This discussion belongs here, not in the Trick Shot thread.
falcon said
Also, while the 1 HBH does need immense control, I hate it when you have that in your reportoire and do very little with it too.
I don't even know what that means. Does that mean anything?
If I say something subjective like, "I think Almagro has the biggest backhand in tennis," you can argue that I'm wrong. If I tell you, "Almagro just cracked a BH against Djokovic that was measured at 96mph!" and say that there's not the power in his groundstrokes that I'm indicating, you're being obtuse. Anyway, you don't have to take my word for it.
Every commentator gawks over his backhand; "One of the best on tour" is pretty much how it's described universally.
How 'bout his serve? He's #4 on the ace list right now behind Raonic, Isner, and Del Potro. I've seen him crank it up to 138mph. Yesterday he was cracking unreturnable 131-132mph serves out wide consistently to Djokovic, the best returner on tour. I've seen him do this to Murray, on clay!
He ended the match with 23 aces.
Another thing about Almagro is that he likes to play on top of the baseline, not conceding any ground. He can do this because of the tremendous racquet head speed he generates. And you'll see him knock his opponent off their spot with his pace and depth.
So, if you watched 2-3 minutes of one match and say none of this is in that, then he's demonstrating he has a lot of variety.
He used to be a real hot head, too, but he's grown out of that. Still shows the passion, but able to let things go that used to linger.
So why isn't he more successful? It's taken him a while to get used to playing on hard courts. As I said elsewhere, he was never comfortable on the surface and it showed in his waning confidence. This year is the most confident he's ever been. That's a lot of ranking points right there. He's also short, with short arms. Because he hugs the baseline, he is susceptible to passing shots down the line. He just doesn't have time to recover or the reach.
He doesn't do anything for you. That's acceptable, because he doesn't do anything for anyone. That's why you don't know anything about him; his matches aren't televised. In fact, the best match he ever played was against Tsonga at the AO three years ago. Though he lost, he introduced himself to the tennis world that day. However, I can't even find a clip of it on YouTube.
Aces
1 Raonic, Milos 278 6'5"
2 Isner, John 218 6'9"
3 Del Potro, Juan Martin 177 6'6"
4 Almagro, Nicolas 172 6' (taller than I thought!)
