- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 394,567
- Reaction score
- 43
You must be registered for see images attach
Welcome back to the Monday Tennis Briefing, where will explain the stories behind the stories from the past week on court.This week, the underarm serve ended a match and started some discourse, a remarkable winning streak snapped with a side of on-court drama and one of the most combustible players on the ATP Tour met his match.
When will the underarm serve pearl-clutching end?
The underarm serve: an effective strategy to exploit a deep returning position or a disrespectful trick shot used to bait and provoke your opponent?
Why not both?
On Sunday, world No. 29 Marta Kostyuk finished her Miami Open match against world No. 85 Anna Blinkova in one of the more unusual ways — by pulling out an underarm serve ace on match point.
There are fewer underarm serves on the WTA Tour than on the ATP Tour because most women’s players do not tend to stand as far back on return as some of the men. Kostyuk, however, spotted the opportunity with Blinkova behind the baseline to close out a 6-2, 6-1 win, completely bamboozling her opponent one last time in the process.
The move provoked the usual split between glee and pearl-clutching that accompanies a high-profile underarm serve, despite the shot having long graduated from being little more than a sign of disrespect. Kostyuk being from Ukraine and Blinkova from Russia — and the shot closing out a very one-sided victory — only added fuel to the fire, which largely burns because the shot is most often used by some of the more combustible players in the men’s game: Nick Kyrgios, Alexander Bublik and Corentin Moutet are all masters of the art.
As Moutet showed in a remarkable match against Sebastian Ofner at last year’s French Open, this piece of tennis antagonism should be more often venerated as a smart tactic, giving the server another strategic option and the element of surprise. At Wimbledon last year, Frenchman Alexandre Muller told that he had practiced the shot before facing Daniil Medvedev, who has one of the deepest return positions on the men’s tour. Despite losing their match, Muller used the tactic effectively, winning points outright as well as keeping his opponent guessing.
Kostyuk’s underarm ace didn’t have that effect on Blinkova, because it was the last point of the match, but it might give American Jessica Pegula, No. 4 seed in Miami, something extra to think about before their fourth-round clash on Monday.
When does a tennis crowd’s energy get too much?
Remember Moutet from the previous item? He stole the headlines in Miami on Friday after an extraordinary match against Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo. Moutet, who is no stranger to run-ins with fans and his opponents (including in his last event against … surprise, Bublik) got into it with a ferociously partisan group of Chilean supporters on Court 5.
Moutet’s patience with the one-sided support snapped towards the end of the second set. He started wildly celebrating points in the direction of the supporters while Tabilo was serving to level the match. He celebrated even when Tabilo missed a first serve. Then, after the Chilean earned a set point, Moutet turned to the fans behind him and started cheering ironically. Then things escalated. Moutet reported what he saw as an insulting gesture from someone in the crowd and reported it to the umpire, refusing to play until the offending fan was removed. When this didn’t happen, his sit-down protest led to a point penalty for delaying the restart of the match. Because it was Tabilo’s set point, the point penalty also lost Moutet the set.
Moutet then called the tournament supervisor onto court. After the supervisor spoke with Moutet and with Tabilo, Moutet was given a game penalty for a visible obscenity.
After the match, Moutet wrote a long message on social media about what had happened. He said that the alleged offensive gesture was a fan showing him the middle finger, and that he had received the game penalty because someone had instead accused him of making that gesture.
“When the supervisor arrived, I explained the situation,” Moutet wrote. “He left, then came back telling me that someone was saying it was me who gave the finger.”
Moutet added: “Since this event, I have received a lot of criticism and insults. To say it doesn’t affect me would be a lie.”
Tabilo went on to win the deciding set 7-5, celebrating passionately at the end.
Some will feel all’s fair in love and war, and point to Moutet benefiting from hostile crowds at Roland Garros before; others will feel the fans went too far on this occasion and players shouldn’t be subjected to this sort of thing. There will be others who feel this level of passion is good for a sport that can be too genteel for some people’s tastes.
Was Amanda Anisimova’s blister timeout fair?
Speaking of middle fingers, Amanda Anisimova felt compelled to show hers to Mirra Andreeva after their match on Sunday night following what appeared to be accusations of gamesmanship from the Russian towards her opponent.
Anisimova had just beaten the Indian Wells champion Andreeva in a grueling, near three-hour slog 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-3. Both players required medical timeouts: Andreeva for an abdominal issue early in the first set, and Anisimova for a blister midway through the decider.
Anisimova’s timeout came mid-game, with Andreeva serving at 40-40 and down 3-1 in the deciding set. Suffering from an open blister on her right hand, Anisimova told the umpire that she couldn’t hold her racket and that she needed her finger to be wrapped before she could continue. The request was granted, prompting an angry Andreeva to repeatedly say, “We all know why.” Anisimova then referenced this in an Instagram story post-match displaying the blister on her middle finger, and a caption referencing how Andreeva had also taken a medical timeout earlier in the match.
Rightly or wrongly, receiving treatment mid-game will always be contentious. Andreeva’s timeout had been at a change of ends. The WTA rulebook allows for in-game treatment of an “acute” problem, but should Anisimova’s timeout have been allowed?
If a player badly hurts themselves it would be masochistic to force them to stagger on until the end of a game before receiving treatment. That said, as debilitating as hand blisters can be, they are unlikely to get dramatically worse if left untreated for another couple of points.
Andreeva won the game, but Anisimova ultimately served out the match and will next face her friend Emma Raducanu in the round of 16 on Monday. Raducanu benefited from an injury retirement against McCartney Kessler, who couldn’t continue after a medical timeout and conceded the match trailing 6-1, 3-0.
Recommended reading:
Alex Eala makes Filipino tennis history by beating Madison Keys in Miami
How Coco Gauff takes her hometown courts — and her grandmother — with her in tennis
The men’s and women’s tennis tours have a new plan to fix tennis …
… But the Grand Slams want different changes to the tennis calendar
Coming up
ATP
Miami: Miami Open (1,000) featuring Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz, Joao Fonseca, Gael Monfils.
UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel Tennis TV
WTA
Miami: Miami Open (1,000) featuring Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Pegula.
UK: Sky Sports; U.S.: Tennis Channel
Tell us what you noticed this week in the comments below as the men’s and women’s tours continue.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, Women's Tennis
2025 The Athletic Media Company
Continue reading...
