TSR Tennis Society III

Federer should retire once he drops out of top 16. (Seeding for masters, which are the best tournaments RF can realistically win consistently now)

Federer will definitely retire in the top 8. Even at 35, he would still be part of that elite group of players at the WTF.

Hi guys. For those of you who can execute massive flat serves and kick serves

-I've just found out I've been doing the flat serve wrong all the time I've been playing tennis. I need to start working on pronating (leading with the racket edge) from tomorrow. At the moment my serve speed is accurate and fast enough to not hand the receiver the advantage, but not fast enough to ace any decent opponents. So maybe 70mph, although I don't have a speed gun so can't really say. I know over the internet most people massively overestimate their serve speeds so I'm trying not to.
How much more speed do you think pronating adds to the flat serve? If I get the proper technique working could I start hitting a few aces a match?

If you don't pronate by coming up on edge when you serve, you're vastly limiting the racket head speed and by extension the amount of power you can potentially have on your serve. Pronation is actually a very natural action and to be honest if you have good technique you can't not be pronating when you serve, it's an essential component of a good serve. Once you incorporate fast pronation into your serve you'll definitely notice a jump in speed from 10-20mph, maybe more depending on your strength and the racket head speed you can produce. You're right that a lot of people overestimate their serve speeds though, although I have been clocked at 100mph before, and I know I can go slightly faster. This was after working on pronation for a long time. So training wise I would try to do some slow motion exercises where you pronate the racket head very deliberately. Once you get used to the action you should be able to throw the racket head with more speed.

1) Probably Delpo or JJ. I've no hope in Dimitrov, Raonic and Tomic.

2) Murray will definitely win the AO somewhere down the line, especially if he can get a mental edge over Djokovic, it'll be a big help. However, I don't see him ever making the finals of FO, let alone win it. There are at least 10 guys better than Murray on clay, and given that clay takes a huge toll on his back, his chances of lifting the RG trophy are next to nothing.

Who do you guys think will win the US Open? I think it'll be a Murray/Djokovic final with Murray edging it again like last year but that's just my thought. I can't see Nadal going too far though because of the hard courts being really bad for his knee but I can see Fed getting to the QFs.

But given his form and his WTF position in doubt he has to play even more tournaments to qualify for it, which is probably one of the reasons why he decided to play Hamburg and Gstaad. I won't be surprised to see him enter a few smaller tournaments that he probably hasn't played before during the fall, if his form doesn't pick up during the US open series.

Did his back injury had a recurrence at Hamburg because he looked fine at Wimbledon?

How many atp 250 and 500 tournaments can you play?

Cilic failed a drug test during Wimbledon, gets a 3 month ban. Fakes injury as a means of withdrawing from the tournament. Supposedly sent his friend to the pharmacy to get glucose tablets, but he didn't read the label which had a warning specifically not to take it if you were a professional sportsman. He took it anyway and subsequently failed the drug test.

Hmmm, aren't there a couple of other players who have taken long breaks from the game...? One player comes to mind in 2012...


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Who's that player from 2012?

Thanks, very helpful

The pronation feels very natural when I practise swinging the racket, but when I introduce the tennis ball and actually try to serve like that, it feels a lot less natural actually contacting the ball with a flat racket head, with a continental grip. I feel like my wrist gives a little bit, being twisted clockwise more than usual, and I lose a lot of power and accuracy. Either that or I slice it way to the left. Am I doing something wrong with the technique here? I just don't see how it can ever feel natural meeting the ball with a perfectly flat racket head while holding a continental grip, if you see what I mean

It is tough to get used to the feel of a pronation, but when I'm serving for practice I try almost to take the ball out of the equation, and think more about the motion itself. The motion comes first, the placement, precision and power comes later. Hope that helps! I'm no pro, but I've been playing and observing the game for years and have picked up a lot of stuff along the way.

Two points for discussion:

1) Who will be the next player of the current crop to win a grand slam other than Federer, Nadal, Djokovic or Murray

2) Will Murray ever win the AO or the French?

Del Potro is streaks ahead of everybody else in being able to compete with the top 4 (actually i don't think he's played Murray since like 2009) and perhaps most importantly has reached the SF in Paris. His fitness needs to improve but i think Wimbledon really illustrated the coming big 3 and i am utterly sure that Del Potro will be the world number 1 at some point.

It's worth noting that in summer 09 he beat Nadal 3 times in a row culminating with the US Open (and i think he got back to that level in 2012 - 9 finals even if small) so if he comes into this summer with a spring from that epic then he could cause serious problems.

Murray will be a champion in Australia and the US multiple times however there is no chance at the French.

This is the best advice possible. I only really improved when I focused purely on the motion. I've played plenty of sports over the years and whilst they all offer a challenge, I don't think I've come across anything as difficult as serving in tennis. So another key is patience. It can be very frustrating but you can't expect things to click in a relatively short period of time.

Del Potro is streaks ahead of everybody else in being able to compete with the top 4 (actually i don't think he's played Murray since like 2009) and perhaps most importantly has reached the SF in Paris. His fitness needs to improve but i think Wimbledon really illustrated the coming big 3 and i am utterly sure that Del Potro will be the world number 1 at some point.

It's worth noting that in summer 09 he beat Nadal 3 times in a row culminating with the US Open (and i think he got back to that level in 2012 - 9 finals even if small) so if he comes into this summer with a spring from that epic then he could cause serious problems.

Murray will be a champion in Australia and the US multiple times however there is no chance at the French.