Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Who else needs to improve her serve?

As I have written so many times, Jelena Jankovic's game would be close to perfect if she could serve. Well, after watching three of her matches in Charleston, I am happy to say that she can. Oh, the second serve needs to be improved quite a bit, but the first serve looks pretty good now. I was really impressed with the obvious work she has done--finally--to make her serve less vulnerable.

Marion Bartoli, as I noted in my Charleston report, has also significantly improved her serve. That unorthodox service motion is a thing of the past, and the result is a harder, cleaner first serve.

Gisela Dulko did some amazing serving--first and second serves--in her first round in Charleston, but she lost her touch when she played Serena Williams. In fact, had she maintained her serve from the first round, Williams would have been in some trouble, since the rest of Dulko's game against her was excellent. Obviously, though, Dulko has been working on her serve.

Even Elena Dementieva served well in Charleston for one or two matches.

Then there are players like Patty Schynder, who has an excellent first and second serve, but who cannot always call it up when she needs it. Put Vera Zvonareva in a similar category (though I think Schnyder's serve is better). That is, of course, a mental issue, but on paper, it still amounts to a problem with serving.

Who else could improve her ranking if she could improve her serve?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

momo - especially her DFs!

Allez

Dani

Diane said...

She used to have a really good serve, but--like so many players--when her confidence goes down, the double faults creep in.