We\u2019ve been talking about makeovers here at Tennis Diary in honor of Andy Roddick\u2019s transition from power baseliner to serve and volleyer. That\u2019s a bit of an exaggeration but only a bit considering he came to net sixty times against Ivan Ljubicic. Gotta give it to Jimmy Connors, he has Roddick believing. If there\u2019s anything Jimmy had, it was faith in himself and that was largely due to his mother\u2019s faith in him. I expected Jimmy to turn Andy into a more aggressive player, though I never guessed it would happen so soon, but I didn\u2019t figure out Jimmy\u2019s greatest gift.<\/p>\n
Without his first serve, Blake is only as good as a Davydenko but with slightly inferior footwork. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
At the press conference announcing Jimmy and Andy\u2019s partnership, Jimmy said he wanted to pass on what his mother gave him. I assumed he was talking about attitude and skill. But what he was talking about was faith. Andy now has faith that he can be a top-rank player and the change in his game flows from that.<\/p>\n
James Blake has a similar figure in his life: his longtime coach Brian Barker. We tend to expect immediate results in tennis. After watching teenager John McEnroe get to the semifinals at Wimbledon and a teenager Rafael Nadal gobble up tournaments, we want more of that and as soon as possible. But after Blake played nine best-of-five matches without a victory then disappeared against Max Mirnyi at Wimbledon \u2013 after going up two sets to one, he lost the last two sets 6-1, 6-0 \u2013 I wrote Blake off. He could certainly stay in the top ten but he wouldn\u2019t get any big titles because he can\u2019t deal with the pressure.<\/p>\n
Blake and Barker, however, were pleased with his progress and they were right. Blake\u2019s match today with Nikolay Davydenko explains why.<\/p>\n
The match started with five straight breaks before Davydenko finally held serve. Blake couldn\u2019t get his first serve in and he was winning exactly 23% of the points on his second serve. He didn\u2019t hold serve until three games into the second set.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what happens when a power player isn\u2019t serving well. In the second set, Blake got into a long rally with Davydenko and tried everything he could to end the point. He moved Davydenko corner to corner, tried to wrong foot him and even hit a short shot or two. Didn\u2019t work. On the thirty-first stroke, Blake put the ball into the net. Without his first serve, Blake is only as good as a Davydenko but with slightly inferior footwork.<\/p>\n
And this is where we see Blake\u2019s makeover. He was calm and patient. He\u2019s not like Marat Safin and Tommy Haas, in fact, he\u2019s rather gentlemanly. His flameouts are more silent, he just goes away. Today he didn\u2019t go away despite playing terribly against a player who\u2019d never beaten him in four tries.<\/p>\n
Blake\u2019s serve slowly improved and he hit a beautiful return winner to break Davydenko and get back on serve. As his serve improved, so did his ground strokes. This is a rule that should have a name: when you don\u2019t serve well, the rest of your game goes to hell. Feel free to leave naming suggestions in the comments section. With Davydenko serving at 4-5, Blake broke him again to win the second set and even the match.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s another reason why calm and patience pay off, if watching Roger Federer win three of the four slams this year wasn\u2019t reason enough. If you hang around long enough, you might get lucky.<\/p>\n
Davydenko started to have problems in the third set. His left leg bothered him and he was breathing hard. After the match he said, \u201cI’m not ready for Shanghai physically.\u201d Gee Nikolay, do you think that\u2019s because you play every tournament in sight? He\u2019s a tough guy, he\u2019s not like other players who call the trainer when their shoes are untied, and he hung in there to get to 5-5 in the third set. But he wasn\u2019t quite right.<\/p>\n
With Davydenko serving to stay in the match at 5-6, Blake ripped one of those absurd, inside out backhand returns. Davydenko seemed a bit shell-shocked and gave Blake two match points. Blake got another match point when he lunged at a wide serve and somehow hit a winner down the line. Now Davydenko really was shell-shocked and hit an easy forehand out. Blake had a 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 win and was into the semifinals.<\/p>\n
This reminds me of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. They lost seven straight games in September and crawled into the playoffs only to get hot and win their first Word Series since 1982. Blake backed into the final eight and a spot in Shanghai when Fernando Gonzalez and Tommy Haas couldn\u2019t win at Paris and now he\u2019s the first player into the semifinals.<\/p>\n
As far as Blake\u2019s concerned, I\u2019m sure he thinks he\u2019s right on schedule.<\/p>\n
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