10 Minutes of Tennis: Indian Wells Recap and Thoughts on Jack Draper and Mirra Andreeva
Transcript
Hey, hey, this is Shaun with the GoTennis! Podcast powered by Signature Tennis.
Speaker:While you're here, please hit that follow button.
Speaker:And after you listen, please share with your friends and teammates.
Speaker:Also, let us know if you have questions or topics you'd like us to discuss and we'll
Speaker:add them to our schedule.
Speaker:With that said, let's get started with 10 minutes of tennis.
Speaker:Hey, hey, this is Shaun with the GoTennis! Podcast powered by
Speaker:Signature Tennis.
Speaker:Check out our calendar of tennis events at LetsGoTennis.com.
Speaker:And today is 10 minutes of tennis with World Rennown tennis coach Australian in Puerto Rico
Speaker:Justin Yeo and we want to do an Indian Wells recap.
Speaker:Talk about the finals.
Speaker:Talk about the new wave because we can connect what's happened here back to Justin's theory
Speaker:of new and younger players.
Speaker:We're going to be doing some availability to win a few tournaments now that the big three
Speaker:are gone.
Speaker:Sorry, Novak, you know what I mean.
Speaker:So Justin, Indian Wells, where do you want to start?
Speaker:Wow, a water tournament though.
Speaker:You know, it definitely saw some great matches and some great tennis.
Speaker:And the tournament always seems to bring a lot of good spectators, good everything.
Speaker:There were some really cool things that they brought in as well at the start with
Speaker:just doing some exhibition stuff with the players.
Speaker:So I think probably the new wave is a great way to talk.
Speaker:And there's so many elements and break downs of the new wave that we can talk about with
Speaker:player development and as well as the average Joe, what he can learn about it.
Speaker:I can say every Joe, I'll call him Amateur, who has that.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:We say the social play.
Speaker:Our social community player.
Speaker:So yeah, they're so much together from the tournament.
Speaker:I think probably one of the biggest things that both amateur player and
Speaker:juniors can start to watch is the, I keep talking to players all the time about three
Speaker:dimensions and about tactics.
Speaker:And we're really starting to identify the tactics if people can see the data that they're
Speaker:showing on the matches.
Speaker:And we're also seeing so much variety in the game with the different areas, the different
Speaker:speeds, the different spins, the different pieces of the serve.
Speaker:We're seeing so much difference everywhere that I think the each player now, if we're watching,
Speaker:you can be identifying things that you can improve your game on or make sure you're starting
Speaker:to include it if you're a junior looking for the next 10 years to be pro.
Speaker:So are you gonna elaborate in any of those areas you're gonna elaborate?
Speaker:Well, I like the, one of the things you mentioned besides variation, which we'll talk about
Speaker:the plan A, plan B, plan C, which is good.
Speaker:And I think that's one of the reasons why we see some of these players take so many years
Speaker:to really get to the top or get to their own peak.
Speaker:We'll call it that.
Speaker:Maybe the top isn't it.
Speaker:But the variation is important because even the social player, especially the social player,
Speaker:needs a plan B. We saw Runa with no plan P against Jack Draper recently.
Speaker:But you also talked about maturity in a conversation you and I had previously because Runa's got some
Speaker:maturing to do.
Speaker:Is there a maturity in having a plan B or those two things connected?
Speaker:No, I'd probably say more maturing when we talk about maturing, it's actually playing
Speaker:enough tennis and being in this spotlight that he was in in the final of being there enough
Speaker:that will then start to feed him how to adjust when he needs to adjust and also work on the
Speaker:way.
Speaker:He has to go back to the drawing board but he's going to be able to re-analyze that whole
Speaker:match and start to identify the things he's going to need because Draper is not going anywhere
Speaker:now so he's going to probably see him in more tournaments regularly.
Speaker:He's going to have to find a way to beat him.
Speaker:Well, it could be just he was left handed.
Speaker:A lot of players, when they come up against Rafael Nadal, we go into junior tournaments and
Speaker:we play everybody and then we'll sound we play it left-handed and we're like, "What
Speaker:are you standing in the weakness and now it's the strength?"
Speaker:It could be just something as simple as that as well.
Speaker:I'm not with these team but I would say they're just going to allise the match and now figure
Speaker:out some of the things that he needs to improve which will mature his game.
Speaker:I'll bet there are a lot of weekend tennis players, social tennis players that have that
Speaker:same concern with lefties.
Speaker:Now at the highest level, I'm glad to see the potential that maybe Runa lost that match
Speaker:because Draper is a lefty.
Speaker:It could be that simple.
Speaker:I've always thought that all things being equal lefty wins.
Speaker:So I think it's an inherent advantage.
Speaker:My opinion doesn't matter to anybody else, it's just me but let's say those two are equal.
Speaker:They're both six foot four with two handed back hands and have similar experience.
Speaker:Now actually Runa had a bit more experience in finals and in semi-finals than Draper does
Speaker:but Draper's got that killer mentality.
Speaker:Do we think Runa has that?
Speaker:Is that a difference as well?
Speaker:Now I mean in coaching we always teach that the lefty is a lefty and the righty is a
Speaker:righty.
Speaker:You just have to use the core correctly.
Speaker:I don't think there's any real advantage and I'm sure Runa to this point has played a lot
Speaker:of lefties.
Speaker:So it's not like you couldn't face a lefty but there's just the way tactically things could
Speaker:be broken down because of a lefty but you can do the same thing to him as he's doing to
Speaker:you.
Speaker:So I don't think there's any major advantage of being a lefty except that lefties tend
Speaker:to have a little more feel and more touch than the righties.
Speaker:We've heard that for years but on the other hand your question was I mean I think he could
Speaker:have just adjusted a few things like Alka has adjusted against Draper and come a little further
Speaker:back then movies weigh in and then work on his way of you know developing the point more
Speaker:and but overall they're going to analyse their mansion.
Speaker:He'll come back blazing again and as far as maturity goes to his maturity when you hear him
Speaker:talk you can't relate the two.
Speaker:I'm talking about match maturity versus yeah, the maturity personality wise because personality
Speaker:wise here is an incredible mature attitude for his age and very dedicated and very strong
Speaker:wide mindset.
Speaker:I like his mindset.
Speaker:I think he needs to go out and look forward to everybody like he says.
Speaker:I think that's fantastic.
Speaker:I agree.
Speaker:What about the women?
Speaker:Juniors hear that too because that's what they really need.
Speaker:You need a level arrogance to make it in this sport as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker:Yeah, a little bit of arrogance people sometimes don't appreciate it.
Speaker:That killer mentality we see but sometimes it's necessary.
Speaker:So what about the women?
Speaker:On a women's side, well that was amazing.
Speaker:We saw someone gridded out and work away through the game and just keep the balls in
Speaker:play.
Speaker:Yeah, you can see Savilek here is a very aggressive player used to powering people off the court.
Speaker:So what she did is her ever just stayed with her.
Speaker:But what people aren't picking up on and even on Draver didn't say much about it either.
Speaker:She said, "I just hung in there because Savilek is so much power.
Speaker:She powers me off the court."
Speaker:And she said she should have hung in there but she didn't just hang in there.
Speaker:Every time Savilek didn't give the ball on Draver, it made her eat it.
Speaker:That's where I think was the big turnaround in that match because she literally would take
Speaker:the foot off, try to keep it alive and be defensive.
Speaker:But then soon she went on offense and she gave a right back out of her with a big winner.
Speaker:I think that was the switch in that match.
Speaker:She hung in there until she needed it and then she would switch gears, green light would
Speaker:come on and she'd take it.
Speaker:So in some place, when they're in that Savilek mode, I call it Amber.
Speaker:They're just hanging in there and hanging in there waiting for the error.
Speaker:She wasn't doing that.
Speaker:She was waiting for her opportunity to take advantage.
Speaker:And when she did, she took it well.
Speaker:So I thought it was credible match to watch.
Speaker:Not yet.
Speaker:I don't watch a lot of women's matches but it's been fun seeing the variety, seeing that.
Speaker:I think you heard me say yesterday, the change of guard.
Speaker:We're going to see a lot of that, I think, in the next two to three years between the men's
Speaker:and the women's now, which makes tennis very exciting because you just don't have these
Speaker:one, two dominant players that are just wiping the field.
Speaker:So we're going to see a lot of variety.
Speaker:And the variety of players, fun because there've been some complaints on the interwebs of
Speaker:people saying, are all the experts picked all their own people?
Speaker:Okay, well, we can't just pick no back anymore.
Speaker:We can't just pick Roger.
Speaker:I'm going to pick the number one seed and assume that's going to play out in that way.
Speaker:In that case, we've got a little bit of a blip on the radar because the men's tournament
Speaker:was played without the number one seed.
Speaker:I think most people probably would have picked center had he been available.
Speaker:I think he was somebody made a comment the other day, "Well, he was playing Brooksby and
Speaker:Brooksby has had a little bit of a break from tennis."
Speaker:I'm like, oh, that's a nice way to put it.
Speaker:But in this case, we've got a guy that wasn't there.
Speaker:So we've got a little bit of an asterisk in that conversation because maybe he is the dominant
Speaker:one.
Speaker:We're not sure at this point because we can't.
Speaker:But then we've got a 17 year old who came out and beat the number two and the number one
Speaker:players in the world on the female side, consecutively NSME and a final.
Speaker:That's a big deal.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And she won it.
Speaker:She played to win and won it.
Speaker:Sometimes you see some of the matches they don't give enough or they send a layoff or they're
Speaker:just too tied by it.
Speaker:She actually finished won it, which was impressive.
Speaker:I don't even remember Coco Gough won the same way.
Speaker:She just hung in there, hung in there, waited for opportunity.
Speaker:So there's definitely something in that.
Speaker:I definitely, if I'm going to play a developer, players, juniors, anyone listening to parents,
Speaker:I would say you have to be able to hit every grip, every style of technique.
Speaker:You have to learn everything these days to be from junior to a professional later on,
Speaker:just to let you know.
Speaker:Was it Hinges?
Speaker:Mother or somebody said every shot from every spot with every spin is necessary.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:I mean, we saw Alcharez hit a complete opposite forehand grip on the pickups on defense
Speaker:that we're just out of.
Speaker:So you have to learn as a junior, and I've been doing this in my academies in Australia,
Speaker:you have to learn every grip, you have to learn all the different functions and everything
Speaker:if you're going to really have all the shot-making later on.
Speaker:So I highly recommend mixing it up.
Speaker:Don't just stick to, you know, forehand's back ends off the baseline.
Speaker:And then if you're a community player right now, start thinking about how you can vary
Speaker:your game.
Speaker:And I'll say the three dimensions, up and down, side to side forehand back.
Speaker:A lot of people don't use them enough, and I truly believe if I'm hopefully lifting
Speaker:almost an American audience or listening, all your sports are tactically driven.
Speaker:So start thinking more tactically when you're playing tennis.
Speaker:You know, not just hitting balls, have a look at what's really hurting your player.
Speaker:And I guarantee you just by using the three dimensions should be enough.
Speaker:There's your guarantee for the day.
Speaker:Justin, this has been 10 minutes of tennis.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:I appreciate your time.
Speaker:Thank you, sir.
Speaker:We'll see you next week.
Speaker:Well, there you have it.
Speaker:We want to thank reGeovinate.com for use of the studio and signature tennis for their support.
Speaker:And be sure to give us a review in your podcast app.
Speaker:We can't give you a direct link, but I'm sure you can find it.
Speaker:For more Racket Sports content, you can go to LetsGoTennis.com.
Speaker:And while you're there, check out our calendar of events, great deals on Racket Sports products,
Speaker:Apparel, and more.
Speaker:If you're a coach, director of any Racket Sports, or just someone who wants to utilize our
Speaker:online shop, contact us about setting up your own shop collection to offer your branded
Speaker:merchandise to the Atlanta Racket Sports World.
Speaker:And with that, we're out.
Speaker:See you next time.
Speaker:[MUSIC]