Heading Back To The Top? by Marco Di Nardo At the end of 2015, there were signs that Rafael Nadal was starting to find his feet again. Yet those hopes were quickly dashed at the start of this season, when he took a step backwards in terms of both his performance and his results. The Spaniard has not been himself since the middle of 2014, and has since then suffered setback after setback, though he has always maintained a positive outlook. That outlook might finally prove to be something more than wishful thinking, as Nadal has improved significantly since reaching the semi-finals at Indian Wells. True, he had to withdraw early in Miami against an opponent he would under normal circumstances beat easily, but something good is definitely brewing in Nadal’s camp. Indeed, if we ignore the withdrawal in Miami, Nadal has won nine of his last ten matches, with his only loss coming against Novak Djokovic. And in that match he pushed the world number one hard in the first set, even earning a set point before finally losing the tie-break and eventually the match. Not ideal, but definitely something to build on. The real breakthrough came, of course, in Monte Carlo, a tournament where the Spaniard has enjoyed enormous success. In 2015, Nadal played in all the Masters 1000 events, but only reached one final (Madrid) and one semi-final (Shanghai). Yet this year he has already significantly improved on that tally, and it’s barely May. The good news, apart from the fact that Nadal is feeling as confident now as he has in years, we are entering the part of the year where he has had his best results: the European clay
court swing. If he can maintain his current form, he will be second only to Djokovic when it comes to being the favorite for any event. Saying that Nadal is second only to Djokovic is actually supported by the rankings. Not the singles rankings, to be fair, but the Race rankings, which keeps track of all the players’ points accumulated so far this year. In the Race to London rankings Nadal is number two, having recently leapfrogged Milos Raonic for that honor, after he triumphed at the event in Barcelona. It was the eighth time Nadal had won both Barcelona and Monte Carlo in the same year, a truly astonishing feat (2005 to 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016). What has really changed in the last few weeks is Nadal’s ability to play his best tennis during the most important points. He played well in all the important moments during his three-set win over Gilles Muller in Indian Wells, and saved three consecutive set points against Fernando Verdasco. He also saved a match point against Zverev and came back from 2-5 in the third set in that match. Even the apparently easy win over Nishikori started from an almost desperate situation, with Nadal starting the match 1-3 and 15-40. But from there he was able to recover himself and assert his authority on the match, grinding Nishikori into the dust with his relentless physical play. Even in his loss to Dzumhur, Nadal did very well to win the first set considering how many break points he failed to take advantage of. In recent years Nadal’s game and mental state would suffer if he failed to take advantage of such opportunities, but now he seems able to bounce back from such adversity more easily. In Monte Carlo, he had some very tough matches as well, having to beat Thiem, Murray and Monfils en route to the title. Against
Thiem, in particular, he had a tough time, surrendering 17 break points in the match. He managed to save 15 of them, however, tremendously boosting his confidence while undermining his opponent’s. For the first time in a few years it seems as if Nadal might realistically set his sights on his tenth Roland Garros trophy, something that seemed unthinkable just a few months ago. There are many tests ahead, to be sure, but his recent results and form suggest that he can once again realistically chase the goal of being the best player in the world on clay.
Grigor Dimitrov: in crisis by Federico Mariani
After what can charitably be described as a “challenging” year in 2015, Grigor Dimitrov still finds himself in a kind of limbo in-between the workaday professionals and the truly great players on the Tour. He dropped his coach and split with his girlfriend, but the Bulgarian seems no closer to fulfilling his massive potential, and he fast is approaching the age where he needs to be playing the best tennis of his life if he is to make any lasting impact on the sport. What Dimitrov needs is a breakthrough. What kind of breakthrough? Anything will do at this point. But something needs to give if he is to play to his potential any time soon. But before we start wondering what change the Bulgarian can make, we must perhaps ask what has changed up until now. In 2014, after all, he reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon and seemed headed for the Top 5. Today, Dimitrov is a shadow of his former self. But why? A look at his numbers provides part of the answer. It’s true that numbers cannot tell the whole story, but analyzing Dimitrov’s services stats it soon becomes clear why he is struggling to dominate as he once did. His serve is perhaps his biggest weapon, and it has simply been underperforming over the past two years. Before the start of the clay season in 2016, Dimitrov had hit 118 aces in 21 matches. This equates to basically five per match, enough to be 26th on the Tour in that category. This is even worse than last year, when he finished the season with 396 aces in 54, or 21st place. This in contrast to the previous two years (2013-2014), where he was at the edge of the Top 10 in terms of aces (13th and 12th respectively). Moving beyond his ace count, a look at his first serve stats also reveal a lot. This year, Dimitrov has won 70% of his first service points, putting
him in the same company as Seppi, Goffin, Mannarino and Haase, players who are not known for their big first serve or overall prowess on the court. This is substantially down from last year, when he won 75%, which is down again from 76% and 77% in 2013 and 2014 respectively. To the casual eye, a few percentage points might not seem like much, but at this level of tennis it can mean the difference between winning and losing. In today's game the serve is more important than ever. Dimitrov used to get a lot of free points off his big serve, but that is no longer the case. This has put a lot of extra pressure on his ground game, and it has not responded strongly enough for him to maintain his Top 10 ranking from a few years ago. One might think that it would be worth it for him to take less risk on his first serve, perhaps resulting in more points. Unfortunately, this will not help, as he has basically maintained his first service percentage from his better years (in fact, it is slightly better now than before). So he is making his first serves, but they are just less effective. We don’t know what is needed to fix Dimitrov’s game in general, or his serve in particular. However, it is important that he do so sooner rather than later, or he might find himself added to the long list of career underachievers on the ATP Tour.
Perhaps calling it a crisis is a little much, but there is no doubt that Serena Williams is in a rut. For most players, her recent results would be worth celebrating, but for the woman who has dominated the Tour for years anything less than victory in every event is seen as a failure. And there have been very few trophies in the past few months. Indeed, one has to go back to August of 2015 and Cincinnati for Serena’s last triumph. Back then, things were looking very different for the American. Still in the midst of an incredible season, she seemed on the road to history as she left Cincinnati for the US Open. The overwhelming favorite to become the first person to win a calendar Grand Slam since 1988, nothing appeared capable of stopping her. Then, the unthinkable happened: she lost in the semifinals to a player she had dominated in the past. A player who nobody had even expected to reach the semis  Roberta Vinci. Crushed and demoralized, Williams called a premature end to her year, hoping that some time off would heal her wounds, both physical and mental. Unfortunately, things have not gotten off to a sparkling start in 2016. She reached the final of the Australian Open, but any hope that she would use that as a springboard for another run and the calendar Slam was quickly snuffed out by the
Struggling Serena by Valerio Carriero
German underdog Angelique Kerber. Smarting from yet another lost opportunity, Williams again retreated from the Tour until Indian Wells, a mandatory event. She breezed through the draw, for a brief moment seeming like her old self. That is, until the final, where an energized Victoria Azarenka awaited her. Once again, Williams entered the match as a favorite against an opponent she had never had much trouble with, and once again she lost, in straight sets as well. Her next appearance, at another mandatory event in Miami, went even worse. In the round of 16 she ran into Svetlana Kuznetova, a powerful player who is a few years past her prime. Yet Williams made Kuznetsova look like a monstrous force, losing 6-7, 6-1, 6-2. The last two sets were particularly hard to watch for the American fans who had turned out in droves to support her. Throughout all of these struggles Serena has remained her usual self in press conferences  prickly and stand-offish, but giving the impression that she was not worried about her overall form. Yet the fact remains that she has not lost two finals in a row since 2004, surely an indication that something is amiss. It’s hard to imagine that she will continue to fall short in big tournaments for much longer. It is even harder to imagine that she will give up and retire while being so close to equaling Graf’s record for number of Slams won. At the end of the year we might look back on this as a tiny speedbump in another dominant season for the younger Williams sister, but one thing is for sure: she will have to play a lot better if she wants to remain the top dog for much longer.
The Many Surprises Of Tennis by Valerio Carriero
Imagine tennis without any surprises, without any twists of fate or sudden unexpected turns. It would be unthinkable. Tennis, perhaps more than any other sport, lives on the constant edge of unpredictability, where a few points can completely turn a match on its head. It is a sport that gives you a fresh opportunity every week, and which allows you to return to the top of the sport even after long periods away from the game. Today, we are going to have a look at a few of the biggest such surprises of the past decade. We begin with Juan Martin Del Potro, the immensely talented and incredibly unlucky Argentine. He recently re-emerged on Tour after a seemingly endless saga of wrist surgeries, followed by rehab, followed by more wrist surgeries. After winning the US Open in 2009, Del Potro has yet to enjoy an extended period of health on the Tour, but is hoping that this time he will be able to finally fulfil his potential. Even though he had a Major under his belt, he has still not won a Masters 1000 event. Even more curious is the case of Del Potro’s compatriot, David Nalbandian. He reached one Slam final, at Wimbledon where he lost to Lleyton Hewitt, but stunned the tennis world in 2005 when he won the ATP World
Tour Finals, beating none other than Roger Federer in the championship match. A few years later, in 2007, Nalbandian went on another tear, beating Federer and Nadal multiple times in the space of a few weeks. In doing so, he won not just his first Masters 1000 event, but another one shortly after. Nikolay Davydenko had a similar remarkable run in 2009, when he came out of nowhere to win the ATP World Tour Finals, beating Del Potro in the final. That was the best period of the Russian’s career, and he too would beat Nadal and Federer multiple times in the space of a few months. The WTA has also seen its fair share of surprises, one of which is Agnieszka Radwanska. The Polish prodigy, who has suffered some criticism in her career for her lack of performance at Slams, made a stunning comeback to win the WTA Championships in 2015. After barely surviving the round robin stage, where she faced the prospect of almost certain elimination, she breezed through the knockout portion to win the biggest title of her career. But even the best players on the circuit offer up surprises every now and then. Novak Djokovic knows this all too well. The world
number one and undisputed ruler of the circuit for quite some time now, the Serb has been cursed when it comes to Roland Garros. It is even stranger when considering that Djokovic has won many Masters 1000 events on clay against the best players in the world, but simply has not been able to play his best at the French Open. Rafael Nadal has a similar problem, but on grass. After reaching five consecutive finals  not counting his absence in 2009  from 2006 to 2011, the Mallorcan has not even reached the quarter-finals since. Even Federer also has his demons, having won Olympic gold not in singles, but in doubles, a discipline he has barely participated in since he turned pro in 1998. We close with some curious cases involving the finals. The most famous, of course, is the sad record of Julien Benneteau, who has fallen short of winning his first career titles no fewer than 10 times. Ten finals, ten losses for the Frenchman. In contrast, someone like Ernests Gulbis, who has been wildly inconsistent in his career, is a perfect six out of six in finals. On the women’s side, Sloane Stephens has an equally perfect record, having won four titles in four appearances.
Creating Your Own Signature Shot by Federico Coppini The great champions usually have a shot that characterizes them and gives them an extra edge over their peers. Andre Agassi had his tremendous return, Jimmy Connors hit his backhand like few other players in the world and Goran Ivanisevic got countless free points from his serve. And Stefan Edberg and Martina Navratilova used their serve-and-volley tactics to devastating effect. There are many other examples, of course, but these are just a few instances where great players had shots that will forever be associated with them. After falling to Ivanisevic in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 1992, a frustrated Stefan Edberg summed up the Croatian’s devastating strength: "In the fifth set I got a break point which he saved with an ace. Then at 5-3, 15/40 he hit two more. Then I got another and he hit another ace. Usually you hope to play some break points on a second serve, but Goran does not work that way." Similarly, Jimmy Connors always built his famous comebacks on his devastating backhand, while Jim Courier put blind faith in his forehand when things got tight. While a club player can never hope to develop a weapon quite as magnificent as that of a pro they can, given sufficient time and commitment, hone one of their shots to the point where it can dominate their opponents in good times, and keep them in the match in bad times. First you need the objectivity to be able to
recognize which of your shots can be honed into just such a weapon. You might think you have a great backhand, but in reality it might be your forehand that has the most potential. Once the shot has been selected, you can train it with care so as to eliminate any technical problems and increase your confidence in its offensive capabilities. The preferred shot must be kept under constant review. That does not mean you have to neglect other areas of your game, but you must make sure that you keep your best shot in tip-top condition at all times. This will not only keep it sharp, but will give you the psychological assurance that you can rely on it. Assuming that your chosen weapon is your forehand, here are some tips: 1) Practice rallies using low and medium pace
to get a “feel” for the ball, favoring fluidity of movement, the correct point of impact and the transfer of your body weight to the ball. 2) Practice all variations of the shot. There are three main types: A = Low (impact below the knees) B = Middle (impact between the knees and shoulders) C = High (impact above the shoulders). You must focus on hitting the ball to all areas of the court from these three main heights. Training should also include practicing at these heights from all areas of the court: far behind the baseline, on the baseline, on the service line and at the net. Also practice running around your backhand to hit a forehand. 3) Try to hit the ball on the rise. 4) It is important to remember that your best shot may not be a powerhouse, but it can still win you a lot of points. Not everyone is strong
enough to hit winners off of almost any ball, and you might need to use your trump card shot to move your opponent around so that you can hit an easy winner, or even draw an error from your opponent. The mental aspect of this shot is as important as the physical and technical components. It might not seem to the outside world that you have a weapon in your forehand, but you know that you do and that it can win you matches. One need only look at Emilio Sanchez, who rose as high as 7 in the world rankings, for proof of this. He didn’t have any overwhelming weapons, but used to his speed to position himself perfectly for each shot and outmaneuver his opponents. Power comes in many different forms, and you need to find the form that works best for you. Immagin
How To Face A Lefty by Federico Coppini Lefties can completely distort our conception of a match by using angles we are not used to and thereby completely changing the flow and direction of the match. For example, their most deadly serves come when they are serving on the ad court, which often comes at critical moments like break points. The classic version of the typical left hander is a player with a strong backhand, better forehand and wicked slice serve on the ad court to the righty’s backhand (think John McEnroe). Of course this is just a sketch, and each of your opponents will have their own characteristics, but we will use our idealized version of a lefty to illustrate a way of using his own weapons against him. One of the strengths of lefties is, of course, their slice service played from left to right. Let's try to steal the idea, and when we serve from right to left we also hit with more slice and less pace, focusing on their backhand.
By using this slice, the lefty will be in the same trouble that the righty is in that position: they will likely not be able to hit a strong backhand return. In fact, they may have to opt for a slice return, which could land short and be easy to exploit. If this is the case, you must be ready to pounce on the ball and hit it into the open court (remember, your opponent will be out of position after your serve).
On the other side of the court, when you are receiving, it is important to be proactive when facing the dreaded lefty slice serve. Do not wait for the ball, but instead move into the court to meet it before it gets too wide. If you do this, you will be able to partly neutralize the strength of the serve and also take time away from your opponent, making it more difficult to assert their authority with their strongest weapons.
Balancing Training And Recovery Times by Federico Coppini Physical training can put a lot of stress on your body, but as you continue to train your body gradually adapts increasingly levels of physical stress. If you train too much or too hard, placing excessive stress on your body, your performance will suffer. On the other hand, if you train too little or too lightly, you will not see a performance gain either. In order to strike the right balance, here are 10 simple guidelines to keep in mind:
1. Training must be targeted in a manner that balances physical stress with recovery time. 2. The stress/recovery ratio should be constantly monitored and fine-tuned. 3. Work and rest cycles should be planned carefully ahead of time 4. Training must always be followed by recovery periods, otherwise you will not experience any performance gains in the long run. 5. You cannot always train at your maximum level. 6. Long periods of physical stress leads to poor performance 7. Rest is as important as training. 8. There is a relationship between stress and fun. 9. Training can and must be both physical and
psychological. 10. When work periods are excessive compared to recovery periods, the effectiveness of the training decreases. The body has many natural rhythms and cycles, on both a macro and micro level. Every cell in the body functions according to its own stress/recovery cycle. Pulsations of the heart, brain and other muscles also have their own rhythm and cycles. Maximum performance and health is achieved when all the rhythms of the body are in sync. This can be achieved by controlling the pulsations of the heart during training, so that periods of stress are balanced by recovery intervals and relaxation.
Positive Thinking by Federico Coppini
We all know the expression of seeing the glass as half full instead of half empty. While it’s impossible to say exactly how many people believe in the latter or the former, it’s fair to say that countless individuals see the glass as half empty. While some tend to see things in a positive light, even when things are not very positive at all, others are the exact opposite, almost always gravitating towards the negative interpretation of things. The reasons behind this are, of course, rooted in complex psychological dynamics, which then get expressed in the experience of everyday life. That being said, it is very important to remember that inside every pessimist lurks an optimist. This may be more readily evident in some people than in others, but everybody is capable of being a positive person. Positive thinking, then, before being a mental preparation technique, is a philosophy of life. Without this inner approach, without seeking out the positive things in the world, it is really difficult to use positive thinking as a mental training technique. To make use of this technique, it
is important to understand the mindset and personality of the player trying to adopt it. You have to understand how the individual lives their life and prepares for matches. You must also understand how they process losses: do they think it was luck, skill or fate that decided the match? Through these elements it is possible to evaluate an athlete's self-esteem and self-efficacy, knowing that those who think negatively probably have low self-esteem. One can then engage the athlete in changing their way of thinking into a more positive one. It is, of course, a continuous process. To remove negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones is an ongoing battle, but eventually it will become second nature. The athlete will discover how to truly think positively, and embrace that as the only way to think. And because positive thinking is "contagious," the player will start affecting those around him as well. This will be the ultimate proof that the player has fully accepted, embraced and understood the technique of positive thinking.
Learning From Your Best Match Ever by Federico Coppini If you ask an athlete about the best match they ever played, you will notice that they remember just about everything about it. The date, the time, the setting, the court everything about the match has been utterly etched into their memory. Perhaps most importantly, they will remember the sensations and emotions of the day, all those positive feelings that accompanied the match. Though the player might not have noticed, something inside them changed after that match, and it was a change for the better. It is not just that they gained extra confidence in themselves after such a performance though they certainly did get that but that they experienced true “Flow” and “Peak Performance” for the first time. While playing their absolute best tennis (Peak Performance) players experience different internal sensations and emotions than normal. They likely felt as if everything they did was easy, natural, automatic and pleasant, that time seemed to stop just as they hit each shot. This sensation is known as “Flow.” By further expanding your understanding of Peak Performance and Flow, you will understand what an extraordinary and memorable experience it can be for a player, and how it can be used to achieve even better goals in the future. The state of Flow can be defined as an optimal experience in which you are so immersed in what you're doing that nothing else seems to matter. It is a very exciting experience and can
be a profound source of satisfaction. It is characterized by a balance between challenge and skill, a mix of action and awareness, clear goals, immediate feedback, immense concentration, strong sense of control, loss of self-awareness and disintegration of time. Peak Performance, on the other hand, is characterized by strong emotional reactions to an achievement of ideal performance. Players experience clear focus, a high level of performance, total sense of control and strong sense of self. Flow and Peak Performance are closely related. It seems clear, at this point, that one of the main objectives of mental preparation will be to recreate all these psychological conditions, so that the athlete can re-experience a state of Flow. This will hopefully result in an experience of Peak Performance on the court. Tools that can aid a player in achieving this objective include: • Visualization • Concentration • Proprioception • Locomotor training
Before returning a serve, jump by Federico Coppini Which are the most important shots in tennis? All of them. The serve and the return although, are those that during the last years have become a subject of more development and interest. Fast courts, light racquets, tall players and biomechanics discoveries have made the serve a lethal gun that gets to throw balls faster than 120 m/h. Being in front of such “bombers” has necessarily increased the research for a better and more efficient way to return and avoid to lose games with “zero” points scored. The return to the serve has to be trained because of two main reasons: - Holding your own and sending the ball beyond the net in return to the opponent’s powerful serves; - Being aggressive on the slowest serves and so taking control of the rally. Professionals’ stuff? Absolutely not! Also club’s athletes face players that use a more or less powerful and angled serve, so if we want to improve our play we have to train also our return. Where to stand? On the base-line, near the single’s line. Which stance to take? Waiting position with the racquet in front of the body, elbows forward, weight on the forefeet and wide feet beyond the shoulders. What then?
Do a split step and go hit the ball. What’s a split step? It’s the little jump that you have to perform when the opponent is about to hit the ball and once landed lets us keep the balance, ready to sprint towards the ball’s direction without wasting time. The return to the serve is characterized also by a movement towards the ball, by the racquet’s movement, the stance to take after the impact and it varies based on factors like the opponent’s serve’s habits, rotations and where we want to place the ball.
It is very important to begin the split step, though. In fact, too often we play a bad return because we don’t move and we wait with hard and powerless legs in front of the opponent’s serve, hoping they make a mistake or made lazy by the concept that the return must be played “standing still”. Next time you have to return a serve, try to slightly jump when the opponent is about to impact the ball and you will see the difference!
The Importance Of Proper Posture In Tennis by Marco Bucciarelli - fisioterapista In recent years, many scientists have been studying biomechanics. They look at athletes’ movements while they are playing tennis, and focus on the various phases of the game. These scientists use sophisticated equipment to accurately capture all movements. The aim of all this is to determine how athletes can attain maximum technical efficiency with minimum effort. This is important to know, because our bodies experience tremendous stress when we perform the same action repeatedly, as in most sports. In tennis, this is especially relevant, as players’ muscles and joints experience extreme pressure. Different surfaces, long travel times
and limited recovery time all add to the bodily trauma, and when players then perform certain actions with poor posture, they can easily injure themselves. These kinds of injuries can affect both professional and amateur players. The main causes of injury are bad technique, improper training and inadequate warm-up exercises. Using good posture when performing athletic activities has two main benefits. Firstly, it strengthens the muscles and allows your body to operate at maximum efficiency, which reduces the risk of injury. Secondly, by moving your body in a perfectly coordinated manner, you maintain your balance more effectively. It is vital for each player to develop a body awareness, which will help greatly in stabilising athletic movements and hand-eye coordination.
It should be noted that certain sports can have positive effect on asymmetric dysmorphic features of the spine, such as scoliosis. Sports such as tennis or fencing can help develop the muscles of one side of the body, but do not cause or worsen scoliosis at an early stage.
Wind: friend or foe? by Federico Coppini
Most of us can often be heard saying the phrase, "it’s impossible to play in this wind.” Before matches, most people will make a comment about the wind, complaining how it will negatively affect their game. Some simply refuse to play when it’s windy, because they think it will be tedious and no fun.
From children to adults, from amateurs to professionals, in my many years of working with players I have heard all of these complaints and more. Of all the things that get blamed when a players is faring poorly, the wind is always the most likely candidate. But this fear of the wind becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you keep thinking that you cannot play in the wind, you won’t be able to play in the wind! Playing in extremely windy conditions can be challenging, it is true. However, these challenges are not insurmountable. You simply need to be able to adjust your game sufficiently, and adapt to the conditions, and you will be able to walk off the court as the winner! (Somebody, after all, has to win the match) As a general rule, people tend to want to play against the wind rather than with it. This is a natural reaction, as playing against the wind is certainly more forgiving. The wind will more than likely help one or two balls that would have gone out find the court, and that fact is comforting. But it should be noted that playing against the wind can also be extremely dangerous. Your shots will not have the same power, and a skilled opponent will more than likely pick your weaker shots apart.
Knowing this, let’s look at how you can take advantage of playing with the wind. Here are some general guidelines: - Play with more topspin, and try to steer clear of the lines - Do not play too deep - Play with more margin for error - Do not hit the ball too softly On the other hand, if you have to play against the wind, you should keep the following in mind: - Do not play too defensively. - Hit the ball hard and deep. This will limit the amount of court you lose thanks to the wind - Do not force winners. You will probably not be able to force a winner from the baseline, so wait for the right opportunity Playing in the wind can be quite frustrating, but if you play your cards right, you will be able to deal with the situation much more effectively than your opponent. If you are able to do this, victory will almost certainly be yours!