Up in arms over underarms?
Lendl is OK with these serves; we should be, too
Seeingjusthowfarbehindthebaseline Rafael Nadal crouched to await servesattheFrenchOpen, Mackenzie McDonaldknewtherewasonetactic that madethe most sense to try.
“It would be ridiculous, but you should underhand-serve him the whole time,” McDonald said after employing that strategy once, unsuccessfully, against 12-time Roland Garros champion Nadal in their second-round match this week.
“I had the chance. I didn’t have the (guts). It wouldtakeadifferentperson thanme, Ithink, toreally doitoverand over,” said McDonald, a 25-year-old AmericanwhowonNCAAsinglesand doublestitlesforUCLAin2016.“More players are starting to doit, but it’s not the right thing to do.”
That’s up for debate, much like the so-called “unwritten rules” in other sports that are fodder for discussion every so often — and happens to be a subject of conversation in Paris right now, where underarm serves seem to besomewhatenvogue,likedropshots, ontheredclaythatcandeadenaball.
Some consider purposefully slow, short serves poor sportsmanship, a “cheap” waytograbapoint. Thetruth is, those shots, referred to either as underhandorunderarm, areperfectly within the rules, an entirely legitimate way to counter an opponent, such as Nadal or U.S. Open champion DominicThiem, whocampsout waaaaaaaay back in return games.
Not sure? Let’s check in with Ivan Lendl, theInternationalTennisHallof Fame member and eight-time Grand Slamchampion. Hewasatthereceiving endofthemostfamousunderarm serve in tennis history, delivered by a cramping Michael Chang in the fifth set of their fourth-round epic at the French Openin 1989.
Chang won that point, and the match, along the way to becoming, at 17, the youngest male singles champion at a major tournament.
“Alotofpeoplealwaysthoughtthat
I held it against Michael. No. I had absolutely no problem with it. That’s perfectly fine. It wasunexpectedandit workedforhim. Hewascrampingand so on and so on,” Lendl said in a telephoneinterviewwithTheAssociated Press. “It neverevencrossedmymind that therewassomethingwrongwith that. Because there wasn’t.”
Lendl said he himself used underarm serves during matches “as a kid and in the pros.”
Herecalledoneparticularinstance, sayingit cameagainstEddieDibbsata clay-courttournamentinForestHills, NewYork. Lendl beat Dibbs 6-1, 6-1 in the final there in 1982.
“He was sitting on the back fence — and it was successful,” Lendl said. “What is the difference between hitting a serve and then a drop shot or just a drop shot right away? I don’t seeadifference. I thinkit’s averygood strategy. You take them out of their comfort zone.”