Thanks Eurosport for showing the all-time classic Dementieva vs. Frazier !

668 Views 6 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Fingon, Aug 30, 2003

GoDominique

Discussion Starter · Aug 30, 2003

Wow. That's all I can say. If it's Eurosport's aim to send their viewers to sleep by re-playing this "match" then I can only say mission accomplished !

THE SERVING ... OMG. Have you seen Elena's previous match and have you been shocked about her 2nd serve ? Bad news: It was even worse today. There was one serve in the 10th game of the 2nd set which must have been the slowest ever. It's Conchita's x 10. But from time to time she suddenly plays a "normal" 2nd serve which looks similar to her decent first serve - and it works well ! Of course on the next point she will return to the ridiculous one - and only god and her mother know why.
Not to mention that Amy's serve is only slightly better - and she even had more double-faults ...

Even more annoying was the lack of any brain use. Elena would outplace Amy, get a completely open court and then whack the ball as hard as possible to send it 2 metres long or wide. This happened at least 5 times in the 2nd set alone, and it HURTS watching things like that. And yeah, Amy had some of these too.

And I haven't looked up the stats, but winner/error ratio was probably like 1/5 on both sides. :help:

Sorry to say this, but that is anti-advertising of women's tennis.

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Joana

· #2 · Aug 30, 2003

Frazier really gave this one away.
Elena has to do something about that serve ASAP. It's pathetic.

The commentators compared it to Conchita's serve and it was the right comparison.
Capriati is going to have a day off if Elena plays like this.
It's a shame cause with much better serve and better volleys Elena would be a top 5 material.

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SanTaureau Fan

· #3 · Aug 30, 2003

The fact that Dementieva is ranked so high is so embarassing for women tennis.

But I'm not surprised... WTA players don't go to the net so Dementieva get away with her 12 years old second serve.

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Fyndh0rnElf

· #4 · Aug 30, 2003

Joana said:
Frazier really gave this one away.
Elena has to do something about that serve ASAP. It's pathetic. The commentators compared it to Conchita's serve and it was the right comparison.
Capriati is going to have a day off if Elena plays like this.
It's a shame cause with much better serve and better volleys Elena would be a top 5 material.

Conchita's serve has spin, while Dementieva just puts the ball in play. It's awful!!!

I know she had a very unreliable 2nd serve that was fast, but made lots of DFs, but this is no answer to the problem...

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GoDominique

Discussion Starter · #5 · Aug 30, 2003

On the other hand, can we even blame Elena for serving like that ? After all she's just on her way back into the top 10. The lower-ranked players don't step it up, so she get's away with it.

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Doc

· #6 · Aug 30, 2003

Eurosport commentators made the interesting point that the trouble with Elena's second serve is that it is always sliced - which works well on her First Serve. However on her 60mph seconds, the slice goes right to the opponent's forehand, setting up the perfect return. Also the opponent knows where most of Elena's 2nd serves are going to hit, and is waiting for them.

As for the rest of Elena's game, it has been very good recently. She as a good First serve, and some awsome groundstrokes, with good speed around the court. Her match today WAS terrible. She seems to get nerves in some matches and just starts snatching at shots.

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Fingon

· #7 · Aug 30, 2003

I like Elena but I have to say that her service motion is probably the worst I've ever seen.

It's not lack of confidence, it's just an awful technique, she serves with that arms alone, doesn't use the body, doesn't do a shoulder turn, not even on the first serve.

She doesn't need a serve coach to improve the serve, she needs to learn how to serve from the start, I've seen club players serving better.

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