2008 Wimbledon Draw Could Be Critical

The 2008 Wimbledon Tennis Championship is just around the corner.

And, in the past year a new, critical pre-tournament variable has popped up --Who has to play Djokovic in the semifinals?

On clay, it was an issue but not that much of one. Nadal has never lost to the djoker on clay.

On grass, it's potentially a whole different story.

Nadal beat Djokovic last weekend for his first grass court title but it was an extremely close match that could have gone either way.

On the other hand, Djokovic beat Federer in the Australian final and also last summer in Montreal. Granted, these victories were on hard court but, if I'm Federer, I don't want to risk playing Djokovic in the semis.

The luck of the draw recently has favored Federer. I think it's about time Nadal got a little lucky draw of his own.

Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Tennis Strategy Tactics And Ideas To Help You Improve Your Game 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
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Nadal Totally Dominated Federer In The 2008 French Final

It wasn't even close!

Actually, it was beautiful to watch if you're a Nadal supporter and probably very painful to sit through if you consider yourself a Fed fan.

But, for all tennis fans it may have been the most impressive performance we've ever seen on clay from the world's greatest all-time clay court player.

Yes, I'm coming to that conclusion. I think that Nadal is the greatest clay-courter of all time!

Only Borg enters into the discussion for me. I think that Borg had the speed, mental toughness, and stamina to hang with Nadal. I wonder though if Borg's two handed backhand could have stood up the the relentless assault of the Nadal forehand.

Of course, we'll never know. And, until Nadal wins 6 French Open titles, there will always be those who say he can't be as good because he hasn't won as many titles.

So, let's wait two more years before we crown Nadal as the greatest on clay.

Now, Let's see what Rafa can do this year on grass.


Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Great Tennis Tips AND Lessons To Win More Tennis Matches 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
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Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic are Cruising

I can't recall a recent grand slam tournament with such a lack of excitement in the first week and a half. Granted, I'm only talking about the men's side and I apologize to all fans of the women's tour.

Nadal has absolutely dominated on the way to the semis. Federer hasn't been challenged, and Djokovic has cruised as well although his sets have been a little bit tighter than the others. I didn't see his match with Gulbis this morning but the scores were close.

Whoever the fourth player to reach the semis ( probably David Ferrer) will be a long, long shot to reach the finals.

So, now it's time for the real tournament to begin.

Bring on Djokovic and Nadal.

Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Great Tennis Strategies To Win More Tennis Matches 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
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Does Nadal Worry About The French Open Draw?

As I write this, Rafael Nadal is about to close out his first round match in the 2008 French Open.

The real drama of the tournament so far was the release of the draw late last week.
Everybody wanted to know what half of the draw Novak Djokovic was going to be in.

And, as anybody who has looked at the draw knows, Roger Federer is smiling. The question is does Nadal even care?

Federer is smiling because he should cruise into the semifinals where he should meet either Nikolay Davydenko or David Ferrer.

Federer's record against Davydenko is a pristine 12-0 including 3 wins on clay.

Against Ferrer, Federer is 8-0 with 3 wins on clay.

I would say not much to worry about if I'm Federer.

Nadal on the other hand should have to play David Nalbandian in the quarters and Djokovic in the semis.

Nadal is 0-2 against Nalbandian --both on hard courts. And, Nalbandian has crushed him, not having lost a single set!

Against Djokovic, Nadal is 7-3 and 4-0 on clay.

Of course, this begs the question-- does Nadal worry about anybody on clay?

I suspect he would have preferred it Djokovic had ended up in the Federer half of the draw. Whoever plays Djokovic is going to have to expend tremendous energy and this could affect what's left for the final.

Let the games begin.
Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Great Tennis Strategies To Win More Tennis Matches 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 New Coach - Will It Make A Difference?

After 4 years of failing to come up with a way to beat Rafael Nadal consistently on clay (we all know about Hamburg last year), Roger Federer recently hired Jose Higueras as his new coach.

The real question is what can Higueras, or any coach really, bring to the Federer game?

I don't think that there's much technically that Higueras can change in the Federer game. Federer has a fairly conservative grip for his backhand topspin which tends to be his main liability against Nadal. Fed doesn't have the more extreme backhand grip of a Gustavo Kuerton or a Richard Gasquet -- grips that would probably make it a little easier to handle Nadal's high topspin shots.

So, we're left with tactical changes.

Tennis students were watching Federer's matches in Barcelona very carefully to see what changes if any they could pick up.

I myself watched the final in which Federer blew a 4-0 lead in the second set.

Here's what I saw.

I think Higueras is trying to get Federer to open up the court more against Nadal so as to create better opportunities to attack.

Higueras correctly recognizes that Federer cannot rally with Nadal and expect to win a long match.

The first thing I noticed was a greater tendency on Federer's part to run around the Nadal second serve and rip a forehand. We saw some of this at Wimbledon and I think it's a very effective technique.

The next thing I saw was that it looked like that Federer was trying to hit his crosscourt forehand shorter and wider. Instead of playing power tennis and ripping crosscourt forehands deep into the corner, it looked like Federer was taking some pace off and trying to hit a sharper angle so that the ball would land a few feet up the sideline and pull Nadal further wide.

And, one more thing I noticed, was a tactic of hitting a drop shot off of a backhand.

Let's look at this last pattern in more detail.

Over the past few years, Federer has tried various patterns to counter the Nadal forehand to the Federer backhand. He has tried ripping crosscourt topspin back -- to no avail --, he has tried slicing crosscourt --to no avail, he has tried hitting up the line --with limited success.

So, in an effort to try a new pattern, Fed looks like he's trying to hit the drop shot up the line. Since Nadal is cheating to his (Nadal's) forehand corner, Nadal has a long way to go to get the Federer drop shot. And, Federer has a chance to attack the net behind the drop shot.

So, as always, tennis remains a beautiful chess match.

Can't wait for the French Open.

Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Great Tennis Strategies To Win More Tennis Matches 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 Versus Sampras --What The Club Player Can Learn

Roger Federer took on Pete Sampras at Madison Square Garden this past Monday night.

The score was 7-6 for Federer in the third set -- by all measures a very, very close match.

But, for many tennis observers, the match wasn't quite as close as the score.

Roger severely outclassed Pete in the first set and was up a break early in the second.

Pete looked a step or two slow compared to Roger. But, Pete came on after being down a break in the second. But, to my eyes, Roger kept Pete in the match by hitting back to Pete when Roger had open courts.

John McCEnroe was doing the color commentary on Tv. Each time Roger would subtly hit back to Pete instead of hitting a winner to the open court, Mac would say that Pete guessed right. I don't think so!

Still, it was a fascinating match to me. If you've ever doubted the value of a great serve, just watch this match over and over again.

Pete may have lost a great deal of foot speed and some of his reflexes, but his serve remains world class. And, on the speedy court that was specially installed at the Garden, Sampras' huge serve was a weapon.

So, lesson 1 for the club player ---keep working and working on your serve. Work on hitting both corners of the service boxes while using the same toss. This is what makes Pete's serve so great -- he has incredible disguise.

Lesson #2 -- if you have a speed advantage it's a lethal advantage. Get into shape and know when you walk on the court that you're the better mover. It's subtle but huge.

Lesson #3 -- learn how to attack and close. When Pete got hot with his serve he was able to follow it to the net and hit first volleys ( when he didn't have an outright winner on the serve). So, in your practice matches, get to the net at times and work on your closing game.

Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Great Tennis Tactics To Win Tennis Matches 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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Winning The Club Doubles Championship

My partner and I won a club championship in doubles last week. It was a terrific win, an upset according to most.

But I knew that we had a good chance going in. I had played the other 2 players before and had a read on some of the tendencies and weaknesses of my opponents.

As I write about in my book on tennis tactics, tennis is a game of patterns. If you can get the game to winning patterns, then you should win.

In this case, our opponent in the deuce court had a strong forehand return but a much weaker backhand return. Paying extra attention to the placement of the serve in the deuce court, and making sure it got to the backhand, payed huge dividends.

And even though both our opponents had big first serves, each tended to serve fairly predictably which took away some of the effectiveness. In addition, both hit slow slice/kick as second serves to our forehands, allowing us to rip forehands and charge the net.

We won 6-1 in the third.

A lot of times you really can't tell what's going on in match unless you're really paying attention to the match within a match.

Good luck in your club tournaments.

Until next time,

Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Change Your Tennis Tactics To Win Your Club Championship 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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