Michael Chang once provoked the great Ivan Lendl in Paris with a service from below, now the Kazakh Alexander Bublik even beats aces with it.
Posted today at 8:32 pm
Nobody masters the serve from below as well as he does: Alexander Bublik, the Kazakh world number 49.
Photo: Keystone
Michael Chang didn’t want a new trendit was not. He was just desperate. Calf cramps plagued the then 17-year-old American in Roland Garros in the fifth set of his round of 16 against the great Ivan Lendl in 1989. Chang could no longer serve with den Push off the legs, only “put” the ball gently into the opposing field. And because Lendl is nervous had become, one break chased the other. In order to break this dynamic on his serve, Chang tried something new: at 4: 3 and 15:30 he served from below. Something that otherwise only hobby players do. And rarely the good ones.
Chang faked the beginning of a normal service movement and then played the ball over the net from below. Lendl returned, came across to vorne and was happened. The audience went wild, Chang cheered, Lendl was seething with rage. The seven-time Grand Slam winner saw dies as an insult to majestyigand was completely thrown out of the concept. Chang won six of the next seven points and the match, and Lendl finished with a double fault.
The young American from Hoboken, New Jersey, then danced to his first and only Grand Slam title, beating Stefan Edberg in the final. Chang never played a serve from below in his professional career. “It never occurred to me,” he said last year on the anniversary of that memorable game. He experienced a good 30 years later Beginner strikeChang made famous back then, his revival on the tour. Rebell Nick Kyrgios started playing it regularly to provoke his opponents and the tennis establishment. The Kazakh Alexander Bublik, also a nonconformist, has perfected the blow.
On Monday in his four-sentence victory over Gaël Monfils even managed the 23-year-old with the spindly legs to score an ace. The Frenchman was not collected and did not even try to run the short ball. Monfils, who plays unconventionally himself, never made a face. Others, however, see Bublik’s trickery as an affront. The Chilean Cristian Garin even complained to the referee last week in Hamburg after a forearm service ace from Bublik. Without success.
The stroke complies with the rules and at times when the cracks are noticeably further behind on the return – US Open winner Dominic Thiem was rarely seen in New York when he returned –, quite a tactic to lure the opponent from the reserve. On sand, the service from below, like the stop ball, is a little more efficient because the ball bounces off less high here. Especially in such wet, cold conditions as currently in Paris. “Onein qualityn Serve from below to spielen iIt’s very difficult, ”says Bublik. “I train him regularly.” The ball played with an undercut must not be too long. When to use it, he decides by feeling, so the world number 49.
“Many people now return very far from behind and are not prepared.”
The surprise effect is crucial, says Michael Lammer, head coach at Swiss Tennis. “A lot are now returninge very far from behind and are not prepared. ” But whether the unorthodox hit will establish itself on the toure, be hard to say. “At the moment only Bublik plays it regularly. You have to be the type for it too be. At Bublik, which is definitely not run-of-the-mill, it fits. ” One thing is clear: the blow is also a message to the opponent, it should make them thinkto provoke him. Chang is that at Lendl’s in Paris once well done.
Posted today at 8:32 pm
