A game of Baseliners and Screechers

These thoughts come to my mind in the wake of watching the French Open '09. The results went to my liking very much: Federer won, Paes won, Roddick went a lot further than expected and most importantly, Nadal lost (yippieee)

I've been following Tennis from the days of Sampras-Agassi rivalry, although not so intensely as now. And I have some very sweet memories of that time. The matches then were a classic contest between two contrasting styles of play: the serve and volleyers versus the aggresive baseliners. The sampras' versus the agassis, the kafelnikovs versus the ivanisevics, etc were great to watch.

But as Tennis is evolving, the art of volley seems to be vanishing. Balls are getting bigger, the courts, slower, the volley, rarer. The only serve and volleyer I can recall at this moment is Ivo Karlovic, ranked at a pathetic 29!

And a new style has sprung up - the defensive baseline play, that irritating, make-your-opponent-do-the-mistake thing. Keep running a mile behind the baseline and return everything with the muscle you've got. Sounds like Nadal, huh??

Its not that I hate baseline play, but tennis was a lot better when there was some contest between the two styles.


Even worse is the development of screaming with every shot. Not so much a problem in men's tennis though, but still worth a mention. The argument these screechers give is that it is well known that shouting out enhances your power (a la martial arts). But it is the short burst of voice at that precise moment which helps. But watch Nadal and Sharapova play, and note that 90% of their voice comes after they have completed the shot.

Apart from disturbing the opponent, it is heard that Sharapova's shrills are intented to seduce (!!!) the male spectators. Sad enough is the fact that spectators are needed to maintain pin-drop silence.

The he-screacher is ranked 1 for a while now, and the she-screachers are ranked 2,3 and 4 currently.