One player was 7/7 at the net and the other was 7/10. Why oh why don't these ladies on the WTA do this more when they are being successful at it? Hmmm, yeah, lets NOT do the thing that is working almost every time
Because they don't have a stat on passes on net approaches.. I think that would tell a different story if they tried to be more active at the net, not only with passes. Alot of the net points are from attacking serves / shots where their opponent hits shots short at the net, rather than them actually actively approaching the net. Errani, however, is more active in trying to approach if her baseline play is not as effective with an opponent.
Petko has been such a mess since her clay court season got ruined by little injuries. Needs a holiday and a coach pronto, I'm starting to feel sorry for that hitting partner she just berates or ignores most of the time.
I won't be surprised Errani win the whole thing if she can push the balls back on court every time. She just wait for the opponent to make mistakes.
Errani and Vinci are good pushers.
I got a few glimpses of the third set.
It seems like the court speed didn't allow Petko to hit through Errani, who succesfully retrieved many attacks,
and whenever a neutral rally was achieved, Errani hit much deeper balls that resulted in the Petko error.
against an athletic player with reach in Andrea, Errani was glad to stick with these kind of rallies and wear the german down.
Slices are for opponents who can whack her of court, dropshots for slow movers.
she (rightfully) doesn't play the exact same game against everyone.
only her serve stays the same, and i pity Errani for not developing a more varied serve. a better kick, a bit of slice - could really help her service games.
Her return is brilliant though. apart for a select few, no one is strong enough to really crush her with it.
I got a few glimpses of the third set.
It seems like the court speed didn't allow Petko to hit through Errani, who succesfully retrieved many attacks,
and whenever a neutral rally was achieved, Errani hit much deeper balls that resulted in the Petko error.
against an athletic player with reach in Andrea, Errani was glad to stick with these kind of rallies and wear the german down.
Slices are for opponents who can whack her of court, dropshots for slow movers.
she (rightfully) doesn't play the exact same game against everyone.
only her serve stays the same, and i pity Errani for not developing a more varied serve. a better kick, a bit of slice - could really help her service games.
Her return is brilliant though. apart for a select few, no one is strong enough to really crush her with it.
you can ask to everyone has ever returned one of her serves. The ball has a lot of spin, more than a lot of other sliced serves, and that is why it is not that easy to make winners on her serve and a lot of players struggle on it. You need pure power and absolute precision, cause using power on a super twirling ball has the worst effect ever if you can't handle that ball. It is a dead ball, so all the power you put needs to be perfectly dosed and aimed
I mean a slice serve out wide, so the ball skids away from the opponent.
Serena of course, is impeccable in nearly every department, but here is her slice serve. you can see that the ball is really short, and it's the spin that allows it to go over the net.
Errani, however, hits alot of spin, perhaps, but doesn't corner it, resulting in mid-body returns.
not easy for slower movers, but let's just say that the Errani serve is not unbreakable, and even though it's not too fun to return them - it's also not too far fetched for a pro.
it is better to the body in my opinion, cause if you give to your opponent to much free angle with a wide spin serve, opponent can anticipate it, move toward it and use power to search one of the free angles of the court. On the body your can't search too many angles, and Errani in this case can cover better the court
I mean, wide spin serve can be really useful sometimes, but not as main tactic
against Errani you have to keep your own Unforced Errors low, and all who have seen just a glimpse of Petko in the last weeks
should have known that Petko is not good enough to grind out Errani these days/this year, even when Errani also has seen better days.
cut the crap alredy "the end is near" ..
if players (solid players from top 20/30, I may add) can't beat her, then she deserves to be where she is
beat Bacsinszky too, please