Ok. So just out of curiosity, I watched Fed..Nadal wimbledon highlights. The points were so much much more longer there you'd wonder which court's supposed to be grass and which one clay. i read in the hamburg match no point lasted more than 10 shots or something like that. There were plenty more net approaches by Fed here in hamburg, atleast in the highlights. Nadal had more volleys on grass.
Also, Fed's backhand here was just so crisp and dangerous. Much much better than Wimbledon highlight reel showed.
Again, this is all highlights but it might be something to think about.
I don't think all the time with Roche since last Wimbledon (however little) has been wasted one bit.
15 years ago there was no question about length of points and matches at Wimbledon vs the French or the US Open. The average point at Wimbledon was 2 or 3 shots. I forget the seconds, but a 5 setter at Wimbledon would be about 3 hours. At the French it was more like 4 or 5 shots or more. The average 5 setter was 5 hours.
It's a much different game now. Where 15 years ago the way you won Wimbldeon was serve and volley and that was it. Lendl was one of the top baseliners in tennis who wanted a Wimbledon to complete his collection. He hired Roche to help him accomplish this and for the last 5 or so years of his career he completely retooled his grass court game and served and volleyed. He got the semis and finals, but never won.
The French on the other hand was a serious chess match on a tennis court. Players stood back at the baseline and traded loopy groundstrokes and waited for either one or the other to miss, or a slight opening to come about and try and exploit that.
Due to the efforts of the grounds crew at Wimbledon, and the racquet and string technology the two surfaces have begun to be played more and more similarly. The art of the serve/volley tactic has become worthless. Wimbeldon has become less of a serve/volley or bust tournament, and the players can hit through the dirt more effectively, so they can attack more on the red clay. So Wimbledon point are longer now than they were, and French points are shorter than they used to be.
The clearest evidence that the Wimbledon game has totally changed in the last decade is to look at the grass during a Wimbledon semifinal, or final. Check out some of the DVDs of past finals, like Mac/Borg, or Agassi/Cash. You will see the grass worn out right at the service 'T' where players are taking their splitsteps one after another, one point after another. The surface in the service boxes and around the net is noticable browner than the baseline. Compare that with recent finals. The court in nearly all brown at the baseline. Much more so than at the net.
