Congratulations To Us All. Sort Of.

Congratulations! You and I are now are part owners of the world's largest insurance company and the world's largest collection of sub-prime mortgage obligations, an honor we share with tens of millions of other American taxpayers.

Tennis Players Run Miles

One of the odd byproducts of the HawkEye call review system is a flood of statistics about tennis, perhaps to a fault.

Call review/ replay systems use numerous cameras to track movement on court from many angles, which is analyzed by computers. Since nothing restricts that to where the ball lands, we can learn a great deal (arguably too much). Network television is adding some clever graphics systems of their own.

Can Nadal Stay Number One?

After a record 237 weeks as the top ranked tennis player in the world, Roger Federer was finally knocked from his pedestal by Rafael Nadal this summer.

Federer was dominant for so long that  people think that is normal, and will repeat with Nadal, as if this is the next Presidential administration. It's not. It's far more common throughout tennis history for the the top ranking to change hands often from tournament to tournament.

John McEnroe reclaimed the no. 1 ranking 13 times after first gaining the top in March, 1980, while Pete Sampras retook the pinnacle ten times after he first got there on April 12, 1993. Nadal's friend Carlos Moya made it to number one, but only stayed there for about one week.

Nadal is a tremendous player. His combination of strength and speed is unmatched and allows him to play a unique game that in my opinion is a new version of what Guillermo Villas used to earn a record 46-match winning streak on all surfaces, and 53 straight matches on clay.

Essentially, Nadal has taken what Villas, also a muscular left-hander, did and adapted it to use  of new racquets and strings to take defensive top-spin clay-court tennis to a new level. (Click image for analysis and Flash image.)

Best Tennis Shot Ever?

Roger Federer hit a unique shot in his semi-final match against Novak Djokovich at the U.S. Open that some are describing as the best, single tennis shot ever.

Among the believers is former top-ten ATP pro Todd Martin, who said of Roger Federer's over-head-lob "I saw the best shot of my life today."

Serving for the first game of the final set, Federer was out of position, off court and threw up a routine, defensive lob. Djokovich hit an overhead smash from inside the service line, that appeared on its way to the first row of seats.

Not so fast. Federer leapt high just in front of the back wall, and hit a side-armed overhead smash back. Federer's shot went on a line over Djokovich's head, then broke sharply down and to the left landing a foot inside the baseline. A completely unplayable winner.

The uniqueness of the shot means there is no simple name for it: Federer's shot was a side-armed, overhead smash, topspin lob.

In case you think this shot was a fluke, Federer hit a similar if slightly-less spectacular version in his round-of-sixteen match with Radek Stepanek. The shot came when Stepakek spiked a backhand volley, bouncing it well off the court.

Volleyball Style Serve Reaches Tennis

I've been waiting to see a professional, tennis player try a volleyball-style serve -- running and leaping to hit a ball thrown in front of the server -- and Brian Battistone is the one.

Brian, a challenger-level doubles player, uses the jump serve: "I was trying to get more lift and explosive movement into the court. Growing up we had played basketball and volleyball. I thought if I can't get the same amount of spring into the air with my conventional motion, why not try it like a volleyball serve? I jump as high as I can and as far forward as I can to get the best possible angle. My main objective is to get a better angle and higher bounce to bring the guys off the court."

According to the ATP Tennis site: "Brian, 29, and his brother Dann, 31, ... have cut their doubles ranking by almost 1000 places to around 270 in the space of one year since resuming their careers after extended breaks.

"In early August the Las Vegas-based Battistones reached the final of the Binghamton Challenger – beating World No. 14 Lukas Dlouhy and partner Tomas Zib in the semis – that followed a semifinal showing at the Tunica Challenger and three appearances in Futures finals this season. But they are yet to crack their first win at ATP-level, most recently falling 6-3, 7-5 to Italians Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi in New Haven." Note: The Battistones' experiments don't end at serving; they also use two-handled racquets.

One of the main advantages tall servers, such as ivo Karlovich and John Isner have is that they can hit angles players don't normally see or practice against. At 6 ft 10 in, Karlovich can literally bounce a server over returning players.

If hitting a serve while standing still is considered timid in volleyball, will it become old-fashioned in tennis as well? {A video from the ATP site is embedded below. Click to play, although with the caveat that I have found video's on the ATP site less than 100% reliable.As an alternative, try this link.} 

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