“Now that I’m losing some, I can see how tough I was—the killer instinct, the single-mindedness, playing like a machine. Boy, that’s what made me a champion.” – Chris Evert, near the end of her illustrious career, in TIME magazine (1989)
Several tennis friends asked me if I was surprised Rafael Nadal came back from such a huge deficit to win the Australian Open final. Rafa was down 2-6, 6-7, 2-3, 0-40, facing three break points.
I replied “Yes and no.” Yes, because Nadal was so far behind, and he faced world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev. Also, the redoubtable Russian excelled on hard courts, winning the 2021 US Open, and defeated Nadal in their last match at the 2020 ATP Finals.
“Don't forget about practicing service returns. This is one stroke that hardly anybody in tennis practices enough, and yet you hit it almost as often as you hit a serve.” — Roy Emerson, from the 1976 instruction book, Tennis for the Bloody Fun of It
More singles matches are played in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament, 64, than in the combined six remaining rounds. So there was a lot to watch and learn from—both from the winners and losers.
“Never allow a player to play the game he prefers if you can possibly force him to play any other. Never give a player a shot he likes to play.”
— Bill Tilden’s authoritative and time-tested advice. From his 1925 classic, Match Play and the Spin of the BallLet the tennis season begin! For the men, 2022 began with a big event, the ATP Cup; and for the women, smaller tune-up tournaments for the Australian Open.One of the most intriguing ATP Cup matches pitted 5’7” Argentine Diego Schwartzman against 6’4” Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas. Three years ago, Tsitsipas, then 20, enjoyed a breakthrough tournament at the Aussie Open when he out-volleyed defending champion and superstar Roger Federer to make the semis.
“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 captured 18 Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles from 1930 to 1945. From her 1968 book, Tennis for Anyone!Sixty years ago, FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow, in a famous speech to a conference of broadcasters, called television “a vast wasteland.” That’s certainly not true of tennis on TV.I find watching the December re-runs of big 2021 matches on Tennis Channel interesting, enjoyable, and instructive. For example, No. 1 Ash Barty’s 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3 victory over Karolina Pliskova in the Wimbledon final treated tennis fans to a clash between players with contrasting playing styles, physiques, levels of athleticism, and mental games.
The title of the last chapter of The Fein Points of Tennis asks a thought-proving question: "Does Djokovic Have the Perfect Game?" I focused on Novak's technique and concluded it's near-perfect with only one relatively minor flaw, his slice backhand.
I wanted you and other readers to finish the book thinking about the great importance of technique, which was the first chapter's title. In the US Open final and the first set of the recent Paris Masters final, Novak learned that even great technique is not enough if your opponent has better tactics.
