why? to protect the net player– on days the returner is having trouble gettint the ball back or away from the net player moving your partner back is a good idea

has there ever been a worse day for tennis than today– both matches end in walk overs Andy played 3 games– stepanek played 7 barely. 10 games the guy who stopped won no games— instead of a great semi day the fans got robbed

BARCELONA, Spain
The ATP has made several changes to the calendar in 2008 to accommodate the Olympic Games, meaning that Nadal will play four tournaments on clay in four weeks, with just a week off before the French Open.
Three of those tournaments are Masters Series events, which automatically count toward a player’s ranking.

“These people are destroying Europe and Europe used to be the foundation of the tour,” Nadal said in Barcelona, where he is defending his Barcelona Open title.

Nadal said tournaments would have to accept that more top players than usual were likely to suffer early defeats.

“I think that when a player loses in the first round or pulls out — and they get criticized — the tournament should ring these people [the ATP] and tell them that it is their fault.

Nadal’s comments were backed up by American James Blake, who said the whole calendar needed to be restructured.

“The Olympics is such a unique experience that we need to make arrangements for, but the calendar is too packed and maybe we should take out the Davis Cup in Olympic years,” Blake said.

“It’s probably too much to expect a player to have a lengthy career. It makes it very difficult.”

Gonalez barely squeaks by Tipseravic, defaults against Allmagro, who in turn defaults to Djoky. Meanwhile Roddick retires against Warinka and Stepanek is barfing on the court, retires against Djoky. Perhaps the final will be worth all this. Tough for the ticketholders…

Precisely what Nadal predicted in his news release, covered in a previous post.

Safin finishes with more shoulder rotation, and his body is pitched forward because he launches his body upward and forwards. While this lends “heaviness” to the serve, his landing is a little more disorganized than say, Kolhschreiber - who doesn’t throw the right shoulder forward into the serve as much. But his body seems more balanced and ready to react to the return.

Davydenko/Robredo - third set tiebreak, unfortunate Davydenko gets a huge bad bounce where the ball rose no more than 3 inches off the court, next point his strings break mid rally, and misses a sitter overhead to lose the match.

Never over until it’s over…

How many times have you heard this : if you are out of ideas as to where to hit the passing shot in doubles, just dip it low down the middle…

I hear it a lot, and the net players who let shots go thru down the middle will not win many matches.

The solution is that both players have to go for the volley, despite the fear of banging racquets. Here the Bryans cover the middle.

The left arm can help rotate the torso and hips - see Luby bring the left arm around and up in preparation for his forehand. His left shoulder is in contact with his chin, and he is seeing the ball “through” his upper arm.

Same thing on the backhand, your right shoulder should be up against your chin.

if you are gooing to bring your feet together on your serve to help you spring up — it is critical for both balance and power that you indeed bring your feet together– if the back foot goes wider than the front foot you will lose power as you have rotated before you have hit

Goodell said he talked to Murray about his drop shot– Murry told him — that it is a shot he doesn’t use in practice only when he feels the moment is right in the match– Goodell points out most coaches would flip– you should practice what you want to use– and don’t use the match to hit shots that you don’t practice==

Drucker is not a fan of Goodell– but for my money he runs rings around everyone else