Short Points - Tennis' Guilty Pleasure?

Pat Rafter at Wimbledon

 I have been watching tennis for over 20 years and in that time the game has gone through tremendous changes.  Technological advances from racquets to strings, to the weight and size of tennis balls plus alterations of surfaces; it’s all happened since the mid 1990s. 

 

And now, whenever I watch archive footage on YouTube or DVDs of favourite matches, I feel like I am watching something I shouldn’t be watching and it’s an odd feeling, something that has been banished or outlawed and you shouldn’t go there.

That my friend is the short point.  It really shouldn’t be allowed, which seems to be an unwritten code in top flight tennis.  I for one absolutely love and have always loved short points.  Many of my favourite players over the years were masters of short points.  Some of my favourite matches since the early 1990s have been a study in the art of high quality short points.  Matches like the 2000 Wimbledon final between Pete Sampras and Pat Rafter, or the 2001 semifinal between Rafter and Andre Agassi, and the final between Goran Ivanisevic and Rafter.  The latter two matches were 3hrs 30 minutes in length, even though both were five setters which went deep. 

I love the dynamism of points where there is great athleticism; like a stretch stop volley, a 2nd serve ace in the corner, a great return winner or a combination of good return and passing shot.  How about a great serve and volley play, or serve, volley and smash off an attempted lob? Or a great service winner when break point down?

However, many of today’s top players do not see short points as part of their arsenal; in fact it is an exception than a rule; how often do you hear commentators call a serve volley play a surprise tactic employed once a set? Points today by and large are so long that players often need more than 25 seconds between points to recover from the previous one, towelling after virtually every point no matter the weather or conditions.  And this is the case regardless of surface.  In the past, depending on the surface a player would adapt their game accordingly, that is no longer the case.  The situation is really best summed up by Nadal’s comments during 2011 Wimbledon “Personally, to watch a Pete Sampras versus Goran Ivanisevic match, or one between those kind of players, is not enjoyable.  It's not really tennis, it is a few swings of the racquet. It was less eye-catching than what we do now. Everyone enjoys the tennis we play much more. I am not saying we are playing better tennis, just more enjoyable tennis. For me, in the past it was just serve, serve, serve."

For so long, I watched tennis and never gave it much thought.  When Krajicek played Rafter I expected a different type of match to when Agassi played Courier.  A match was a match and as long as there were two top players playing each other, there was always something to enjoy.  The only matches I didn’t really appreciate as much was Brugera v Berasategui on clay.  But what is interesting about Nadal;’s comments is that there seems a combination of thought police and conditioning of mind; there is only one way tennis should be played, which appears pretty arrogant.   Maybe that’s why I feel watching short points is somehow a guilty pleasure all of a sudden, even though for most of my life this is the kind of tennis I’ve enjoyed, along with watching master baseliners like Ivan Lendl and Gustavo Kuerten, especially when they had to find solutions against attacking players.  But now I am being told by the number 1 player that I shouldn’t appreciate that and must enjoy endless long rallies and five hour matches instead.

Of course, Nadal has been empowered to make remarks like this; the removal of carpet courts around the world, the change in composition of the grass at Wimbledon, the slowing down of hardcourts everywhere on tour and at grand slam level, this has helped to make it harder for the next generation to come through.  Interestingly, younger players such as Dimitrov and Raonic instinctively want to play shorter aggressive points all the time, that also applies to Juan Martin Del Potro who is getting sucked into longer rallies than he really wants which hasn’t helped his wrist issues.  Jo Wilfried Tsonga can also be included here as someone who wants to play shorter points instinctively. I think that is one area the authorities forgot about in their desire to slow down surfaces to negate big serving, that many baseliners over the years also favoured short points for a variety of reasons, whether that be Marat Safin, Jimmy Connors or Magnus Larsson.

Ironically, as I was preparing this article, I sat down to watch the Queens final between Dimitrov and Feliciano Lopez.  Lopez is a player I have seen many times at Wimbledon and Eastbourne, in fact I saw him lift the trophy there last year.  Lopez is a classic grass court player with a big serve, excellent volleys and a lovely slice backhand.  Lopez hails from Spain, which is interesting as Spain is not known for usually producing players like this.  Dimitrov and Lopez produced one of the best Queens finals ranking alongside Sampras v Henman in 1999 and Mahut v Roddick in 2007.  The match had all the elements; incredible serving, diving volleys, athleticism, a couple of points in the end decided the whole match of almost three hours.  Both players served around 20 aces each and in the 3rd set tiebreak there were no rallies for the first 12 points due to the quality of serving from each man.  Despite that the crowd at Queens and the many thousands watching on television were completely enthralled by the contest.  Perhaps Nadal knows better here and will tell everyone watching that wasn’t proper tennis….

What would really give the game a shake up is players who want to play shorter aggressive points getting to the Wimbledon final this year.  Last year was a wonderfully historic occasion but three sets of tennis between Murray and Djokovic took almost four hours.  Match ups are important and a final between Dimitrov and Murray would do nicely; or Raonic v Djokovic.  How about Dimitrov v Raonic with the new generation facing off?  Fantasy matchups right now as the counterpunchers who are equipped to wear out their opponents have a grip on the game.

Anyway, I will continue to watch those YouTube clips and archive DVDs and re-acquaint myself with a brand of tennis which apparently has no place at the top level in today’s game but is damned good to watch.