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You hit the ball hard with all your might and the ball flies with such crushing force that the opponent has to move away!
The result – an instant winner, and you become more intimidating for your opponent.
We have seen this happen countless times – just one of the facets of power tennis which has been the norm for much of 21st century women’s tennis. With the advent of the two famous sisters, Venus and Serena Williams, tennis has been revolutionized and power tennis has been rejuvenated and remodeled.
It’s a faster and deadlier version, relying on skills of speed and athleticism, inspiring bigger, stronger and leaner women to come out swinging their racquets. Hours at the gym to gain strength and stamina, newer technique and stronger racquets. The unnerving look in the eyes, the clenched fists indicating relentlessness and the numerous ear-splitting ‘come on’s to pump oneself up – there’s never been a better time to look at the menacing power of women’s tennis.
If we look at the rankings today, the upper echelons are dominated by women who hit the ball hard – Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova.
But is sheer raw power the answer to everything?
Here’s where Agnieszka Radwanska comes in. The Polish No. 1 player stands at 5’8’’, much less than the average 6 foot frame of the above mentioned women, and generates far lesser power and hits the ball considerably softer than these women.
But what she lacks in one area, she compensates for with her subtle and beguiling tennis that is full of surprises and provides refreshment from the explosive baseline hitting that has been the trend of late. What is so fascinating to see is that she has always believed in her game and despite being aware of the weaknesses that can put her on the backfoot against raw aggression, she has never stepped back.
When she mentions “I was born with this” – it shows she only knows one way forward – to keep on solidifying what she has and to keep having faith in herself, and she has been reaping the rewards for that now.
Parting from her father Robert who had coached her for 18 years couldn’t have been easy, especially since he was the one who introduced the variety in Radwanska’s game. But the Pole, lovingly called ‘Aga’, knew that the move was inevitable to help her climb upwards.
Tomasz Wiktorowski, the Fed Cup coach, became her traveling coach in July 2011 and soon the partnership sparked. Titles followed in Carlsbad, Beijing, Tokyo last year and Radwanska’s confidence kept soaring. She carried the momentum into 2012 and clinched the title at Dubai downing a much more powerful player, Julia Georges, with her ability to diffuse power through her wide range of strokes.
Sitting at No. 4 in the world rankings, the Pole is intrepid and shows she can beat the power hitters at their own game. She is a devious murderess on the court, calmly waiting for her victim to walk into the net that she has set and surrender herself.
Radwanska shaking hands with Sharapova after the match
That’s pretty much what she did against the imposing Maria Sharapova, who strikes the ball with tremendous power. In the Miami final, Radwanska, in spite of not losing a single set throughout the tournament, was the underdog, having lost six straight matches to the Russian. But when she came out onto the court, it was her vast repertoire that shone on the sunny afternoon in South Florida.
Radwanska has this amazing ability to draw errors from her opponents at the most opportune moments but unlike her best friend, Caroline Wozniacki, she does it with more élan. Mixing it up – that’s the key – and Radwanska did that so well well with her array of slices and changes of pace, spin, direction and angles that it exposed the glaring absence of a slice in Maria’s game. Years ago, Maria had jested about her movement on clay and compared it with that of a ‘cow on ice’, and glimpses of that statement came true, but now on a hardcourt!
Radwanska fully exploited Sharapova’s sloppy movement and made her game look one-dimensional and completely bereft of any tactic. She put up superb defensive skills, keeping herself toe-to-toe with the Russian former World No. 1 in rallies, but what she did most effectively was let Sharapova destroy her own power with her own mistakes.
And this was a day when Sharapova didn’t self-destruct with humongous double-faults (she hit just one for the entire match and had a 69% first serve rate) and hit winners quite effortlessly whenever she got a chance (Sharapova had 31 winners to Radwanska’s 6). Yet Aga was more poised and unruffled, silently injecting fear into the shrieking Russian who suddenly seemed nervous and panic-stricken.
An interesting feature to note is that while it was the return that did the damage against Marion Bartoli in the semi-final (Radwanska broke Bartoli 9 times), it was the comparatively weaker serve that stood up to the test here. Given that Sharapova had been pouncing on her opponent’s serve all fortnight, it was no easy task.
Against Sharapova, it all had to be different. If it had to be more offense and less defense against Bartoli, it was the other way round against Sharapova, or should we say Aga had to play aggressive defense that gently coaxed Sharapova into submitting herself in spite of having had the upper hand in seven out of their eight matches before.
Sharapova had splendid opportunities though. She had her first break point in the fifth game and two more followed. The Pole’s consistent first serves at 71% denied the Russian. In the first game of the second set, Sharapova did get a chance to pound the feeble second serve coming in at 70 miles/hour. The Russian anticipated it, set herself up beautifully and blasted the return. Yet the very next point, it was she who gave back the advantage with a forehand error, unable to keep pace with Radwanska’s clever court coverage and change of direction.
And so it continued. Radwanska’s cunning and masterful destruction of Sharapova was slow and patient and done with extreme detailing as if she was creating the plot for a suspense story.
She let Sharapova hit 16 winners at will in the first set and herself hit her first baseline winner after 72 minutes of the match! She hit returns flat and low and forced Sharapova to uncomfortably stoop to reach the ball; she sliced, hit her patented crouching shots, changed the angles with her backhand, hit backhand overheads, continually changed direction, speed and spin – it was a sight to behold. She was the gallant David in front of Goliath!
And in the final game of the second set, when Sharapova hit a shot to Radwanska’s forehand which at first seemed unreachable, the Pole scrambled and hit it back for a spinning lob. Sharapova fell into the trap, hit through the dipping ball for a volley and it caught the net. That pretty much summed up the entire story and it highlighted the Pole’s superior tactical play that was quietly on display throughout the match. Sharapova never recovered from that last vicious trick and two points later relinquished the match when her forehand sailed long.
When the match ended, the stats exhibited where the Pole made all the difference with her intelligent tennis – Sharapova had 45 unforced errors, 35 more than Radwanska!
Surely raw power cannot be the answer to everything, especially when it has to counter such a brilliant brain on the tennis court!
Martina Hingis is definitely one happy lady today!
