Week 30 - Challenger (€42,500) - Tampere, Finland (Clay)

steven · Tennis legend

Week 30 - Challenger (€42,500) - Tampere, Finland (Clay)

korriban · Challenger level

steven wrote:
Live stream on channel 4 at e-tennis.tv but Dan is *0-3 down

At least he attempted 2 topspin backhands in the fourth game - both went in the net, but he had only used slice (AGAIN!) for the previous 3 games. Zopp now directing as much as possible to this wing. Wonder why?

0-6. Just about the worst set of tennis imaginable from Dan, from serve to return, BH (oh my!) and even FH now.

Can we ask the umpire if we can start again please?

-- Edited by korriban on Tuesday 23rd of July 2013 01:58:52 PM

steven · Tennis legend

Dan's match has just started *0-1

steven · Tennis legend

Live stream on channel 4 at e-tennis.tv but Dan is *0-3 down

Tennisnow · Lower Club Player

I don't know if starting again would actually help Dan! He is *0-3 down in the second set currently.

korriban · Challenger level

Dan 0-6 *0-3.

The only positive thing to be said about how those first 9 games have gone is that if you close your eyes, Dan sounds much more like one of those superb Spanish clay court kings than his opponent. smile

Come on - at this point at least have some fun and go for it!

steven · Tennis legend

Dan did mount a very late fightback in the 2nd set and managed to avoid double bakery but was well and truly zapped by Zopp:

L32: Dan Smethurst WR 407 lost to (5) Jürgen Zopp (EST) WR 237 (CH 71 last Sep) by 0 & 2

korriban · Challenger level

Not a great day at the office for Dan.

This lack of a backhand topspin is a huge issue, because his slice is no more than just decent - and in his case not really an attacking shot, certainly not on the clay, anyway. Not only did he only sparingly use the topspin BH, when he did it mostly went wrong - in the net or long, and it had very little topspin......technically a very strange shot.

Perhaps on faster courts he can get away with it to some extent, especially on a decent serving day. But on clay if he doesn't serve brilliantly - I'm struggling to see how he would beat anyone in the top 500 unless they played everything to his FH!