Juan Carlos Ferrero's mini-resurgence

Video clips: 50+ shot rally | Second set tie-break

Sometimes it's nice to see a change of pace. These days, the tennis ball seems to move back and forth at lightning pace, to the point where if you're not paying close enough attention, it can be easy to lose track of what's happening. I don't know if this happens for anyone else, but I sometimes feel that way watching Roger Federer's early round matches, as good of a shotmaker he is. And that's what yesterday's second round match in Montreal between Juan Carlos Ferrero and Gael Monfils ended up being, a welcome change of pace, as well as offering a hard-fought battle.

On Ferrero's end, it was an excellent display of point construction as well, which is something that becomes easier to appreciate in a match-up like this when there are no easy ways of winning points. He knew exactly how he wanted to play this match and that's what I really liked about it, from a spectator point of view.

Ferrero started off the match in fine form, so confident in his ability to maintain the aggression on extended rallies. His forehand was really on song, using it to open up the court with a variety of spins, and finding some good angles on it. It seemed like he had such a control on his shots from the back of the court that he was rarely going to miss, and only by small margins if so. That's a sign of a very accurate player.

It's just that he lacks the ability to inject additional pace when he requires it compared to his peers, and I don't think he counterpunches in a way that uses his opponent's shots against them either. He does make up for that lack in power with excellent shot selection though. The longer a point is, the more you get a feel for how players like to construct points and when Ferrero's confident, it's one of his strengths.

It takes two to throw up an entertaining match, and the match-up here is what made it most fascinating. To see how Ferrero could slowly outmaneuver Monfils out of court but without giving Monfils too much to work with to counterpunch off. So that's maintaining an aggressive game, but without going overboard and staying within the comfort zone.

It was about Ferrero not allowing Monfils to play the way he likes, though Monfils made things harder for himself by choosing not to take the initiative on most occasions. Ferrero wouldn't allow Monfils to hit these spectacular shots on the run, either consistently keeping him on the move and trying to restrict the amount of times Monfils could make those crowd-pleasing violent bursts of athleticism, or by surprising him with sudden changes of pace and direction. It doesn't matter as much how quick a player is, if he can't read the shot at all.

I'm starting to find that Monfils is a habitually slow starter on the tennis court. He really needs a trigger, something to excite him, whether it's celebrating his own shots or finding his back against the wall in order to produce something special to stay in the match. Often when he's trying to make a run, firing himself up to find that quick burst of adrenaline, you'll see him suddenly move more energetically even in his return stance, dancing his feet up and down. There's a certain cockiness to it, like now he's decided that he's going to play better in this match, so that's exactly what he will do.

He played the opening set of this match, casual and lacksadaisical like he wasn't ready for the occasion. It was like his brain wasn't even switched on, just reacting to what Ferrero was doing. I couldn't see what he was trying to achieve at all, and I imagine that when you're playing a predictable and one-dimensional same-pace game, not a whole lot of thought goes into it. Just how much more imposing would he be, if he decided to change the pace like we know he can do, especially given that's the one big advantage he has over Ferrero and he's not using it.

I'd also like to see him run around his backhand more often. His off-forehand is one of his best attacking shots, and definitely much better than his backhand which seems to be often lacking in penetration when he's not timing it perfectly. Because Monfils hits the ball closer to his body hitting inside-out, he seems to move better and more athletically to the ball to generate that extra pace, and he can find good angles on it too. If other players that don't move as well can manage to do it on a regular basis, there's no reason why he shouldn't be able to do more frequently.

In a way, it was strange the match seemed to move away from Ferrero's dominance into a very competitive second set of tennis. What happened was that what triggered Monfils to make a slight adjustment in his game was actually out of sheer frustration, rather than any intended change of tactics.

In his first service game, it looked like he was lashing out at balls, carelessly hitting them, flat shots with pace. It wasn't that Monfils was frustrated with his own play, more so because he wasn't enjoying the match and the rallies he was consistently been drawn into. It really was not as much of a hopeless situation as Monfils thought at the time. If he doesn't want to be stuck in those rallies, then he doesn't have to be. In fact, he lost that service game straight away and given how dominant Ferrero was in his own service games, I thought it was going to be the end of it.

But once Monfils had composed himself again, it seemed like that quick spurt of frustration did him a favour in terms of his shot selection. Finally more changes of pace and more variation in his baseline position. I think he started to return serve much better too, getting more balls into play. Ferrero helped him out by playing one loose service game that he seemed to lose in a flash. But by now, the baseline rallies had turned into a much more even contest, hard-fought battles that could go either way.

I don't think I've ever seen anything more hard-fought than the amazing extended rally that went over 50 strokes at 5-4 in the second set. It actually ended in a spectacular winner, by the way. Both players battled nerves late in the second set, making their fair share of uncharacteristic errors but Ferrero stepped it up in the most crucial stage, 5-5 in the second set tie-break with two aggressive baseline points, just like how he had typically played the first set with such success.