[專欄] Maria Sharapova will be working on h …
對莎娃新動作的討論，結論是滿樂觀正面的，我暫時沒時間
翻譯，有空的朋友可以認領一下下～。
http://www.tennisnews.com/exclusive.php?pID=29084
By Charles Bricker
Five matches and 61 double faults. Whew. The repaired right
shoulder, by all the testimony I've listened to, is just
fine. Now, it's time for Maria Sharapova to re-learn what
she has to do with it.
She's changed her service motion, cut out a lot of the
extraneous movement associated with her former delivery,
and she looks her usual competitive self in the rallies.
But if the last week in Los Angeles, or was that the
forgettable suburb of Carson, Calif., showed us anything,
it's that she's got a lot of distance to cover if she's
going to make an impact at the U.S. Open.
I've always loved her competitiveness. She's going for her
shots and perhaps never looked better in her semifinal loss
to Flavia Pennetta than on break point, down 0-1 in the
third set. From deep in her forehand corner, with a ball up
around her head, she cleanly slammed a cross-court winner
that most women wouldn't even think about trying.
Even so, her backhand is well ahead of her forehand at this
point and, overall, her ground stroking needs matches -- a
lot of matches. But more than anything, she's got to do
something about her serving, because so much of her game
flows out of her serve.
Maria will take this week off (Cincinnati) before reporting
to Toronto and you don't need to read several Sherlock
Holmes mysteries to deduce that she's going to be working
the next seven days, and working hard, on her serve.
She's had to change her motion to accommodate the changes
in her shoulder dictated by her surgery and there's nothing
wrong with the basic delivery. The racket is going straight
up now, a la Andy Roddick, instead of the extreme ear
scratch she used to do with the racket before her operation.
But she hasn't found the rhythm with it and, when things
get tight, she's falling into that old trap of pushing the
serve rather than stroking it.
Looking at the numbers from L.A., here are the salient
facts:
* Double faults: 5 in a first-round more-or-less gimme
against No. 60 Jarmila Groth (6-0, 6-4); 12 in a difficult
second rounder against Victoria Azarenka (6-7 (4), 6-4,
6-2); 15 doubles against No. 33 Alona Bondarenko (4-6, 6-0,
6-3); 13 in a win over No. 71 Urszula Radwanska (6-4, 7-5);
and, finally, 16 in the loss to No. 14 Pennetta (6-2, 4-6,
6-3).
* Break points faced, an indication of how often she was in
trouble on serve: 43.
* Service breaks: 21, an average of slightly more than four
per match.
* First serves in, by round: 69%, 63%, 66%, 58%, 61%. These
are good numbers. If you write off the opening match vs.
Groth, where she didn't need to hit any bombs, those are
solid percentages against three top 30 players. But there's
a big drop-off when she doesn't get the first serve in, and
that includes 61 doubles.
I like the new Sharapova delivery more than the original,
in which she came to the line, went through the ritual of
fingering a few strands of blonde hair back behind each
ear, then bouncing the ball with that weird release of the
bounce from about head high. It has been faithfully
parodied by Novak Djokovic and, even after all this time,
it's still good for a chuckle if you go to youtube.com.
It's now a more normal ball bounce and there's economy of
motion. Hitting partner/coach Michael Joyce and her father
have done a good job of redesigning her serve.
I watched Maria connect on a number of aces, but they're
invariably down the T. She isn't getting any consistency
from the deuce court with the slice or hook serve to the
corner -- not nearly as much as she did with the old
delivery.
I don't think this is too big a deal. This is going to take
time, but she'll get there. The slice serve is a "feel
serve" more than a big blast and, at some point, the light
is going to go on. Maybe in the middle of a match. Maybe
this week during practice at Bollettieri's or Los Angeles,
wherever she decides to do her training before Toronto.
Sixty-one is a lot of doubles. That's Elena Dementieva and
Anna Kournikova territory, but unlike her Russian
compatriots, we know Sharapova can serve and I strongly
suspect she'll be hitting about 500 serves a day this week
in search of the rhythm that is absolutely essential to
getting her game back. We'll pick up this conversation when
the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour descends on Canada in a week.
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 220.135.140.34
※ 編輯: jcshie 來自: 220.135.140.34 (08/10 22:20)
Sharapova 近期熱門文章
PTT體育區 即時熱門文章
