—Thoughts on Nadal and Medvedev US Open 2019 Final—
Nadal is playing more aggressively by mixing in quicker forehand attacks and net approaches, especially on his serve games.
He has an uncanny ability to move to the net at opportune times to set up an easy volley for himself. This makes his net success statistic very good. A good example of smart net tactics for kids to follow.
But he is still a grinder on his return games. Anyone who stands that far back on the return is signaling their willingness to grind and defend—and Nadal starts most points returning this way, a la Bjorn Borg back in the day.
Medvedev also was returning many points from a deep position which allowed Nadal to sneak some serve and volley plays in that were successful. And Medvedev did the same back to Nadal.
They both also used the serve wide against each other’s deep returning position. Smart.
They both also used the serve and dropshot tactic. When the opponent is very deep, using the drop shot as the +1 shot is a smart attack and will shorten points effectively.
The drop shot serve should be used against players willing to stand extremely deep by the linespersons. Kyrgios knows how to do that.
Why is it a smart play to serve and +1 dropshot but it is considered audacious and disrespectful to serve dropshot? I don’t understand the difference.
–Chris Lewit