7 Comments
Aug 23, 2021Liked by Matthew Willis

Rublev is a fighter no doubt but he seems to lack variety in his toolbox. If serving big and hitting winners from the baseline isn't working as well as he needs it to, he doesn't seem to have any other shots that he plays to perhaps break up his opponents rhythm or at least get himself into better positions to hit more favorable shots.

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Aug 23, 2021Liked by Matthew Willis

Thanks, this is helpful. Watching match, it also seemed to me that he needs a neutral recovery shot. When he's in trouble, he whales on the ball as much as when he's in advantageous position and just missed most of them.

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Aug 23, 2021Liked by Matthew Willis

I was wondering when someone was going to talk about it… I spent the entire match waiting for the Comms to analyse this issue and nada. Totally exposed and yes a big barrier to him moving forward

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Real pity Meddy lost knowing the lop sided H2H. Easiest title ever for Zverev.

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Aug 23, 2021Liked by Matthew Willis

Also Rublev really struggled to return, read, handle Zverev serve compared to Meddys. Is that a case of greater spin, bounce height, heaviness of ball compared to the flat pace, lower height from Meddy?

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author

It's a good question. I think Zverev's 1st serve can be better than Medvedev's when it's really on, as he tends to hit spots better than Medvedev who just hits huge and hopes on a few of his 1st serves. But also think Meddy's 1st serve really suffered as match went on against Rublev due to mental effect that camera collision had, so maybe harder to judge based on those two matches (SF and F).

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Thks,

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