Thursday 27 June 2013
Wimbledon 2013: come across here, some dole out and stream
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Wimbledon 2013: come across here, some dole out and stream
Wimbledon 2013: come across here, some dole out and stream
WIMBLEDON, England — The dole out and stream has risen from the dull.
Once alleged headed for Dodo Bird-like extinction, the aggressive
approach is experience a mini-revival at Wimbledon (slippery footing
notwithstanding).
After a decade of decisive decline, the gain of all men's points
played by subsequent the service to the net has suddenly reversed. Two players
making waves this fortnight have used the tactic to great effect, and provided
a jolt of disclosure.
Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine came in at the back his delivery
78% of the time in scandalous Roger Federer in four sets Wednesday. Dustin
Brown, a German by way of Jamaica with flowing dreadlocks, also rushed behind
his serve with chronic opposition in defeat 2002 All-England Club champion
Lleyton Hewitt.
"At least someone can play that still," said
116th-ranked Stakhovsky, who face unseeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer at the moment.
Federer epitomizes the move away from net play.
When he won his first Wimbledon in 2003, he served and volleyed
more than two-thirds of the time. Against Stakhovsky, it was 13%.
"I believe it is a tactic you can use if you play it the
right way, if you have a big enough serve, you move good enough," said
Federer, 31. "I don't think from this point on I'm going to start
serve-volleying, but hopefully other players will in the future."
With 56 of 64 second-round matches completed (rain postponed the
rest), 8% of total singles points employed the tactic. That's slightly up from
7% for the entire game the last two years, and the most since 2010.
It's still a far cry from 2003, when the figure was 29%. Even
so, that is music to John McEnroe's ears.
One of the best attacking players of all time, the three-time
Wimbledon winner has long bemoaned the gradual disappearance of his disruptive
method of hand-tying opponents.
"I've always been mystified that people don't do it more
often," he said Thursday.
Dustin Brown was on the attack throughout his
second-round win against Lleyton Hewitt.(Photo: Adrian Dennis, AFP/Getty Images)
McEnroe, commenting for ESPN and BBC here, would like to see
that purely from an aesthetic point of view.
"People like to see contrast, like me and Borg, one guy
going forward, one counter-punching," he said.
McEnroe isn't calling for a return to the days of serve-bombing
players such as Boris Becker, Goran Ivanisevic and Pete Sampras, who all but
nullified baseline rallies on grass. He wants balance.
"It became almost like there were no rallies at all,"
he said. "Now it's gone too far the other way."
Whether it's a bona fide trend remains to be seen.
One of the most able practitioners, hard-serving lefthander Feliciano
Lopez of Spain, doesn't detect a drift.
Lopez, a three-time Wimbledon quarterfinalist who advanced to
the third round when Paul-Henri Mathieu retired in their match Thursday,
attributed the statistical uptick to the success of net-rushers such as
Stakhovsky, Brown, Michael Llodra and Nicolas Mahut. All reached the second
round here.
"Those guys that play serve and volley won the first
round," said Lopez, 31. "I don't see any more players trying
it."
He's right: Their success might have skewed the numbers. But if
Lopez, Stakhovsky and Brown continue to advance, they might continue to buck a
longstanding trend.
The women? They have not abandoned the baseline.
They served and volleyed at a 5% clip 10 years ago, but have
been dropping since. This year as last year, they've followed their serve to
the net a paltry 1% of the time.
And no wonder. Even Serena Williams, who hit a documentation 102
aces on her way to the title here last year and is considered the best server
in women's history, says it doesn't even cross her mind.
"I only think about coming to the net when I have to shake
hands," the top-seeded American said following her second-round victory
over Caroline Garcia of France. "But my dad has been pleading me to get to
the net."
Williams approved her father was no fool.
"I mean, with my dish up, why am I at the baseline?"
she added. "It does not make intelligence."
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