January 8, 2007
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Taking Stock - Looking Forward Jim McLennan Federer completed yet another dominant year, capturing the Australian, Wimbledon, and US Open titles, and coming darn close to the fabled "Grand Slam," losing in the finals of Roland Garros to his perpetual nemesis Rafael Nadal. But I want to throw the slightest curve ball as regards his incredible nine grand slam titles. Bear with me (and I can imagine the flood of emails in a day or two). Players, both men and women, are now stronger, bigger, more fit, and hitting the ball harder than ever. But to my mind, these professionals are more hitters of the ball than players of the game. One only needs to watch the variety and smarts of a Martina Hingis to see how little most of her contemporaries know about offense, defense, varying court position, speed, and spin. Similarly, in the men's game, even though Roger is totally dominant, I don't see, other than Rafael Nadal or Marat Safin, any rival who has the potential to accumulate multiple grand slam titles. If they were of a similar age, I believe Sampras, Agassi, Lendl, McEnroe, or Connors could and would give Roger much more of a problem than any he experiences today.
Those guys had a more complete feel for the game than do the majority of the "modern" players. And those five guys amassed 45 grand slam titles between them. Looking over Federer's grand slam titles, I offer that most of his finals have been won against a significantly less stellar field. And consider the training regimens of many of the professionals. Nearly all came from academies, though they might as well be called factories. These players hit thousands of balls, but from a distance, the training seems rote, and may actually diminish the creativity and full range of expression of these players. If a big forehand and little else carries them through the juniors (and this can be said of Andy Roddick) there can be scant reason to learn a one-handed backhand, or serve and volley skills.
But before I ruffle too many feathers, I do believe Roger Federer is the best, most complete, most entertaining, and most compelling competitor the game has ever seen. He plays a total game, with offense, defense, overspin, underspin, baseline, serve and volley, and an uncanny knack for using the entire court. In that regard, only McEnroe had as much feel for varying both angles as well as court position. And for anyone trying to learn the game, Roger's style is as simple and fundamentally sound as any I have yet seen. One-handed backhand with an eastern backhand grip. Whip like forehand with a low eastern forehand grip (which provides greater versatility when moving forward than does the more common semi western grip). A simple serving motion which relies more on rhythm and disguise than massive power. And finally he'll need an ability to finish points at the net.
If you have a coach in your neck of the woods that teaches this total game, pay close attention, for this is what the game can be, and quite simply is the next stage in the evolution of the classic game as was practiced by Rod Laver, John Newcombe, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, and Stefan Edberg. An interesting aside is that with the exception of Jimmy Connors, nearly all the grand slam titlists listed below with two-handed backhands tended to be primarily baseliners including Agassi, Wilander, Courier, Hewitt, Safin, and Nadal). There is a difference between good and great. The good ones crack the top ten, may capture a grand slam title, might even get into the International Hall of Fame, but these good ones don't exactly dominate. The great ones generally play more complete games, with a style that could dominate the opposition and earn multiple grand slam titles. McEnroe did it differently than Lendl or Connors, but each was unbeatable when at the top of his game. The point is, these guys were playing one another and their rivalries were incredible. Looking over the list of Federer's grand slam final opponents, I don't see the same depth of field (with the exception of Nadal and Safin). Interestingly, Federer exulted when beating Agassi in a tense five set semifinal at the 2004 US Open, more or less indicating that Agassi was the only opponent he genuinely feared, and we saw just that with the 60 76 60 blowout over Lleyton Hewitt in the final.
So what would it take for the current crop of competitors to move from good to great? Sounds preposterous, but it is the New Year, so here goes. Rafael Nadal The kid needs a much better serve, not with more speed but with more variety and disguise. He has a good spinner to the backhand (against righties) but doesn't hit the "can opener" that Mac used out wide in the deuce court. Further, he needs to find a way to shorten points, to play closer to the baseline, and to develop a net game. He will hold many more titles at Roland Garros, but for the moment it appears many of the guys have found his number on the hard courts. Andy Roddick Roddick has returned as a force to be reckoned with, and Jimmy Connors is right by his side. But there are a number of technical issues that must be addressed. When Connors ruled the world, his strokes were elegant, uncomplicated and in no way did they resemble Andy's muscular version. Roddick must simplify his two-handed backhand, square his stance, and relax his shoulders and arm. At the recent US Open they were saying he had improved his down the line backhand, one of Jimbo's trademarks, but it still looked awkward and not something he could trust in the crunch. He is finally playing the net, and his backhand volley is more than competent when following his sidespin serve out wide in the forehand court. But for the moment his forehand volley looks suspicious, and his semi western forehand groundstroke makes his transition to the net game as difficult as it has been for nearly all the others before him with similar grips.
James Blake James is a big hitter and plays high risk low percentage tennis. To hang with Roger, it will not be about power, for remember how Roger ate that stuff up at the recent Masters. Blake needs guile, disguise, and varying speeds, more or less taking a page from McEnroe's book. As Blake has improved throughout the year, his coach has mentioned how much harder he is hitting the ball but for 2007 I hope to hear his coach talk about how much smarter he is playing the game. So there you have it, 2006 in a nutshell and my hopes for 2007. Now lets sit back and watch. (Click link to purchase Jim's McLennan's Secrets of World Class Footwork Video.) As always, we would love to hear from you! Questions, comments, personal experiences all create helpful dialogue for everyone! Please click here to send us your email.
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