Print

Please post once and this message will disappear! Introduce yourself, say hello, jump into a discussion...

[ruchir]

I saw both Paes games live, and watched them in entirety. He looked like a damn good doubles player. Here's what I took away from the watching the games...

Assets:
1. Guiding/shepherding the partner -- The way he guided younger Vesnina in semis and the finals was brilliant. Being young (25 years), Vesnina was giving in to temper and frustration when she was losing crucial points, and it was there that Paes was immediately going to her, calming her down, and she responded well to that.

2. Net play -- I think this is his greatest asset. He was very quick to respond to opponent's shots on the net. His soft touch drop shots were nothing but exceptional. Even the commentators were praising his net play. In finals, often he anticipated Bryan's shots on the net and came up with winners.

3. Attitude -- His overall attitude throughout these two games were very good. Even after the loss of a set, he never let his shoulders drop. His fighting attitude rubbed on to Vesnina too.

Liabilities:
1. Service -- I found his service weak, specially in finals. In mixed doubles, I expect the male players to hold their serve but Paes was having trouble holding his serve. Maybe it's age (39 years), but that's his weak point.

2. Back hand service return -- I believe he lost the finals because he could not return the service off his back hand, in the 3rd set. I was left wondering why was he suddenly unable to return serve? His opponents exploited it to maximum.

3. Movement at net -- I saw that he was taking one step towards the middle of the court when Vesnina was serving, immediately after she served. That left his side of the court open, and the opponents simply placed the ball in that open court for winners. Again, I could not understand why he was moving to center. When he did not move, he was able to hit winners off the return, but that was only 2 out of 10 times. The other 8 times he moved to center and lost point. Same thing happened in volleys too. He would suddenly move to center while Vesnina was on her side, and leave his side of the court open for opponents to hit winners. Maybe it is a technical thing that can be rectified easily with better communication.


Overall, I was impressed with his play. I don't think he can improve his serve, but if he can fix his back hand return and his net movement, I think he can easily win a medal... provided Sania plays at the same level and intensity that Vesnina did, and same for Varun. I found it pleasing that commentators were praising Paes, recollecting his achievements. Whatever we may think of him, in tennis world he surely has earned respect.

[sudzz]

Almost made it. Lost in the 3rd set.

Eat that Bhupathi.

*pathi has been eating dung for a while now....

[Blwe_torch]

i didn't see the full match unfortunately.....just a somewhere into the 2nd set...when Paes/ Vesnina were trailing..........it was getting late here.
But I liked what I saw...the teamwork was great although the opponents appeared very strong.
Unfortunately, the somewhat weak serve of Paes coupled with a 'less than confident' net-game of Vesnina, proved to be their undoing.
Although, they were occasionally brilliant even on their weaker games...like Paes did serve a few aces..and Vesnina was sharp on the net, once in while............

I really liked the spirit of the girl Elena Vesnina..........she seems to get along with Indians well...............6 GS finals.....all with Indians, I suppose?......2 with Paes....some more with MB and some with Sania too.

[dextrous]

I saw both Paes games live, and watched them in entirety. He looked like a damn good doubles player. Here's what I took away from the watching the games...

Assets:
1. Guiding/shepherding the partner -- The way he guided younger Vesnina in semis and the finals was brilliant. Being young (25 years), Vesnina was giving in to temper and frustration when she was losing crucial points, and it was there that Paes was immediately going to her, calming her down, and she responded well to that.

2. Net play -- I think this is his greatest asset. He was very quick to respond to opponent's shots on the net. His soft touch drop shots were nothing but exceptional. Even the commentators were praising his net play. In finals, often he anticipated Bryan's shots on the net and came up with winners.

3. Attitude -- His overall attitude throughout these two games were very good. Even after the loss of a set, he never let his shoulders drop. His fighting attitude rubbed on to Vesnina too.

Liabilities:
1. Service -- I found his service weak, specially in finals. In mixed doubles, I expect the male players to hold their serve but Paes was having trouble holding his serve. Maybe it's age (39 years), but that's his weak point.

2. Back hand service return -- I believe he lost the finals because he could not return the service off his back hand, in the 3rd set. I was left wondering why was he suddenly unable to return serve? His opponents exploited it to maximum.

3. Movement at net -- I saw that he was taking one step towards the middle of the court when Vesnina was serving, immediately after she served. That left his side of the court open, and the opponents simply placed the ball in that open court for winners. Again, I could not understand why he was moving to center. When he did not move, he was able to hit winners off the return, but that was only 2 out of 10 times. The other 8 times he moved to center and lost point. Same thing happened in volleys too. He would suddenly move to center while Vesnina was on her side, and leave his side of the court open for opponents to hit winners. Maybe it is a technical thing that can be rectified easily with better communication.


Overall, I was impressed with his play. I don't think he can improve his serve, but if he can fix his back hand return and his net movement, I think he can easily win a medal... provided Sania plays at the same level and intensity that Vesnina did, and same for Varun. I found it pleasing that commentators were praising Paes, recollecting his achievements. Whatever we may think of him, in tennis world he surely has earned respect.

Ruchir,
I am impressed with your tennis analysis!

His backhand is one of the reasons he never made it as a top-25 singles player inspite of scoring some huge wins in his short singles career. However, over the years he has developed a decent doubles backhand (return it deep, basically) but on occasion, like yesterday, it fails him. I have seen it happen rarely on the big stage but yesterday was certainly one of his worst baseline performances in recent memory (and I try to catch him whenever he's in a major tournament).

In terms of his serve--his ideal partner is someone who is sharp at the net. anyone w/ leander will hold serve when playing with leander simply because you have the best guy possible at the net. he needs someone like that at the net with him for his serves. mahesh was no leander at net but was quite good and thus made a good partner.

movement -- don't quite agree with you there. that's one of his strongest assets and it can unnerve the opponent to have someone like paes at the net. keep in mind his opponents (both male and female) are two of the greatest doubles players in the last 25 or so years so perhaps they were handling it better than most...but same strategy worked with the other bryan and huber...

[ruchir]

movement -- don't quite agree with you there. that's one of his strongest assets and it can unnerve the opponent to have someone like paes at the net. keep in mind his opponents (both male and female) are two of the greatest doubles players in the last 25 or so years so perhaps they were handling it better than most...but same strategy worked with the other bryan and huber...

True, his movement to the middle does win points, like it did in semis, as you mentioned. The thing is that in the finals his opponents were not unnerved by his movement, rather they quickly compensated for his movement by targeting the open court on his side. My point, if I carried it forward, was that Paes should have seen what they were doing and made his movement random rather than pre-determined. The times when he did not move, he always won the point at the net. I just wish Paes had recognized in time that his opponents were targeting his side of open court, I have no doubt that he and Vesnina would have won the final. Those points given were given away like diwali mithai.

This is similar Federer adjusting his game in Wimbledon. If you remember, Fed was blasting shots against 30 year old Youzhney, because he knew Youz was slower. But when he came across younger guys like Djokovic and Murray (his back already dicey), he immediately switched to chop and slice method, slowing the game down to his convenience. He was able to control the game better and won.

[dextrous]

By the way, nice comment from Agassi:

“He’s (Paes) a flying jumping bean, a bundle of hyperkinetic energy, with the tour’s quickest hands. Still, he's never learned to hit a tennis ball… After an hour, you feel as if he hasn’t hit one ball cleanly - and yet he’s beating you soundly.”

Nice article here:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/sports-news/Tennis/For-Lee-tomorrow-never-dies/Article1-885422.aspx

[feverpitch]

What's with the mullet? Does he plan to retire as a Bollywood villain?

[Blwe_torch]

By the way, nice comment from Agassi:

“He’s (Paes) a flying jumping bean, a bundle of hyperkinetic energy, with the tour’s quickest hands. Still, he's never learned to hit a tennis ball… After an hour, you feel as if he hasn’t hit one ball cleanly - and yet he’s beating you soundly.”

Nice article here:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/sports-news/Tennis/For-Lee-tomorrow-never-dies/Article1-885422.aspx

nice article..thanks for sharing!

[dextrous]

Here's Paes at his almost-best:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV7rX5_pPIQ