Was it Rod Laver or Pete Sampras who said you’re only as good as your second serve? Both of them, I would hazard to guess. After watching two WTA finals yesterday, I’d say we should amend that phrase for the women’s game. There, you’re only as good as your forehand.
Most women players with two-handed backhands are more comfortable with that shot than they are with their forehands. The extra hand helps them steady the racquet for consistency while giving the shot more oomph. Their forehands are often a trickier matter. In the cases of Sharapova, Mauresmo, Venus Williams, Clijsters, Petrova, and many others, the forehand is a less consistent shot prone to breakdowns at key moments. I’ve speculated in the past, to the distaste of some, that this may be because many women—Justine Henin prominently excluded—don’t generate the racquet-head speed necessary to get a ton of topspin on the ball and bring it into the court safely. Another theory is that, coming from the Bradenton and Lansdorp schools, with their emphasis on flat power-hitting, the women never learn the technique for topspin (at least it isn’t a priority). Either way, I felt like both matches yesterday—Williams vs. Peer in Memphis and Henin vs. Mauresmo in Dubai—were won and lost on the forehand side.
First, let’s go to Memphis, where a dialed-in and clean-hitting Venus Williams made short work of up-and-comer Shahar Peer, the woman who was two points from derailing Serena Williams’ Australian Open run. Venus came out playing virtually error-free tennis and only stepped it up from there. Peer can hit a big ball, but Williams was the one dictating from on top of the baseline. When she had to defend, she did it with ease, her open-stance strokes keeping her near the center of the court even when she was scrambling. And I haven’t seen her serve so effectively in about two years.
Most striking was Venus’ forehand. This is the stroke that, more than anything else, has been her downfall in recent years. You can talk about her lack of commitment to the game, etc., but it’s been those constant forehand misfires that have led to her many shocking demises. At TENNIS Magazine, we even had her former coach, Rick Macci, describe what she needed to do technically to improve it—she has a habit of opening her left shoulder too soon and spraying balls wide and long (she has little margin for error to begin with). Something tells me Venus didn’t read it, but she kept her front shoulder in yesterday and had her forehand clicking.
It made all the difference, because Peer has a weaker forehand side as well. She also opens up too soon, jumps in mid-stroke, and tries to hit flat balls with a topspin grip. Compare that to her two-handed backhand, where she uses both arms to launch her entire body into the ball. Talking about grips is not as sexy as talking about her “grit” or analyzing her Israeli military service, but Peer’s grip on her serve, and maybe even her forehand, could hold her back if anything does. She looks to have an awkward Western grip on her serve; she misses a lot of first ones with it, and her second ones creep and crawl over the net.
Credit Venus for not letting Peer get away with them. She stepped inside the baseline on returns and took the points by the throat. Venus also served primarily to Peer’s weaker forehand side and only upped the pressure when she had the lead. It looked like the old Venus, in other words—maybe the two sisters will start to inspire each other again. Watching the packed house appreciate Venus, I wondered whether this might be the year of the long-delayed Williams love-fest at the U.S. Open, when they begin to get their due as elder stateswomen of the American game. It’s bound to happen someday.
