Quote For The Day

"So back to my first question: What’s special about Serena’s game? There are many elements you could point to, of course, but what struck me in Doha was how the normal rules of the sport don’t seem to apply to her. She can run through an approach shot and still put it right where she wants it. She can hit a backhand winner with her body completely open and parallel to the net. She can make perfectly solid contact with a ball even she's off balance. She can get to a short ball a second late and find a way to flip it inside-out for a surprisingly angled winner.

"Her ability to do this is generally chalked up to the vague and faintly insulting term “athleticism.” And that’s got a lot to do with it, even if it is a cliché. It was said that Boris Becker couldn’t put two service tosses in a row anywhere near each other, but it didn’t matter, he was such an athlete that he just went up and crushed the ball, wherever it happened to be—the normal rules didn’t apply to him. But when it comes to the Williamses, I also think of something Andy Roddick said about the way the sisters trained as kids in Florida. He said that no one worked more diligently or hit balls with more purpose or dedication than they did. What seems like talent or god-given athleticism in a top player is always the product of work as well, work that was done long before we saw that player on TV. Serena is still living off of it. Whatever position she finds herself in as she sets up for a shot, her ability to make something out of it, to hit the ball well, remains automatic.

(...)

After a week of wild and painful drama in Doha, I found myself thinking...[w]hy can’t we have more serves like this? Why can’t we have more solid and impressive tennis? Maybe we will next year. Until then, I’m happy to leave 2009 with a reminder, six weeks after she was at her worst at the U.S. Open, of how good the women's game can look when Serena Williams is at her best." --Steve Tignor