Mixed Doubles

I was lucky enough to actually get into Wimbledon yesterday, & queued for over two hours to get onto court 12 for the Del Potro match. Unfortunately all I saw of this match was a damp squib of a final set, but I decided to stay for the following mixed doubles match since hey, I had spent 2 hours waiting for the seat! I was really glad I did, since not only was it a great match (ending 19-17 in the final set), but it was interesting to watch in terms of the balance of power between the 4 players.

The mens' serves were clearly superior, with Inglot's particularly impressive. The amount of power he was able to generate was unbelievable; although the speed gun was only giving readings of 125mph-ish, the serves were so heavy that often his opponents could get nowhere near them. There were a few kick serves he threw in against the Spanish woman that almost reared up over the backstop, leaving her completely helpless. Frankly I'm not sure how you return a serve like that, short of standing by the scoreboard on a stepladder. Having said that, the women were doing a great job of maximizing the effectiveness of their less powerful serves through excellent placement. Konte in particular was noticeably targeting Almagro's backhand with deliveries in the 100mph - 105mph range, & was reaping the rewards when he kept returning into the net.

What I found most interesting was the ground shot battles, and how there was less of a difference between the genders than I anticipated. The men could hit harder when they really opened their shoulders, but it often came at the expense of increased unforced errors, especially in the case of Almagro. The Spanish woman (unfortunately I can't remember her name) was hitting with impressive length and decent power, & it was interesting that she was often beating Inglot in their baseline duels. He was really ramping up the power on his forehand, but she relentlessly returned his shots within one inch of the baseline, pinning him back & drawing the error. Typically what proved more effective for the men in drawing an error from a female opponent was applying increased spin rather than increased power.

Overall my takeaways from this enjoyable match would be that bludgeoning power is second to keeping a good length in being an effective baseline player, and that Almagro appears to have a rather large ego!