After my previous post about one-handers, whom should I see playing Dubai Monday but the Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky, who sprained an ankle taking an out-of-form Murray to a 3rd, and the Romanian Victor Hanescu. Both are stylish European all-courters with traditional backhands. I’ve seen them play before, but it’s been a while. There were many more fans in the stands for the early rounds than for the girls last week.
The French contingent has been showing its young muscle. What should we call these guys – the French Armada? No, that was Spain. The New Mousquetaires? Too long. What about the FRENCH FRIES? Short. Contemporary. Down-to-earth. TASTY! Hey Pat Davis, what do you think? The young French Fries Gillesy, Tsonga, Monfils, and Gasquet have been making their mark on tour. Michael Llodra’s doing better too, but Paul-Henri Mathieu has faded. He lost after a good win against Monfils. That itself was surprising, since his UEs cost him so many matches, some real heartbreakers that go the distance. He’s become a journeyman, not exactly complimentary. But he does journey on, like a soldier, often playing on outside courts, losing earlier than he should. I like him, but he’s stopped being impressive.
But enough about the younger French guys. Fabrice Santoro, everyone’s nightmare opponent, whose legs keep getting him to places younger guys can’t follow, jerked Hanescu around in straights. Fabrice has earned his place in tennis history. At 36, he’s the oldest guy in the top 100. #58 in singles, #90 in doubs (I would’ve guessed he was higher in doubs). Two hands on both sides and his lack of height should be severe handicaps. But he’s got a one-handed slice, fast wheels, and nothing he does really qualifies as traditional. With chopped volleys, funky drops, weird spins, etc. Santoro has secured his fame by overcoming his physical limitations and beating 17 former #1 players, including Sampras and Federer. I think Safin is probably the unhappiest of that group. He’d probably like to break his racquets over Fabrice’s head and stomp him senseless. The little guy has his number, makes him lose all his marbles. Doesn’t take much to begin with. Poor guy. His record against Fabrice is 2-7.
The other guys may hate to play him, but fans love Fabrice. It may look like he improvises everything, strategy be damned, but that’s not true. I think he goes out with a Plan A that he improvises around. He’s not completely mad, although he definitely has a crazed look in his eyes. You pin him behind the baseline, expect a deep loopy defensive shot, and out of nowhere, he throws in a goofy little drop; you’re in a long rally, trading groundies, and here comes this strange short low angled 2-handed chip. Flabbergasted, you get it, butfrom no man’s land he whips a 2-handed swing volley and wrong foots you. A few plays like that start eating away at your confidence, and before you know it, he has you imagining he can make it snow indoors, you lose control of your own game, giftwrap the match and hand it to him on your knees. Classic Santoro game plan. Pretty good strategy, wouldn’t you say?
Even Rogi gotten beat by him that way. Though the plan hasn’t worked since – Rogi learned his lesson, stays alert, moves the ball around, turns on the power spins and aces – Fabrice can still milk errors out of him and induce him to look skyward and growl. A younger Djokies fell into the trap and got jerked around too, but the next time, he fixed that. Maybe Fabrice could still have some fun with him, the way he’s playing these days. In most every tennis generation, there’s someone like Fabrice. Once it was Mansur Barami, who afterwards played on Connors’ senior tour. But we don’t have a young guy yet who can do that when Fabrice finally leaves, so the man will just have to stick around until then.
After my previous post about one-handers, whom should I see playing Dubai Monday but the Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky, who sprained an ankle taking an out-of-form Murray to a 3rd, and the Romanian Victor Hanescu. Both are stylish European all-courters with traditional backhands. I’ve seen them play before, but it’s been a while. There were many more fans in the stands for the early rounds than for the girls last week.
The French contingent has been showing its young muscle. What should we call these guys – the French Armada? No, that was Spain. The New Mousquetaires? Too long. What about the FRENCH FRIES? Short. Contemporary. Down-to-earth. TASTY! Hey Pat Davis, what do you think? The young French Fries Gillesy, Tsonga, Monfils, and Gasquet have been making their mark on tour. Michael Llodra’s doing better too, but Paul-Henri Mathieu has faded. He lost after a good win against Monfils. That itself was surprising, since his UEs cost him so many matches, some real heartbreakers that go the distance. He’s become a journeyman, not exactly complimentary. But he does journey on, like a soldier, often playing on outside courts, losing earlier than he should. I like him, but he’s stopped being impressive.
But enough about the younger French guys. Fabrice Santoro, everyone’s nightmare opponent, whose legs keep getting him to places younger guys can’t follow, jerked Hanescu around in straights. Fabrice has earned his place in tennis history. At 36, he’s the oldest guy in the top 100. #58 in singles, #90 in doubs (I would’ve guessed he was higher in doubs). Two hands on both sides and his lack of height should be severe handicaps. But he’s got a one-handed slice, fast wheels, and nothing he does really qualifies as traditional. With chopped volleys, funky drops, weird spins, etc. Santoro has secured his fame by overcoming his physical limitations and beating 17 former #1 players, including Sampras and Federer. I think Safin is probably the unhappiest of that group. He’d probably like to break his racquets over Fabrice’s head and stomp him senseless. The little guy has his number, makes him lose all his marbles. Doesn’t take much to begin with. Poor guy. His record against Fabrice is 2-7.
The other guys may hate to play him, but fans love Fabrice. It may look like he improvises everything, strategy be damned, but that’s not true. I think he goes out with a Plan A that he improvises around. He’s not completely mad, although he definitely has a crazed look in his eyes. You pin him behind the baseline, expect a deep loopy defensive shot, and out of nowhere, he throws in a goofy little drop; you’re in a long rally, trading groundies, and here comes this strange short low angled 2-handed chip. Flabbergasted, you get it, butfrom no man’s land he whips a 2-handed swing volley and wrong foots you. A few plays like that start eating away at your confidence, and before you know it, he has you imagining he can make it snow indoors, you lose control of your own game, giftwrap the match and hand it to him on your knees. Classic Santoro game plan. Pretty good strategy, wouldn’t you say?
Even Rogi gotten beat by him that way. Though the plan hasn’t worked since – Rogi learned his lesson, stays alert, moves the ball around, turns on the power spins and aces – Fabrice can still milk errors out of him and induce him to look skyward and growl. A younger Djokies fell into the trap and got jerked around too, but the next time, he fixed that. Maybe Fabrice could still have some fun with him, the way he’s playing these days. In most every tennis generation, there’s someone like Fabrice. Once it was Mansur Barami, who afterwards played on Connors’ senior tour. But we don’t have a young guy yet who can do that when Fabrice finally leaves, so the man will just have to stick around until then.
