Shanghai ATP 1000

[jimlosaltos]

Largest crowd in Shanghai so far is for -- a retired player.

Fed

https://www.atptour.com/en/news/federer-shanghai-2023-ceremony

"Federer was presented with an Icon Athlete Award in a ceremony that also featured home WTA legend Li Na and the No. 1 Chinese player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Zhang Zhizhen.

“It’s been great to see tennis grow in China. One icon is standing here and a future superstar in the making there,” said Federer of Li and Zhang, the latter of whom this year became the first home player to reach the fourth round at Shanghai's Masters 1000 event."

Caption/ Credit: Federer rides the Shanghai Metro in 2017. Photo Credit: Mike Frey/Shanghai Rolex Masters

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[jimlosaltos]

Factoids that might interest some.

Seb Korda returned only 43.14% of Hurkacz's first serves vs 60.47% vs Ben Shelton. That's one huge advantage to the tall Pole.

Even though Hurkcaz's fastest serve was 222.8 kmh vs Shelton's 235.1 kmh

Korda ave higher velocity on his forehand than Shelton at 126.7 kph vs 123.5 kph, and higher than Hurkacz, 118.7 kph vs 112.2 kph.

[stroke]

Factoids that might interest some.

Seb Korda returned only 43.14% of Hurkacz's first serves vs 60.47% vs Ben Shelton. That's one huge advantage to the tall Pole.

Even though Hurkcaz's fastest serve was 222.8 kmh vs Shelton's 235.1 kmh

Korda ave higher velocity on his forehand than Shelton at 126.7 kph vs 123.5 kph, and higher than Hurkacz, 118.7 kph vs 112.2 kph.

Korda to me just did not play as well vs Hubie as he did vs Ben. To me, Hubie has a great serve, one of the best combo 1st and 2nd on tour, but Ben's to me even better. Hubie really competes well though. He has the ATP grind thing down pat. Just a very good player, with a great serve as the foundation.

[stroke]

Hubie wins 1st set vs Rublev 6-3 1st set, with one break. Hubie's serve is certainly a very easy relaxed looking motion, super efficient. It could very well be a great teaching model. Quite the contrast to a motion like Sheldon's.

[stotty]

Hubie wins 1st set vs Rublev 6-3 1st set, with one break. Hubie's serve is certainly a very easy relaxed looking motion, super efficient. It could very well be a great teaching model. Quite the contrast to a motion like Sheldon's.

Yes Hurkacz has a terrific serve which is certainly one of the best out there. Amazingly he doesn't seem to have a full ISR on any of his serves I have studied so far online. Fluid, relaxed motions are always the best.

[arturohernandez]

Yes I think his backhand quality is the key to his success in this tournament. It has been standing up, not leaking in too many errors as it seems to usually in the tough matches. The Shot Quality Insights stats certainly make it crystal clear how well his backhand has been performing in this tournament. His slice is the best on Tour to me, but his topspinner off that side has been at its absolute best. I certainly felt watching him this week his backhand was looking about as good as I have ever seen it.

He also changed it up. He was playing a ton of slice against some players, more topspin against others, and then mixing whenever he could. I think he could make a run at a Wimbledon crown again. He has the game for a grass court and we know that the one hander is less problematic on grass. His serve looks better too. The only thing is he still has that little hitch that I think becomes a problem under pressure. He imitated Federer almost to a T. But his serve is much less fluid than Roger's. He ended up serving much worse in the semifinal and that cost him the match to some extent. He has developed a very extreme short serve wide to the ad side that is almost unreturnable. His game feels so classic these days. I really hope that he can get back up into the top 10 and show the young guys something they have not seen. Here is hoping!

[arturohernandez]

Yes Hurkacz has a terrific serve which is certainly one of the best out there. Amazingly he doesn't seem to have a full ISR on any of his serves I have studied so far online. Fluid, relaxed motions are always the best.

Yup!!!! Funny that so many pros don't have them. Rublev being a great example. He seems to force his serve over which leads to a very weak second serve for such a highly ranked male.