Can Pete Sampras Still Take Federer?

This week in the online Sports Illustrated tennis section, Justin Gimelstob talks about his practice sessions in Los Angeles with Pete Sampras.

According to Gimelstob, Pete is playing great tennis . He claims Pete is playing as well as anybody not named Federer.

Gimelstob mentions that Sampras is playing with a newer, larger head size frame, and is using some of the newer strings as well ( probably a polyester or a gut/polyester hybrid). Justin implies that these equipment changes have added to Sampras' game. Can you imagine the Sampras serve with even more spin?

Gimelstob casually mentions that he believes Sampras is one of the few players in the world today who can rob Federer of time. He doesn't go into detail about this but it goes along with what I've written in the past.

I believe that the type of player who could beat Federer consistently, and on fast courts, would have to be able to do some things very well:

1. Serve well and finish off the point with a volley. Roddick serves well but allows Federer to float back returns because he doesn't look to hit first volleys. Sampras would eat up floating returns and force Fed to go for more and consequently miss more.

2. Attack the Federer second serve. Put pressure on Fed by chipping and charging the second serve. Again, Sampras is one of the few modern players who has the skills to do this.

3. Flatten out the forehand to take away Fed's time to set up. Again, Sampras hits a very flat forehand as his basic forehand.

I know that some people will write and mention that Federer beat Sampras in their only meeting which happened to be on Sampras's favourite surface at Wimbledon. But, really one match doesn't enough to draw the conclusion that Federer would have Sampras's number.

Here is the link to the Gimelstob article. Comments anyone?



http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/justin_gimelstob/12/21/sampras.federer/index.html

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies An Ebook of Mental Tennis Tips guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
Tennis Cartoon Screensaver. You can download a trial version for FREE.


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Free Tennis Gifts

This holiday season I am participating in a free holiday tennis gift promotion.
It'a great idea and a lot of well known tennis people are involved.

So, split step on over to


Free Tennis Gifts


All the best for the holiday season,

Glenn Sheiner M.D.

Federer's Historical Three Year Run

In the last entry, I write about Federer's 2006 season and how, although it has been sensational, it has not been the greatest single season of all time.

Remember, he's had a superb year with a match record of 92-5, which means he won 94.8% of his matches.

Now, let's look at Federer's performance over a three year period and compare it to the other great three year periods in tennis history.

Let's look at it first from the point of view of total matches won in a consecutive three year period.

From 2004-2006 Federer has won 247 matches. This puts him in the number one position. Pete Sampras won 234 matches from 1993-1995 and Ivan lendl won 232 matches from 1983-1985.

If you look at the winning percentages over the same three year periods, Federer was 247-15 for a winning percentage of 94.3% while Sampras was 234-44 for a winning percentage of 84.2%.

Lendl was 232-20 for a winning percentage of 92.1%.

Now, let's look at the most titles won over a three year period. Again, Federer dominates. From 2004-2006, Rog has won 34 titles, of which 8 have been Grand Slams. Both Borg and Connors won 30 titles over consecutive three year periods ( Borg from 1977-79 and Connors from 1974-76) but, during their respective streaks, Borg won 5 slams and Connors just 2.

So, let's sit back and see what Rog has in store for us in 2007.

To learn more about the consecutive three year records go to:



Best Three Year Consecutive Most Titles Won;

Best Three Year Consecutive Most Match Victories



Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies An Ebook of Mental Tennis Tips guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
Tennis Cartoon Screensaver. You can download a trial version for FREE.


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Federer's Great Tennis Season

So, Roger Federer won another tournament and again everybody is talking about whether or not he is the greatest of all time.

He's had a superb year with a match record of 92-5, which means he won 94.8% of his matches.

As incredible as this year has been for Federer, his season winning percentage is only the fourth best in ATP history!

The best single season winning percentage all time on the ATP tour is 96.5%.

And, guess who holds that record?

None other than John McEnroe who in 1984 went 82-3. Not to mention that Mac lead Ivan Lendl 2 sets to love in the French Open that year before Lendl came back to win the match.

There's no question of Federer's brilliance but there have been periods of brilliance by others as well.

To see the top ten single season winning percentages on the ATP Tour click on:
Top Ten Winning Percentages On The ATP Tour.

To see the top ten single seasons as judged by the number of titles won click on:
Top Ten Seasons -Most Titles Won.

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies An Ebook of Mental Tennis Tips guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
Tennis Cartoon Screensaver. You can download a trial version for FREE.


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Is The Tour Catching Up To Nadal?

Every player has patterns. The great ones win consistently because they usually can execute so well that it doesn't make much difference if their opponents know what's coming or not.

Some of the all time greats have had very simple game plans. Borg would rip heavy topspin until you made a mistake or fatigued. His game was only vulnerable to a superb net player and only John McEnroe was good enough.

Pete Sampras would hold serve by using his incredible serve and then try to break with his fairly flat, attacking game. On his backhand he would just try to neutralize and bide his time.

Rafael Nadal likes to wear his opponents down with his heavy lefty topspin. He doesn't like to come to the net and likes to grind away.

I think the other players on the tour maybe getting wise to Nadal's patterns. They may be overplaying his lefty topspin shots so that they are better prepared for them.

In addition, a number of pros who have beaten Nadal consistently like James Blake and Thomas Berdych like to step into Nadal's groundstrokes and rip flat balls back to him -- often winning the point outright.

Nadal also has certain patterns on his serve. I wrote about this after the Wimbledon final this year against Roger Federer and I thinks it makes for interesting reading.

You can read my analysis of the Wimbledon 2006 final between Nadal and Federer by following this link: Federer versus Nadal In The Wimbledon 2006 Final

To read more about tennis tips and playing better tennis here are a few web pages to visit:

Tennis Tips
How To Play Tennis

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Tennis Tactics And Tips Ebook guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level.

Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
Tennis Cartoon Screensaver. You can download a trial version for FREE.



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Play Better Tennis While Trying To Win Matches

It's the ultimate challenge.

All serious tennis players want to play better tennis, work on their tennis games, and improve. At the same time, almost all serious tennis players are very competitive and hate to lose tennis matches.

Guess what? The two motivations totally conflict.

From what I've seen there are very few players who will continue to try and work on new aspects of their tennis games while they are losing IF THEY KNOW THEY COULD BE WINNING BY DOING THE SAME OLD THING THEY'RE TRYING TO CHANGE!


It takes guts to have a longer term perspective and accept defeat today on the tennis court in order to gain victory in the future.

Having said all that, here are a few strategies that you can use while you're trying to improve your tennis skills while at the same time continuing to win matches.

Tennis Strategy 1.

Play down a level. Start playing the players you know you can beat fairly easily.
There is usually less pressure on you and if you are losing you can just switch back to your old patterns to win the match.

Tennis Strategy 2.

Play the set score. Let's say you're ahead 4-love in a set. You can try some new things even if it's going to cost you a game or two. You're still likely to win the set.

Tennis Strategy 3.

Play the game score. Let's say you're ahead 40-love in a game. You can use the next point to try the new option you're working on. Even if you lose the point, you're likely to win the game.

These are 3 ways for you to improve your tennis game, play better tennis, and still win matches.

To read more about tennis tips and playing better tennis here are a few web pages to visit:

Tennis Tips
How To Play Tennis

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Tennis Tactics And Tips Ebook guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level.

Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
Tennis Cartoon Screensaver. You can download a trial version for FREE.



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A Tennis Lesson From Johnny Mac

Who wouldn't love to get a tennis lesson from John McEnroe?

A friend of mine recently was on the court with McEnroe and Jana Novotna in Ottawa.
I asked him, of course, what the experience was like.

The format was mixed doubles and my friend had two main comments.

The first thing he said was that both Johnny Mac and Novotna were incredibly competitive, even in the supposedly relaxed setting of a tennis lesson.

The second thing that my friend said was that it was stunning to him how early McEnroe hit the ball. It was as if the ball was returned back at his feet the moment he hit it.

Hitting early is one of those things that you can't appreciate on TV. On TV, we can see power and often the early hitter is using the other's player's pace. So, it doesn't look that impressive.

There's nothing like tennis lessons from the world's best.

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies An Ebook of Mental Tennis Tips guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
Tennis Cartoon Screensaver. You can download a trial version for FREE.


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Tennis Lesson