Profiling Simone Bolelli's Claycourt Game (and Performance) in Umag

On the back of last week's title win in Hamburg, Nikolay Davydenko heads into the Umag semi-finals as the clear favourite to take the title. But what has his form been like this week? He's not really on top of his game, nor is he fading badly. But like all good players, Davydenko is surely making the most out of the fact that he can do so much with the ball, that he has so many attacking options from the baseline.

Yesterday's match against Italian Simone Bolelli was a difficult match, as unpredictable as a match could be in the first set and not as one-sided in the second set as the scoreline suggested, resulting in a Davydenko win 7-6(10) 6-1. It was really only when Davydenko achieved his second break of serve that the outcome seemed finally set in stone, given that so many of the games prior to that were closely contested.

It wasn't one of Davydenko's rhythmic ball-striking days, he had to rely more on his speed instead, and he didn't exactly get to play the match on his terms given Bolelli's highly aggressive game. Bolelli is one of those players that have been mentioned from time-to-time as one of those dangerous claycourt players, as one of those steadily rising players, and he definitely captured some attention with his rather flashy game. At the top of his game, he looks like a stylish player, capable of hitting clean winners on both sides, not to mention that he has a very aesthetically pleasing single-handed backhand.

Though I have come to learn that he also has the tendencies of a power hitter, and the tactical side of the game is certainly something that he can work on. He takes big cuts at the ball particularly on the forehand side, and can be prone to shanking shots especially when returning fast-paced serves, or in other words first serves. Whereas on the backhand side, he can make the adjustment and shorten his backswing on return.

Just like in the first couple of games of the Hamburg final, Davydenko went down an early break lead, and the manner in which it happened seemed similar as well. Davydenko missed a couple of first serves, and Bolelli hit some unlikely winners. Unlikely because when he wins a point against Davydenko, he doesn't really wrest control of a point. Instead he pulls out spectacular shots in the middle of a competitive rally, overwhelming Davydenko with pace to the point where he either can't reach it or has to hit a defensive shot off a ball that's only one metre away from him. I think it's not only power, but also the heaviness of Bolelli's shots that makes it difficult to deal with.

For a powerful hitter, Bolelli can generate some excellent angles on his forehand, sometimes finding good angles on a crosscourt shot when it doesn't seem like he has much to work with. I guess it's because of that over-the-head swing that he uses on the forehand sometimes to find that extra angle, by applying additional spin.

But as well as Bolelli played to achieve that first break of serve, he returned it back with numerous tame errors in a way that looked familiar for him. I mean, based on that shot selection, surely he is always having to fight the ups and downs of his own play. He doesn't even react externally that much to what he does. I guess he's used to it.

So that's what the match ended up being like on both sides of the court. A match of uncompromising shotmaking, erratic on both sides but full of drama due to the sheer unpredictable nature of it. I would have thought that Davydenko would have been able to capitalise on his breaks of serve in the first set better, but strangely he had a hard time pulling away from the match. It was like whenever he had the opportunity to take a clear lead in the match, he had trouble stringing together points and kept letting Bolelli back in.

Bolelli remained in a neutral mindset the whole first set, sometimes hitting great shots and sometimes hitting awful shots but I never got a sense of momentum or a rise in confidence. When I watch him play, I feel his patterns of play are more based on instinct more than anything else, though he does like to hang in the backhand corner and run around to hit forehands. He doesn't strongly stick to that strategy in the same way that for example, Tommy Robredo does although for good reason because his backhand is a good shot as well.

The power that he can generate off both sides is particularly impressive. Looking at his physique, it reminds me somewhat of Nicolas Almagro, how they use a lot of their upper body strength to generate that pace, keeping their stance more upright than most other players. I can see why Bolelli sticks to playing a primarily attacking game, because when he's defending, it looks rather poor. Bolelli's mindset is to use attack as a form of defense. I think in a lot of cases, I actually see him hitting more aggressive shots when stretched further out wide, than when he's hitting a shot from the centre of the court.

In terms of court coverage, it's like there's a certain distance of the court he can cover across the court where he can still maintain his footwork and slide properly into the court. I'd say it's about the same distance as the width of the court between the two singles sidelines, and whenever he gets pulled outside of that, wider with angle then that's when he comes unstuck and tries to hit low percentage, unlikely shots. When he's still within that strike zone, it's amazing the amount of power he can generate on the run. But unfortunately when it comes to hitting low percentage, improbable down-the-line running shots, he's also very prone to doing that.

Have the courts been slowed down too much in Paris?

This week, in the Paris Masters Series, like every year at this event, the main focus on the event appears to be on who will be obtaining the remaining three places in the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. At the end of yesterday’s play, this question seems to have been largely answered already, as David Ferrer crashed out to Philipp Kohlschreiber in his opening match, while Gilles Simon continued his strong run defeating Igor Andreev in his first match of the week. Unless if any of the outside contenders, like Fernando Verdasco, Gael Monfils or David Nalbandian wins the title, or either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or James Blake reaches the final (and Simon loses early), which appears unlikely at this point, both Juan Martin Del Potro and Gilles Simon will be making their Masters Cup debut this year.

As for the tournament itself, there has been quite a bit of discussion from commentators and fans yet again this year regarding the speed of the court in Paris Bercy, which before it was switched to indoor hardcourt last year, used to be played on one of the quickest courts on the tour, on indoor carpet. For me, the biggest problem is that the tournament organizers announced that they had sped up the court this year to make it a similar speed to Madrid, when this clearly is not the case. While it is true that the speed of the indoor courts has definitely slowed down across the board, it does appear that there was a concerted effort from many of the tournament directors to speed it up this year, compared to last year with the court surface in Vienna and Basel playing faster than it did the previous year.

In the match between Andy Murray and Sam Querrey, Querrey could not appear to penetrate through the court at all, with his usually dangerous forehand sitting up relatively high making him look nothing more than a solid, consistent player. But interestingly if you tune into the action on Court 1, there is such a sizable difference in playing conditions, where the court appears to be much quicker, although the lower camera angle definitely adds to that view.

Personally for me, I have been enjoying watching the action on Court 1 on the Masters Series TV website. It feels more like watching a live tennis match, than a usual televised match does. It has an extremely low camera angle and the camera actually doesn’t even manage to fit the entire width of the court, so it has to pan across to catch all of the action, even though it is filmed on widescreen, so imagine how frustrating it must be for those watching on 4:3. I spent most of the time marvelling at the pace that the players can generate on their groundstrokes, and with the sound effects, you can hear the clean sound of the ball coming right off the strings of the players’ racquets and all of the little steps required for each player to get into position, especially if it’s someone who is a busy mover, like David Ferrer.

I like the way they start off each match in a concert-like atmosphere on Court Central with the lights dimmed down and the spotlight being placed firmly on the players, as they walk onto the stage. The French crowd also seem to be fairly enthusiastic, and more vocal about their support than most other crowds in the world. Unfortunately the camera angle does the spectacle no favours, with it being filmed relatively low with the court resembling the shape of a square, more so than its actual dimensions. It’s harder to appreciate the pace and depth that the players are generating on their shots, although it is easier to appreciate touch shots and excellent feel, which both Murray and Stepanek exhibited yesterday. Andy Murray was particularly impressive yesterday, showing a lot of confidence in his game, at times toying with Querrey, with short slices, dropshots, lobs and more. At one point, he hit one of those flick backhands that Roger Federer occasionally hits, where he was running with his back from the net and flicked his racquet across over his head to hit a passing shot winner.

The match of the day was between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Radek Stepanek. Stepanek played close to his best tennis for most of the match, putting Tsonga under a lot of pressure to come up with passing shots, particularly on Tsonga’s weaker backhand side and showed some superb feel and athleticism at the net. With the encouragement of the crowd, Tsonga was extremely fired up for the occasion, although the level of his play fluctuated far more than Stepanek’s, going through several ups and downs during the match. But on the crucial points, Tsonga delivered on the passing shots, especially on the backhand side where it really looks like he has to labour hard to find the strength needed to line it up, generate the racquet head speed and hit the desired target. He finished the match with a flourish hitting three spectacular winners to break serve Stepanek’s serve to win the match.

I also managed to catch some of the action between Italy’s Simone Bolelli and James Blake. Bolelli is an excellent shotmaker and can hit his fair share of flashy winners on a good day, but also has the reputation of being fairly inconsistent. It was interesting to note in this particular match the vast difference between the quality of shot that Bolelli hits when he is set up for the shot and when he has to improvise. Bolelli is fairly upright in his stance on both the forehand and backhand wings when he is in position, so whenever he was forced to hit a shot off the back foot or even stretch out to hit a squash shot or blocked shot, his movement and racquet control looked incredibly mediocre.