What does Clijsters need to change in her game to win a GS title?

514 Views 12 Replies 9 Participants Last post by Hot 92 Jamz, Aug 1, 2003

Volcana

Discussion Starter · Aug 1, 2003

You could say nothing. But every surface has multiple GS winners of it form the last three years under 25 and still active. She can't wait the current #1, #3 and #4 to get old. What can she change to shrink the gap between her and the opposition.

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ßcoene

· #2 · Aug 1, 2003

She has to improve her serve, not that it's bad. And she has to play agressive against the top players.

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ßcoene

· #3 · Aug 1, 2003

She also has to come to the net more, on the right moments of course.

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tennisIlove09

· #4 · Aug 1, 2003

Nothing. Right now, it's all mental. She had Serena down, but couldn't close it out.

The French finals wasn't even close--and it should have been.

Once the mental aspect comes together, it'll be fine. All champions work on this. Venus didn't have it until 2000; Serena didn't have it until last year (despite winning the 99 Open, she clearly wasn't ready for that)

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irma

· #5 · Aug 1, 2003

she needs to stay aggressive for a whole match. I suddenly was thinking about it when she played in fed cup. she was leading 4:0 and then got less aggresive and her opponent came back to 4:3. against that opponent it was not such a big deal but much better players see that as a chance and take over the domination

you saw that with cappy last week too 3:0 40:00 and suddenly she holds back, cappy sees that, becomes more aggresive and before you knew it was 4:6

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jenglisbe

· #6 · Aug 1, 2003

It's all mental with Kim. She can go toe-to-toe with anyone in the game, but she breaks down mentally. She choked when up 5-1 on Serena, was tight throughout the French Open (benefitted from a draw that opened up), and then choked in the 2nd set against Venus at Wimbledon.

One of two things happen to Kim in big matches:
1. She gets tentative and lets the opponent dictate (irma gave some examples, and another is the loss to Serena in Australia).
or
2. Kim gets too ambitious and goes for ridiculous winners (snatches at the ball on the forehand). The Wimbledon SF is an example of this. At 3-2 up in the 2nd set, Kim made like 4 errors. She went for crazy winners instead of working the point like she had been. This also happened in the French final (her forehand never got going).

Serena had problems in big occasions until 2002, Justine has overcome her tendency to choke, Lindsay learned to perform better in majors...but then you have players like Sabatini and Novotna who consistently underperformed in the majors.

In other words, Kim can go one of two ways - and it all depends on whether she learns to get out of her own way.

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jenglisbe

· #7 · Aug 1, 2003

bcoene - Oh, about Kim's serve; as BJK told Capriati about her serve, "It's good enough." Kim gets a high percentage of serves in, and she can consistently hit it over 100 mph when she wants to. Her 2nd serve also has a good kick and is effective on most surfaces. Kim's serve is good enough to win a major as it isn't easily attacked, and she can back it up well with her speed and groundstrokes.

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ßcoene

· #8 · Aug 1, 2003

jenglisbe said:
bcoene - Oh, about Kim's serve; as BJK told Capriati about her serve, "It's good enough." Kim gets a high percentage of serves in, and she can consistently hit it over 100 mph when she wants to. Her 2nd serve also has a good kick and is effective on most surfaces. Kim's serve is good enough to win a major as it isn't easily attacked, and she can back it up well with her speed and groundstrokes.

I agree that her serve is good enough to win a slam. Her whole game is good enough. I just think that her serve can still improve and will improve.

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AjdeNate!

· #9 · Aug 1, 2003

She needs to remain aggressive the whole match. If she feels she's getting tight, she should mix it up and come to the net a few times. Kim has very nice volleys (as evidenced by her doubles ranking) and should use that more. Plus when an opponent comes to net the other player gets a bit freaked out. Imagine a serve & volley from Kim against a big babe... they'd be surprised to see it!

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venusfan

· #10 · Aug 1, 2003

I think she's a chocker and when she's up 6-4,5-2 in a grand slam final and lose, she will realize she is a chocker and go see a shrink or hang it up.

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AjdeNate!

· #11 · Aug 1, 2003

That's really constructive....

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Hagar

· #12 · Aug 1, 2003

I think we can summarize it by saying that she has to make sure she is not pushed to far behind the baseline = she should always move her body forward when hitting the ball. She should just keep that in mind. If she moves her body forward when hitting the ball, her strokes are lethal.
I also think she should analyse her forehand technique in order to make that forehand less prone to errors. But there again I would say it has a lot to do with taking the ball early and not next to her but in front of her.
What costed her these close matches, were a few lapses where she let herself be pushed too far behind. I am however confident that her Slam time will soon come.

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Hot 92 Jamz

· #13 · Aug 1, 2003

Seles said:
She needs to remain aggressive the whole match. If she feels she's getting tight, she should mix it up and come to the net a few times. Kim has very nice volleys (as evidenced by her doubles ranking) and should use that more. Plus when an opponent comes to net the other player gets a bit freaked out. Imagine a serve & volley from Kim against a big babe... they'd be surprised to see it!

That's exactly what she should do! :yeah: She has a tendency to let up in the final rounds of a Grand Slam.

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