There’s been a complaint that no one serves and volleys any more. The days of Patrick Rafter and Pete Sampras are gone, and no one seems ready to claim the mantle, so sure they are that today’s players pass better than ever, and the percentages that used to favor the serve and volleyer has yielded to baseline passer.
Credit the French. Often known for their flair in hitting the ball, they’ve taken an approach to tennis that seems opposite of the bullish Spanish play. Almost to a man, French players feel comfortable at net, at least far more than their neighbor south of the Pyrenees. Michael Llodra came into Wimbledon playing good tennis. He won Eastbourne just two days before the start of Wimbledon and he gave credit to the last person to win a singles title rushing the net: Amelie Mauresmo.
The two concocted a plan so clever that Llodra might have gotten away with it. Llodra knew that Andy Roddick was not comfortable playing at the net. Llodra combined short shots to draw Roddick to net where he’d use his quickness to pass, or he’d approach to the Roddick backhand using slice and then volley for the winning shot or he’d do it old-fashioned by serving and volleying. Llodra was helped by doing something that few people do well: see the Roddick serve.
Llodra secured a break early on in the first set and was threatening to break again.
Now, you have to give credit to Andy Roddick. It’s often easy to underestimate the pretty boy with the big serve and big forehand and the model wife. Roddick isn’t often considered an intellectual on the tennis court. With his surly manner, he comes across more angry than anything. But this hides the fact that Andy Roddick is one of the smarter players on tour.
Roddick realized as good as Llodra might be at net, and the amount of pressure he was getting from the Frenchman, that Llodra was not a particularly solid baseliner. A player like Llodra could be much higher up the ranks if he could pass as well as most players similar to him. Roddick realized that if he reached the net first, he would be the one forcing the action and Llodra would have to come up with a good pass, something he struggled to do.
This kind of cat-n-mouse is something the game used to have more of. In the past, the lines that divided baseliners and serve-and-volleyers are more pronounced. Serve and volleyers served big, but didn’t have the steadiness nor the mobility to compete with the baseliners. Baseliners often looked amateurish heading to net. Even so, players like Jimmy Connors would rush the net to take it away from players like John McEnroe.
Today, almost every top player is proficient from the back court. This often comes at the expense of a player’s proficiency at net. Llodra showed that Roddick is vulnerable with an attacking player coming to net. But he also showed that every top player has a net game even if they don’t use it much. His time with Stefanki has improved his volley so that he actually served and volleyed. Llodra, who had been blocking returns, was having trouble driving returns to give Roddick trouble.
Eventually, the better player won. Roddick broke late in the second set, then cruised to 6-1 win, before being pushed to a tiebreak in the fourth which Roddick won handily.
The match that was called due to darkness yesterday between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut is still going on. It’s 19-all with no breaks of serve. Isner just held to 20-19.
Hewitt had a fairly straight-forward match. Up 6-4, 6-4, 3-0, Evgeny Korolev retired.
Melzer, the French Open semifinalist, needed 5 sets to beat Victor Troicki who was up two sets to love: 6-7(5), 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(6), 6-3.
Yen-Hsun Lu beat Pole Michal Przysiezny: 6-4, 7-6(7), 6-3.
Florian Mayer needed four sets to beat Mardy Fish: 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
Federer, Djokovic, and Davydenko are still to play. More results later.
