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Southern Adult Indoor Open Review

A change of pace for today's post - a tournament review! This review is aimed more at the adult Men's Open competitor than spectators, although there is some excellent tennis to be seen. The Southern Adult Indoor Open is hosted by the Racquet Club of Memphis and is a pre-cursor to the excellent US National Indoor Tennis Championships at the same venue. For those who aren't familiar with it, the US National Indoor Tennis Championships is an indoor ATP/WTA event held each year at the Racquet Club, and is the only ATP/WTA level professional event in the world to be held at a private club. The list of past champions is impressive, including names like Roddick, Haas, Sampras, Edberg, Agassi and Connors.

The Southern Adult Indoor Open is held after Christmas each year (typically on or around the 27th of December) and grants the winner a wild-card into the qualifying draw for the National Championships in February. It draws college and Future-level players from all over the south, as well as nationally ranked juniors and others. Let's take a quick run-down of all of the major points regarding the tournament...

Breaking Down Bernard Tomic

The Hopman Cup, named for legendary Australian Davis Cup Captain Harry Hopman, is little more than an international glorified exhibition tournament. Featuring two-person teams (one player of each gender) from eight different nations, the round-robin format allows for some guaranteed matches leading into the start of the tennis season. Given the laid-back nature of the affair, Bernard Tomic's straight set defeat of Novak Djokovic earlier today will hardly send shock-waves through the world of tennis. It may however, cause at least a ripple. After a promising start to his professional career with a quarter-final run at Wimbledon in 2011 (where he lost in 4 sets to eventual champion.. Novak Djokovic), Tomic took a rather large step backwards in 2012 where his poor on-court performance wasn't helped by off-court drama such as a bizarre stand-off with Australian police and another incident involving Tomic fighting his friend and also possibly police in October. With the year ending so poorly for the young Australia, the shock victory over Djokovic brings us to the topic of today's update:

Is Bernard Tomic's Hopman Cup win over Djokovic more accident or omen? Was this a fluke victory over a sub-par Novak in a meaningless exhibition, or is Tomic primed to take his tennis career to the next level in 2013?

Overcoming Nerves And Fear On The Court

You wait patiently, if a little nervously, for your match. There are butterflies in your stomach, but they aren't too bad. You feel a little jittery - a small electric thrill of anticipation. Eventually the time arrives. It's match time. Your heart starts pounding in your chest. The butterflies seem to have somehow grown in size, and possible grown claws. Your legs feel heavy, your hands may even be shaking slightly. You look across the net at your opponent, and his game is intimidating. You begin to wonder how you're going to handle his forehand. The doubts, at first little whispers in the back of your mind become louder, grow stronger. By the time the first point is played, your carefully wrought game-plan seems a paltry thing - by the time a few games have played you're no longer even thinking about game plans.

Does this story sound familiar? Do you find nerves interfering strongly with your ability to play tennis to the best of your ability? If so, read on to find out exactly what those 'nerves' are, and what you can do to combat them.

5 Habits To Improve Your Mental Game

Today's update is at the request of viva_la_albert over at /r/tennis/.

I vividly remember an incident during a Stefan Edberg match many years ago. Edberg was the victim of a bad line call. He walked up to stand underneath the umpire's chair, stuck out his bottom lip and with a sharp outward breath blew his hair up a little bit. Edberg then turned around, walked back to the baseline and played the next point. "That," the commentator deadpanned, "is a Swedish tantrum."

Below is Tactical Tennis's short list of five ways you can improve your mental attitude on the court and become a better competitor....

Technology And Tennis: How And When Equipment Has Changed The Game

We see it in news articles about tennis. We hear it from the mouths of commentators on the TV. Tennis stars of years gone by lament about it. What am I talking about? The effect of technology changes on the game of tennis. Graphite frames? Mono-filament strings? We've come a long way from wooden rackets strung with natural gut. Which brings us to the question of today's article on Tactical Tennis:

What technology has really changed in the last forty years, and what effect has it really had on the game?

Part 3: Why Can't Michael Llodra Break Through?

Welcome to Part 3! We finished Part 2 with a big question: if a 6'3, athletic serve and volleyer is our best hope for serve and volley to return to the upper echelons of the game, why not Michael Llodra? He's 6'3. He's fast. His volley technique is superb. He has a world-class slice backhand and isn't afraid to chip and charge on second serves. His service motion is good, and his serve has garnered praise from his fellow pros. So why can't he break through? At 32 it isn't a question of him peaking.

So what is holding Llodra back?

Part 2: Why A Serve And Volley Player Can Succeed

Welcome back to Tactical Tennis for Part 2 of our Serve and Volley series. In Part 1 we looked at the decline of serve and volley tennis in the last decade. Included in the reasons were equipment, technique, adaptation of returners to faster serves, and the longer time it takes for a serve and volley player to mature compared to a base-liner. There is a decided dearth of serve and volleyers in the top 100: for the year end rankings of 2012 on-again off-again serve and volleyer Radek Stepanek is ranked 31, and the only pure serve and volleyer Michael Llodra is 53. Stepanek is a spry 34 years old, and Llodra will be 33 next May.

The future looks bleak. Chris Guccione showed promise, but at 27 he is now ranked 567 despite his formidable serve. Devin Britton won the NCAA Singles title with a mostly serve-and-volley game in 2009 and while his ranking is on an upwards trajectory at 402 in the world, his rise has hardly been meteoric and he's confessed in interviews to not believing pure serve and volley tennis is viable at the pro level. Is Britton correct?

Can a current professional player be a consistent presence in the top 10 in the world as a genuine serve and volleyer?

Part 1.1: The Slowing Of The Court

A quick(ish) addition to address court speed and how it fits into this equation.

It is true that in general the courts are slower than they used to be. This is especially prevalent at Wimbledon, where they've changed the blend of grass as well as kept it short to allow a higher, slower bounce. We've seen a definitive shift on the grass courts in the past decade. In fact, Jim Fawcette over at http://www.fawcette.net/ posted this excellent video in an article he wrote about court speeds. This isn't an endorsement of the content of his post (some of which I agree with and some of which I don't) but I do wish to give credit where credit is due.

However this shift skews the perception of just how much slower courts in general have become. While it is true that hard courts on the pro tour are slower than they were 15 years ago, we don't seem to have any meaningful measurement that gives us concrete numbers. Why that is is a topic of discussion for another post, but let's get down to business:

Does slower courts really mark the death of serve and volley tennis? The short answer, is no.

Part 1: Where Did All The Serve and Volleyers Go?

This is the first in a three-part series on serve and volley tennis in the modern game.

On September 21st, 2007 Tim Henman defeated Roko Karanusic in straight sets to give Great Britain a 2-0 lead in their Davis Cup tie against Croatia. Although he would team with Jamie Murray to seal the victory in doubles the next day, his victory marked Tim Henman's last official singles match on the men's tour. It also marked the last true serve and volleyer at the top of the game. In the 5 years since, we have seen some aggressive players (Tsonga immediately leaps to mind), they are more all-court players, roaming forward occasionally when they see a tactical advantage in doing so. However, they more likely to stay back than not. Even the great Roger Federer - the last man to win Wimbledon serve and volleying nearly every point - uses it sparingly.

So where did all the serve and volleyers go?

Breaking Down The Aussie Open Final

It was long. It was dramatic. But was it everything it was billed to be? Tactical Tennis says "no." While many tennis writers rushed to call the final between Djokovic and Nadal at the Australian Open this year the new 'greatest match ever' (replacing the 2008 Wimbledon Final between Nadal and Federer), it was far from it. In truth, the quality of tennis was, as a whole, far lower than that played in either of the semi-finals that preceded it.

The Mystery of Gael Monfils

Watching Gael Monfils fight his way through a 5th set with David Ferrer today brings up an interesting question: why hasn't Gael Monfils enjoyed greater success at the professional level? Sure he is currently ranked #9 in the world, with $5 million in career prize money and three career titles. That's nothing to sneeze at. But really if we take a closer look, his three titles were all on smaller stages (Montpelier, Metz and Sopot), and 10 other finals appearances where he suffered defeat. 3 from 13 is hardly a compelling record in finals. And let's be honest - Monfils is probably the greatest pure athlete in the history of the men's professional tour. 6'4, 180 lbs of lean muscle who is fast, flexible and agile. He makes defensive gets that are mind-blowing at times, and he is strong as an ox.

Wozniacki's Shock Loss Not So Shocking

To the casual observer Wozniacki's crushing defeat to Daniela Hantuchova at Roland Garros yesterday may have been a huge surprise. Wozniacki entered the match as the #1 seed, and #1 ranked player in the world. And while she may still be without her maiden Grand Slam Title, she has shown remarkable consistency in her results over the past year. Meanwhile Hantuchova came in ranked 29th, and had failed to progress past the 4th round of a Grand Slam in the last year, including a 1st round loss Down Under a few months ago at the Aussie Open.In addition Wozniacki led their head-to-head battles 3-0, including a 6-2, 6-2 win in their only meeting on clay.

Danger was lurking for Wozniacki - 2009 Champion Svetlana Kuznetsova was waiting for her in the 4th round, and a showdown with last year's finalist Sam Stosur was lurking if she survived that (Stosur would lose in three sets yesterday also, but that's another story). But on paper this should have been an easy win for the world's #1 player.

So what happened? For starters, Wozniacki ran into a Hantuchova who was playing extremely well. Despite her rough start to the year, Hantuchova was already showing signs of turning her season around once she hit the clay. Coming into the French, she had played Stosur to two tough losses in Stuttgart and Madrid. Then a three-set loss to Schiavone in Rome was followed by a semi-final run at Strasbourg. In short, Daniela had her feet under her on the clay, and was striking the ball well.

Then there is always Wozniacki herself. Her stats for the match show nothing remarkable. 8 winners vs 14 unforced errors. In her straight sets 2nd round win, her tally was 16 winners to 24 unforced errors. Even her first-round drubbing of the aging Kimiko Date only had her hitting 12 winners to 9 unforced errors. Wozniacki plays passive tennis. She lives on her opponent's errors, trusting in her athleticism and good court sense to sustain her in points until those errors arrive. This strategy is all well and good most of the time. But Wozniacki's problem is she has no real Plan B. She is stuck surrendering control of the match to her opponent. In this case, Hantuchova came out hitting harder, deeper, and being more willing to change the direction of the ball to keep control of the point.

And down a set and a break in the second, Wozniacki was still relying - nay hoping - that Hantuchova would just start missing. That was her backup plan. As it always is. And on this day, in this setting, it was not enough.