Just saw this pic on reddit and for some reason I'm quite intrigued.
Why suddenly they're all gingers - even the bald one? Why is Stefanos holding two glasses like that? Why is he and Daniil always so close yet so far? Why are they wearing the same color scheme?
i’m excited to read about your thoughts on this match lmao 😭 felt long as hell but it was in straights so we take that 🙏🙏
hellooo ok I shall put my thoughts under here (@ other anons if you asked me this, this is my conjoined answer). Forewarning: this is longish.
Thoughts on Carlos / Hanfmann match:
I am not ever brief but for this I will be especially not brief so if you would like to keep reading please click below. I will spare everyone else. Gist: I thought he played actually pretty decent! Most of all, I thought this was a good test against a big server/flat hitter on hardcourt, and that what was most encouraging were his strategic adjustments during the match.
Now if you clicked, you must first allow me my back-patting indulgences:
Robbie Koenig on comms calling out how Carlos stole Novak’s serve down the middle (T) on the Ad side (said this set 1, 5-6 30-0 Carlos). I also talked about this in my overview of the ADM practice match and am gratified by this mind meld. Also gratified that he agreed the biggest goal of the serve change was looseness in the service arm wrist, which I also talked about here. Ok done with the self-exhortation.
The mind meld I am less gratified with: similar to Samu Lopez, I thought that given Hanfmann’s player profile it would be a good idea to try and move forward on the soonest possible ball. This is what Carlos was doing in set 1, for the first ~4-5 games at least. He would hit what he thought was a pretty good serve or forehand and step about 3-10 feet into the court into no-man’s land in order to react, but this was sort of killing him. He would just get passed or off-footed so many times. Glad to see he adjusted this later and in sets 2-3. Even in neutral rallies I thought it was bold trying to be a foot or two into the baseline against someone who hits that flat and hard.
Now, some the issues I noticed (many of which he adjusted):
As above, Carlos was stepping in too early, trying to shorten points. He also wanted to be about a foot inside the baseline it seems, but the problem was he started the match trying to dictate pace with direct, flatter shots from there, and then moved in on them too quickly. Hanfmann is a better pace redirector than I thought, and also seemingly better than team Alcaraz thought. So Alcaraz kept either having to (1) deal with a ball on his feet (the fucking tweeners…), (2) take the ball on the rise (not likely you’re going to be able to enforce direction of player from this type of shot, it’s more about getting it back), or (3) back up. Bad, no good. Not fun. All of these options allow Hanfmann to impose his game. And what was his game? As I expected, playing backhand to backhand, flatter shots. The Jannik Sinner Ad Mound strategy.
On the JS Ad Mound strategy: to his credit Alcaraz was trying to disrupt this, but he was doing it predominantly by slicing to try and get a softer ball back so he could redirect into deuce-to-deuce forehand exchanges. Except that this…. was not working.
How did he adjust?
Carlos started adjusting about midway through set 1: he began to try to only move backhand side (ad) if Hanfmann was coming from deuce side (on the move). This, OR he started peppering in shaped backhands (lots of spin, kicks up, slower)— this was great because Hanfmann’s backhand is most dangerous when he is redirecting your own pace back at you. Most flatter backhands are! To give him less of that was MUCH BETTER.
Indeed, for the rest of the match he started spreading the court: the tactical goals here are both to (1) not get caught on either side, so you are the one directing play through the center of the baseline and (2) make your opponent run side to side for each ball. Hanfmann being a more stolid mover, this was a much better approach than even doing what Alcaraz often does, which is elect to go deuce-to-deuce and trade forehands. It's tiring but it's also harder to hit good balls like this.
Carlos was choosing forehand almost all the time on 50/50 balls (floaters more to the middle of the court, you can choose which direction to orient play: easy to switch direction or do whatever on these types of balls). But if he went back to where Hanfmann was on forehand, Hanfmann was actually pretty solid there. So he changed tactics by always keeping him on the move. Always go where he isn’t. This sounds simple but staying on a player’s weaker wing or going back behind them is often the better approach!
Things I liked:
He was using the Ad T (and body for 2nd) serve a lot as I predicted, which is nice to see. He was evidently aware of that lethal bh return from Hanfmann as I thought; and wide to deuce lmao I sniped that re-match lfg. Team Alcaraz hire me. I can replace Alvaro! On this note, Carlos actually barely served to Hanfmann’s backhand AT ALL. Did anyone else clock this, it had me laughing. He knows what’s up!
The inside-in forehand is beyond lethal and beautiful. Cheers Carlos. Work of art.
When he said in press that on court he didn’t feel like he was feeling the ball well, but that his team told him he played well: this is actually heartening to me so I do want to touch on it. Because I think it shows an area of growth with him mentally we’re not talking about. Carlos was not hitting rally balls with a lot of depth (for about 1.5-2 sets then he calibrated), which comms called out. Most were up near the service line rather than the baseline. I hazard part of this is because he figured out within the first 3 games he wasn’t feeling the ball well. I.e., going for margin shots, he’s just going to miss a lot. He’s not feeling the aim of the ball well is usually what people mean when they say this (their contact point is not as reliable as they usually like it). So sure, it may be harder to win a point without playing balls onto the lines, but I think this was a better and more patient approach overall, to just hit with more margin and maybe prolong rallies a bit because of it. Which I LIKE. Carlos of a year or so ago I think would just try to keep going for these low-margin, high-impact shots which would not have been a productive approach.
The backhand was looking REALLY nice, especially down the line.
Gnarliest forehand side spin on tour christ. The crosscourt. Jannik used to struggle with this shot against Carlos a lot in their early career and still sometimes does. Just watch the outward curve (towards the doubles alley) it gets off the bounce. Like it’s moving up and away from you crazily as you try to hit it. Gets such a kick. (only real Nadal-son aspect to me besides the defense, but Nadal’s was worse to manage because it gave a high backhand to most players which is um.. way harder to manage.. More so if you have a two-handed backhand and thus a shorter reach, if you’re catching my meaning... cough cough Federer).
Other notes and callouts:
Flowers where flowers are due, Hanfmann played a great game. Deuce 1st serve down the T is nasty. Lethal backhand, as expected. Poor mover, as expected. No shocks necessarily but he did play quite well to his abilities. Shockingly solid on forehand.
He did the flipper feet (my name for it lmao) Jannik backhand!! I snapped like Leo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (4-5, 40-30 Alcaraz) (what I mean here is it’s basically a jumping DTL backhand. Coco also does this lots!)
UNSERIOUS number of tweeners for being only 2 matches into AO. STOP.
Robbie exposing Carlos for playing 18 holes the night before the Wimbledon final he is not serious (was he also playing holes after— *gets shot*)
As Robbie Koenig said, “as Mick Jagger said, ‘she was practiced at the art of deception.’” You know what else Mick Jagger once said? “Goodbye Ruby Tuesday.” Next, Thoracic Cavity Thursday, because that is what Carlos will be straining tonight. Cheers and see you all on the flip side. Sorry for the length of this!
noooo i'm gutted that joao lucas reis da silva lost but honestly he did extreeeemely well, v competitive performance and scoreline ;---; v glad he got a wildcard into the rio open. ahhhh i hope we see him again soon
federer's return in two exho matches, djokovic winning in straights, nadal scheduled to arrive in melbourne for the last sunday of ao and now this. some ghosts never really go away.
