While watching Wimbledon I was surprised by a comment from Vijay Amritraj. Vijay observed that the area near the baseline was the most abused while the grass near the net seemed very fresh and lush. There was considerable wear and tear near the baseline.
This is a pointer to the style of tennis today. There are few grass court players today. Very few play the classic 'serve and rush to the net' tennis that has been associated with grass courts. Federer is regarded as the finest exponent of grass court tennis of this generation and he also hits a lot from the baseline. It is only that he comes to the net more often than the others. Hewitt believes in overpowering from behind the baseline. Nadal and other clay court champions play drop shots on clay but on grass they are rooted to the baseline.
I find this type of tennis on Wimbledon a total mockery. Perhaps, this is because of the times that I grew up in. The arrival of television in my part of the world coincided with the emergence of players like Becker, Edberg, Sampras and Ivanisevic.
No comments:
Post a Comment