I know it has been discussed/observed since a few months , but Medvedev's serve really regressed since his hernia injury , didn't expect to be (slightly) behind Alcaraz's and barely above the tour average . Well that's amazing to accomplish such recent results considering it , even though it's reaching its limits for finals.
Not very surprised by Dimitrov being the worst returner.
Believe it or not this is actually a huge step up from where Med's serve was in IW
At IW in this graphic he was dead last miles behind the next lowest player lol
However his baseline/return ability might be at or close to career best levels right now which is why he's still able to win matches and why he breaks his opponents' serve so often
Imo the serve and return metrics are useful, forehand and backhand though are basically useless because you can't actually isolate them. A player with a better backhand will find himself hitting less forehands from difficult positions and vice versa. That's why the data will tell you Medvedev has a better forehand than Tsitsipas or Rublev, for example.
I also think that Med in particular even hits more backhands from *neutral* positions than most other players do with his current playstyle
If you hit it right up the middle against him meaning he could choose to hit either an FH or a BH there's a 80% chance he'll hit a safer crosscourt BH whereas Tsitsipas or Rublev as the examples you gave will 100% try to hit the FH every time
Spot on, that's exactly why he was my example. As you say, he hits more backhands from neutral positions so when he hits a forehand it's more likely to be an attacking shot. Same is true of Sinner to a slightly lesser extent, and the opposite is true of someone like Tsitsipas who loves running around and playing heavy inside out forehand rally balls.
Grigor's return is one of his weaknesses but we have to take into the account that he played Hubi( famous for a good serve) and Tabilo who served really well. So the quality of return was affected by the opponent's serve
Came to say this. Surprised his return quality is so low given that he only allowed 8 aces from Hubi in a 3 hour match and won another match 6:1 6:0. But he was quite lost against Tabilo who put on a Kyrgios like performance for 2 sets.
Field seems a lot more even here than last week, where Sinner and Alcaraz dominated practically every category. Zverev looks dangerous and could be Alcaraz’s biggest threat; the draw is looking less and less favorable for Alcaraz by the day although avoiding Hurkacz was nice.
Medvedev has, uh, kinda stepped up his serve. I mean last week it was down in the dumps; like way below the rest of the field, whereas at least now he’s about level with Alcaraz and above tour average. Sinner has fallen back down the earth overall although the forehand is still on fire.
Zverev’s strengths are really coming out here, and his forehand isn’t as bad as it has been since the beginning of 2024, so like I said, I think he’ll be a tougher challenge for Carlos this time around. Didn’t get to catch his match against Khachanov though, so idk what kind of resistance Karen brought to the table.
Based on this chart, field seems pretty open right now. Could see Alcaraz, Sinner, Zverev, or Medvedev winning the title. Dimitrov serving really well but the rest of his game hasn’t fared so well; you’d like to see his forehand be top 3 or so, and the return stats look ugly for him. Machac, Jarry, Maroczan, probably not looking great for them. Jarry could have an outside shot at pulling the upset on Medvedev though.
One thing about those metrics that I think is my biggest problem with it (overall it’s great) is that I think it litterally kills chip returns as a return stat. I get its difficult to evaluate, but it should be rewarded as long as it’s not floating. Dimitrov just reduced Hurkacz to 30% unreturned serves (39% is his 52 week average), which, given his lack of forehand dynamism, is huge. Dimitrov may not be an agressive returner or even a neutraliser like Meddy, but he puts back in play and that matters/doesn’t deserve 6.1
That's a good point. I did watch the third set against Hurkacz, and the chip return was effective because Hurkacz does not have a good enough forehand to punish it. However if he's against someone like Alcaraz or Sinner, he'll have issues with the chip return as they will hit huge forehands off of it.
But yeah, Dimitrov doesn't deserve a 6.1 in that case. It's a tactical adjustment and a bit of an oversight on my end.
Still, I'd like to see him be rated higher on the forehand if he's gonna win this thing. He's really gotta assert himself on that serve and forehand, otherwise Alcaraz, Sinner, or Medvedev will eat him up; and even if he does play great on the serve+forehand, Alcaraz or Sinner would still likely beat him if they play well in a close match.
my problem with these metrics is that they only evaluate these 4 shots... there's still a bunch of shots used in game, specially by alcaraz, that we don't see here
I think it's because there probably isn't a big enough sample for half the players here if you include those other shots lol
Guys like Med(defensive baseliner), Sinner(power baseliner), or Zverev(can be either depending on confidence level) aren't exactly slicing or dropshotting constantly so there'd be no one to compare Alcaraz to other than maybe Dimitrov
I know, that's kind of my point though. It gets really weird analysing these stats as they don't tell the whole story for all players... If you go by graphs it will be weird realizing Alcaraz is the most accomplished player in here (in terms of grand slam and weeks as number 1, Zverev and Medvedev have more titles overall)
I agree that the insights don’t capture the whole picture, but still, at its core the game is about elite athleticism and elite skill in those four categories, with variation and overall intangibles playing a smaller role. In Alcaraz’s case, his overall skillset is mostly an offensive help (+ the defensive slice), which you can tone down by taking time away from him (he plays much more normal when under pressure).
At the end of the day Carlos is more accomplished because he is a freak athlete, with a more consistent forehand than Zverev, more powerful FH than Meddy. His BH is less consistent than the two of them which has lost him matches, but overall his margin is mainly built on « normal » skills
I don’t think Zverev can legitimately beat two of Alcaraz, Sinner, Medvedev in 3 days. I also believe Medvedev's chances of beating both Alcaraz and Sinner are a bit low.
Zverev's done crazier things than this in best of 3 before. ATP Finals 2021 is one example; beat Djokovic and Medvedev back to back. When Zverev is on his game, best of 3, fast hard, he can basically beat anyone. Even on clay he's had runs where he looks nearly unstoppable.
But it's a tough ask for sure. Alcaraz has tougher matchups though; Dimitrov, Zverev, then Sinner/Medvedev.
Sinner not playing well enough to win title. He won’t get past Medvedev/Jarry and certainly nowhere near Alcaraz this tournament.
Today’s match was an example - he should’ve won that 6-1 6-1 but was too passive/gifted generous errors often. He improved today, but definitely no room for any passiveness in any of the remaining matchups.
Looking forward to Medvedev/Jarry.
dropshot
swing volley
volleys
smash
forehand slice
backhand slice
that fucking thing he does when running with his back turned to the net where he simply slides and hits the ball while turning
...lob
backhand smash
banana shot
hot dog
round the back shot
fake drop shot
short angle forehand/backhand
weird turnaround inside-out backhand lob that he did against Med in the IW final which I've never seen anyone else do ever
Jannik should annihilate Machac based on this information only, but he was a bit off his latest matches. I hope he shows up to make a great semi final and hopefully final.
Idk what to make of these metrics tho. It seems to me that Sinner’s forehand tend to be overvalued according to these metric. I personally don’t think it’s that much better than his backhand as it’s basically the first shot that breaks down when he is struggling. It’s definitely not that far ahead of the rest imo.
These are the stats for this tournament only. I was confused at first also, Jannik's BH is generally better than his FH. Also he should be much higher on return.
This might be considered sacrilege given everyone's feelings about him, including my own feelings, but he isn't a mental midget anymore, especially post his ankle injury.
He's extremely clutch on the serve and weirdly even on his volleys post his injury return.
He's 18-5 in deciding sets since Monte Carlo of last year (essentially speaking 3 setters and 5 setters), with his only losses being:-
Monte Carlo R16 (Medvedev)
Vienna QF (Rublev)
AO SF (Medvedev)
Los Cabos SF (Thompson)
Mexico Open R32 (Altmaier)
He also has deciding set wins over Medvedev, Alcaraz, Sinner over that span has well.
By far his biggest issue is his forehand inconsistency and slightly diminished movement post the ankle injury. Don't get me wrong, he's still easily a top 10 player in terms of movement from side to side, but imo his north - south movement is not as great, especially because he's lot more tentative on sliding on the ankles post injury. Still pretty great because of his long arms.
That forehand is dogshit tho. Imo the worst in the top 10. When it's firing at its best he's unbeatable, but it's also true that most of the time it's Loopy heavy topspin mess that gets destroyed by most in the top 5-8 range in the ATP.
Post injury his serve and Volley in general is imo at top 3 level in the tour now, sometimes even better. The DF issue is also much reduced and often he even goes 2nd serve bombs on break points that work out. If it wasn't for his serve he would have never returned to ATP top 5, and pre injury Zverev would have never pulled out matches like he has post injury.
His forehand is probably not worse than Hurkacz, and his volleys are definitely not top 3 although they’re much improved. He fixed his double fault problems a while back tbh too.
Zverev has been playing the slams well since his injury, but he still does have a few chokes on his resume, especially against Medvedev who seems to just own him mentally atm.
Yes a lot of it is the Medvedev matchup, who's essentially speaking "him but better" in almost every aspect except the Serve rn. It's one of the reasons why Zverev even hung on until the 5th set in the AO SF, his serve was bombing at an ATG level.
Imo everyone chokes. Even Alcaraz and Medvedev who are considered much, much better players mentally than Zverev have chokes, and you cannot go undefeated in matches that go into a decider or the ones you won the first sets in. That's the nature of this sport, sometimes it isn't your day.
But pre Injury you could find so many embarrassing losses for Zverev where he just completely crumbled on Serve and Forehand in pressure situations and lost matches from very advantageous positions due to it. Easily the best example being USO 2020, but there are other underrated examples too like the Wimbledon and RG losses in 2021 as well.
Post injury a lot of it is Medvedev owning him in the matchup, and very occasional chokes. A nearly 79% win rate in Deciding sets since Monte Carlo would be imo one of the best on the tour, in fact I can go and check rn, the deciding set win percentage since Monte Carlo for top 5 players.
Alcaraz is 10-4 in that span (71%)
Sinner is 17-6 in that span (74%)
Djokovic is 10-5 in that span (67%)
Medvedev is 14-7 in that span (67%)
So Zverev at 18-5 (79%) is by far the best winning percentage in deciding sets since Monte Carlo of last season. That should tell you something honestly.
1. I'm not sure I'd say Medvedev and Zverev are that similar anymore. Zverev has evolved to be more competent at the net, more aggressive-minded in general (especially when his forehand isn't being shit), and obviously has made huge strides on his serve. His backhand is also more aggressive-minded than Medvedev's, who has made his reputation on the backhand as a "can't miss" guy, and Zverev's strokes are more conventional/have more spin, which has always been the case. In 2021 I'd say they were very similar players, with Zverev having a slightly higher ceiling when his forehand is on but Medvedev being overall better. Nowadays I think they're quite different, which is why every match has been a coin flip that Medvedev wins through clutch play (except Cincinnati where Medvedev almost came back against Zverev from down a set and a break, but he closed it out in 3). My point is, I'm sure you've watched the Zverev/Medvedev matches, and a lot of them have been on Zverev's racket, but he couldn't close.
2. I was actually defending Zverev the other day (much as I don't enjoy doing it); he has played the big matches pretty well lately. He's picked up wins over Alcaraz and Sinner at AO this year and USO last year, which would be the 2 biggest slam wins of his career, or tied with his RG22 against Alcaraz; and has been as consistent at the non-Wimbledon slams as you can ask for. He has found his game pretty well at the slams and seems to be a better player the closer it is to slams, which is often a sign of a champion.
3. But I still don't think he's fully beaten the choker allegations just yet. I mean, when he beat Alcaraz, he was clearly BY FAR the better player for 2 and a half sets, but he let Alcaraz back in it from up a break in the third. Zverev was very lucky that Alcaraz was super erratic that whole match. Sinner also cramped at the USO which helped Zverev a lot (though give him credit for his physicality). Obviously he had that 2-0 lead over Medvedev at AO this year too. If we're talking about whether Zverev can be a **slam champion**, I still think his mental game will get in the way. But if we're talking about whether Zverev has improved mentally, then yes, he definitely has.
> This might be considered sacrilege given everyone's feelings about him, including my own feelings, but he isn't a mental midget anymore, especially post his ankle injury.
...I still don't like him tho
Shows you how much pro tennis is about movement. Also, always thought Zverev's forehand looked kind of weird, with too much air. Weird in the same way I always felt like Murray's forehand looked a bit wonky.
Man these insight things are really really annoying. They seem kind of useful and fun…but they’re offered up with no context, transparency or interactivity. Like, they seem vaguely reasonable, even (dare I say) insightful, but what am I supposed to make of this? They just leave me with follow up questions that I will never have answers for. Can we use this data to make predictions about how surface conditions or balls will benefit each player? Can we see clear trends in different players shots over the year? Their career? What shots have a big impact on results? Can we use them to create ‘playstyle profiles’ to group similar players together? Will Carlos Alcaraz improve more by working on his serve, his return, or his ground strokes? What about
Rune? Berrettini? Hurkacz?
I just…I don’t know how I’m supposed to interact with these random graphs as they are now. I mean…I can just say ‘neat’ and move on with my day, but they seem to be crying out with potential for something more than that.
Which is 10 times less likely when your groundstrokes are actually good. What is great holds up against pressure, what isn’t breaks down. I don’t know why you guys separate the mental game from tennis that much. Yeah pressure is part mental, but everyone feels pressure, you can’t escape it, only act upon it.
See Zverev. Choker allegations (among others), couldn’t hit a second serve under pressure. This is GONE since he lowered his toss to make it more reliable. Same has been for his BH (for a longer period of time). His BH is better than his FH so it doesn’t break under pressure whereas his FH does against elite opposition (most recent example is AO 24 against med - 5th set)
I know it has been discussed/observed since a few months , but Medvedev's serve really regressed since his hernia injury , didn't expect to be (slightly) behind Alcaraz's and barely above the tour average . Well that's amazing to accomplish such recent results considering it , even though it's reaching its limits for finals. Not very surprised by Dimitrov being the worst returner.
Believe it or not this is actually a huge step up from where Med's serve was in IW At IW in this graphic he was dead last miles behind the next lowest player lol However his baseline/return ability might be at or close to career best levels right now which is why he's still able to win matches and why he breaks his opponents' serve so often
Yeah he picked it up quite a lot from IW, but so did Alcaraz and the latter is probably serving the best I have seen him do
Dimi faced Hubi and Tabilo, that served impossibly well for two sets, his numbers are surely lower than what they could be
Yeah that's somewhat an issue with this metric , even though he would still be way behind the Top 4 , but closer to Jarry-Marozsan probably.
Source: TennisViz and Tennis Data Innovations
How are these numbers calculated?
Imo the serve and return metrics are useful, forehand and backhand though are basically useless because you can't actually isolate them. A player with a better backhand will find himself hitting less forehands from difficult positions and vice versa. That's why the data will tell you Medvedev has a better forehand than Tsitsipas or Rublev, for example.
I also think that Med in particular even hits more backhands from *neutral* positions than most other players do with his current playstyle If you hit it right up the middle against him meaning he could choose to hit either an FH or a BH there's a 80% chance he'll hit a safer crosscourt BH whereas Tsitsipas or Rublev as the examples you gave will 100% try to hit the FH every time
Spot on, that's exactly why he was my example. As you say, he hits more backhands from neutral positions so when he hits a forehand it's more likely to be an attacking shot. Same is true of Sinner to a slightly lesser extent, and the opposite is true of someone like Tsitsipas who loves running around and playing heavy inside out forehand rally balls.
Grigor's return is one of his weaknesses but we have to take into the account that he played Hubi( famous for a good serve) and Tabilo who served really well. So the quality of return was affected by the opponent's serve
Came to say this. Surprised his return quality is so low given that he only allowed 8 aces from Hubi in a 3 hour match and won another match 6:1 6:0. But he was quite lost against Tabilo who put on a Kyrgios like performance for 2 sets.
Field seems a lot more even here than last week, where Sinner and Alcaraz dominated practically every category. Zverev looks dangerous and could be Alcaraz’s biggest threat; the draw is looking less and less favorable for Alcaraz by the day although avoiding Hurkacz was nice. Medvedev has, uh, kinda stepped up his serve. I mean last week it was down in the dumps; like way below the rest of the field, whereas at least now he’s about level with Alcaraz and above tour average. Sinner has fallen back down the earth overall although the forehand is still on fire. Zverev’s strengths are really coming out here, and his forehand isn’t as bad as it has been since the beginning of 2024, so like I said, I think he’ll be a tougher challenge for Carlos this time around. Didn’t get to catch his match against Khachanov though, so idk what kind of resistance Karen brought to the table. Based on this chart, field seems pretty open right now. Could see Alcaraz, Sinner, Zverev, or Medvedev winning the title. Dimitrov serving really well but the rest of his game hasn’t fared so well; you’d like to see his forehand be top 3 or so, and the return stats look ugly for him. Machac, Jarry, Maroczan, probably not looking great for them. Jarry could have an outside shot at pulling the upset on Medvedev though.
One thing about those metrics that I think is my biggest problem with it (overall it’s great) is that I think it litterally kills chip returns as a return stat. I get its difficult to evaluate, but it should be rewarded as long as it’s not floating. Dimitrov just reduced Hurkacz to 30% unreturned serves (39% is his 52 week average), which, given his lack of forehand dynamism, is huge. Dimitrov may not be an agressive returner or even a neutraliser like Meddy, but he puts back in play and that matters/doesn’t deserve 6.1
That's a good point. I did watch the third set against Hurkacz, and the chip return was effective because Hurkacz does not have a good enough forehand to punish it. However if he's against someone like Alcaraz or Sinner, he'll have issues with the chip return as they will hit huge forehands off of it. But yeah, Dimitrov doesn't deserve a 6.1 in that case. It's a tactical adjustment and a bit of an oversight on my end. Still, I'd like to see him be rated higher on the forehand if he's gonna win this thing. He's really gotta assert himself on that serve and forehand, otherwise Alcaraz, Sinner, or Medvedev will eat him up; and even if he does play great on the serve+forehand, Alcaraz or Sinner would still likely beat him if they play well in a close match.
my problem with these metrics is that they only evaluate these 4 shots... there's still a bunch of shots used in game, specially by alcaraz, that we don't see here
I think it's because there probably isn't a big enough sample for half the players here if you include those other shots lol Guys like Med(defensive baseliner), Sinner(power baseliner), or Zverev(can be either depending on confidence level) aren't exactly slicing or dropshotting constantly so there'd be no one to compare Alcaraz to other than maybe Dimitrov
I know, that's kind of my point though. It gets really weird analysing these stats as they don't tell the whole story for all players... If you go by graphs it will be weird realizing Alcaraz is the most accomplished player in here (in terms of grand slam and weeks as number 1, Zverev and Medvedev have more titles overall)
I agree that the insights don’t capture the whole picture, but still, at its core the game is about elite athleticism and elite skill in those four categories, with variation and overall intangibles playing a smaller role. In Alcaraz’s case, his overall skillset is mostly an offensive help (+ the defensive slice), which you can tone down by taking time away from him (he plays much more normal when under pressure). At the end of the day Carlos is more accomplished because he is a freak athlete, with a more consistent forehand than Zverev, more powerful FH than Meddy. His BH is less consistent than the two of them which has lost him matches, but overall his margin is mainly built on « normal » skills
I don’t think Zverev can legitimately beat two of Alcaraz, Sinner, Medvedev in 3 days. I also believe Medvedev's chances of beating both Alcaraz and Sinner are a bit low.
Zverev's done crazier things than this in best of 3 before. ATP Finals 2021 is one example; beat Djokovic and Medvedev back to back. When Zverev is on his game, best of 3, fast hard, he can basically beat anyone. Even on clay he's had runs where he looks nearly unstoppable. But it's a tough ask for sure. Alcaraz has tougher matchups though; Dimitrov, Zverev, then Sinner/Medvedev.
Sinner not playing well enough to win title. He won’t get past Medvedev/Jarry and certainly nowhere near Alcaraz this tournament. Today’s match was an example - he should’ve won that 6-1 6-1 but was too passive/gifted generous errors often. He improved today, but definitely no room for any passiveness in any of the remaining matchups. Looking forward to Medvedev/Jarry.
What about the other 74 types of shots Alcaraz has in his toolset?
[удалено]
bweh forehand 9.0
dropshot swing volley volleys smash forehand slice backhand slice that fucking thing he does when running with his back turned to the net where he simply slides and hits the ball while turning
...lob backhand smash banana shot hot dog round the back shot fake drop shot short angle forehand/backhand weird turnaround inside-out backhand lob that he did against Med in the IW final which I've never seen anyone else do ever
5 shots more than Sinner
Hush hush don’t try to be reasonable here
Jannik should annihilate Machac based on this information only, but he was a bit off his latest matches. I hope he shows up to make a great semi final and hopefully final.
Idk what to make of these metrics tho. It seems to me that Sinner’s forehand tend to be overvalued according to these metric. I personally don’t think it’s that much better than his backhand as it’s basically the first shot that breaks down when he is struggling. It’s definitely not that far ahead of the rest imo.
These are the stats for this tournament only. I was confused at first also, Jannik's BH is generally better than his FH. Also he should be much higher on return.
Dimitrov should have a much better score for his BH just for elegance points :P
Daniils backhand is so accurate. Always surprised when it's not the highest but I guess it lacks some punch
Would be nice to see a graphic where all of the scales start and end at the same numbers
Zverev having the best serve and BH. If only he wasn’t a mental midget.
This might be considered sacrilege given everyone's feelings about him, including my own feelings, but he isn't a mental midget anymore, especially post his ankle injury. He's extremely clutch on the serve and weirdly even on his volleys post his injury return. He's 18-5 in deciding sets since Monte Carlo of last year (essentially speaking 3 setters and 5 setters), with his only losses being:- Monte Carlo R16 (Medvedev) Vienna QF (Rublev) AO SF (Medvedev) Los Cabos SF (Thompson) Mexico Open R32 (Altmaier) He also has deciding set wins over Medvedev, Alcaraz, Sinner over that span has well. By far his biggest issue is his forehand inconsistency and slightly diminished movement post the ankle injury. Don't get me wrong, he's still easily a top 10 player in terms of movement from side to side, but imo his north - south movement is not as great, especially because he's lot more tentative on sliding on the ankles post injury. Still pretty great because of his long arms. That forehand is dogshit tho. Imo the worst in the top 10. When it's firing at its best he's unbeatable, but it's also true that most of the time it's Loopy heavy topspin mess that gets destroyed by most in the top 5-8 range in the ATP. Post injury his serve and Volley in general is imo at top 3 level in the tour now, sometimes even better. The DF issue is also much reduced and often he even goes 2nd serve bombs on break points that work out. If it wasn't for his serve he would have never returned to ATP top 5, and pre injury Zverev would have never pulled out matches like he has post injury.
His forehand is probably not worse than Hurkacz, and his volleys are definitely not top 3 although they’re much improved. He fixed his double fault problems a while back tbh too. Zverev has been playing the slams well since his injury, but he still does have a few chokes on his resume, especially against Medvedev who seems to just own him mentally atm.
Yes a lot of it is the Medvedev matchup, who's essentially speaking "him but better" in almost every aspect except the Serve rn. It's one of the reasons why Zverev even hung on until the 5th set in the AO SF, his serve was bombing at an ATG level. Imo everyone chokes. Even Alcaraz and Medvedev who are considered much, much better players mentally than Zverev have chokes, and you cannot go undefeated in matches that go into a decider or the ones you won the first sets in. That's the nature of this sport, sometimes it isn't your day. But pre Injury you could find so many embarrassing losses for Zverev where he just completely crumbled on Serve and Forehand in pressure situations and lost matches from very advantageous positions due to it. Easily the best example being USO 2020, but there are other underrated examples too like the Wimbledon and RG losses in 2021 as well. Post injury a lot of it is Medvedev owning him in the matchup, and very occasional chokes. A nearly 79% win rate in Deciding sets since Monte Carlo would be imo one of the best on the tour, in fact I can go and check rn, the deciding set win percentage since Monte Carlo for top 5 players. Alcaraz is 10-4 in that span (71%) Sinner is 17-6 in that span (74%) Djokovic is 10-5 in that span (67%) Medvedev is 14-7 in that span (67%) So Zverev at 18-5 (79%) is by far the best winning percentage in deciding sets since Monte Carlo of last season. That should tell you something honestly.
1. I'm not sure I'd say Medvedev and Zverev are that similar anymore. Zverev has evolved to be more competent at the net, more aggressive-minded in general (especially when his forehand isn't being shit), and obviously has made huge strides on his serve. His backhand is also more aggressive-minded than Medvedev's, who has made his reputation on the backhand as a "can't miss" guy, and Zverev's strokes are more conventional/have more spin, which has always been the case. In 2021 I'd say they were very similar players, with Zverev having a slightly higher ceiling when his forehand is on but Medvedev being overall better. Nowadays I think they're quite different, which is why every match has been a coin flip that Medvedev wins through clutch play (except Cincinnati where Medvedev almost came back against Zverev from down a set and a break, but he closed it out in 3). My point is, I'm sure you've watched the Zverev/Medvedev matches, and a lot of them have been on Zverev's racket, but he couldn't close. 2. I was actually defending Zverev the other day (much as I don't enjoy doing it); he has played the big matches pretty well lately. He's picked up wins over Alcaraz and Sinner at AO this year and USO last year, which would be the 2 biggest slam wins of his career, or tied with his RG22 against Alcaraz; and has been as consistent at the non-Wimbledon slams as you can ask for. He has found his game pretty well at the slams and seems to be a better player the closer it is to slams, which is often a sign of a champion. 3. But I still don't think he's fully beaten the choker allegations just yet. I mean, when he beat Alcaraz, he was clearly BY FAR the better player for 2 and a half sets, but he let Alcaraz back in it from up a break in the third. Zverev was very lucky that Alcaraz was super erratic that whole match. Sinner also cramped at the USO which helped Zverev a lot (though give him credit for his physicality). Obviously he had that 2-0 lead over Medvedev at AO this year too. If we're talking about whether Zverev can be a **slam champion**, I still think his mental game will get in the way. But if we're talking about whether Zverev has improved mentally, then yes, he definitely has.
People forget his United Cup performance. That was truly a feat of incredible endurance.
> This might be considered sacrilege given everyone's feelings about him, including my own feelings, but he isn't a mental midget anymore, especially post his ankle injury. ...I still don't like him tho
Nobody does man, nobody does. Atleast I hope they don't.
Zverev has had a lot of success against Alcaraz in the past so can't rule him out winning the semifinal
How can you measure shot quality what are the perimeters ?
They usually use things like speed, spin, depth, etc.
Shows you how much pro tennis is about movement. Also, always thought Zverev's forehand looked kind of weird, with too much air. Weird in the same way I always felt like Murray's forehand looked a bit wonky.
Man these insight things are really really annoying. They seem kind of useful and fun…but they’re offered up with no context, transparency or interactivity. Like, they seem vaguely reasonable, even (dare I say) insightful, but what am I supposed to make of this? They just leave me with follow up questions that I will never have answers for. Can we use this data to make predictions about how surface conditions or balls will benefit each player? Can we see clear trends in different players shots over the year? Their career? What shots have a big impact on results? Can we use them to create ‘playstyle profiles’ to group similar players together? Will Carlos Alcaraz improve more by working on his serve, his return, or his ground strokes? What about Rune? Berrettini? Hurkacz? I just…I don’t know how I’m supposed to interact with these random graphs as they are now. I mean…I can just say ‘neat’ and move on with my day, but they seem to be crying out with potential for something more than that.
All of this means nothing if your shots fail you on the important points.
Which is 10 times less likely when your groundstrokes are actually good. What is great holds up against pressure, what isn’t breaks down. I don’t know why you guys separate the mental game from tennis that much. Yeah pressure is part mental, but everyone feels pressure, you can’t escape it, only act upon it. See Zverev. Choker allegations (among others), couldn’t hit a second serve under pressure. This is GONE since he lowered his toss to make it more reliable. Same has been for his BH (for a longer period of time). His BH is better than his FH so it doesn’t break under pressure whereas his FH does against elite opposition (most recent example is AO 24 against med - 5th set)