my award-winning book, “The Fein Points of Tennis: Technique and Tactics to Unleash Your Talent.”
The recent ATP Finals in Turin, Italy, provided some lessons for both technique and tactics. Here are some of them.
“In no other sport are the strategic possibilities so numerous, the ways to outwit your opponent so rich and varied within the accepted sportsmanlike bounds.” – Sarah Palfrey, a clever strategist who won 18 Grand Slam titles in singles and doubles
When world No. 3 Daniil Medvedev was dominating the second set of his Paris Masters match against Alex de Minaur, Tennis Channel analyst Paul Annacone averred, “Medevev is a strategic genius when it comes to playing points. He knows just what he wants to do. He is such an anomaly. It’s tough to figure him out.”
Just as 6’8”, 265-pound basketball superstar Lebron James could never be a horse racing jockey, whose weight averages 108 to 118 pounds, former junior Wimbledon champion Noah Rubin conceded he was too short to make it on the ATP Tour. So the 5’9”, journeyman Rubin, whose ranking peaked at just No. 125 in 2018, recently quit tennis and announced he was switching to pickleball. In a video on Instagram, the 26-year-old American said, “The tennis court is just way too big and there’s way too much ground to cover.”
What will you miss most about Roger Federer—as a player?
In my recent career retrospective, “Roger Federer: A Champion’s Champion,” one section is titled “Tennis Brain.” It explains why Roger was clearly one of the most tactically intelligent players in tennis history. His shot selection was generally smart, sometimes very clever, and occasionally innovatively so, such as with his SABR (Sneak Attack by Roger).
