BNP Paribas Open aka Indian Wells

[stroke]

I have long felt the rpm's on the forehand is super telling.

[stotty]

Draper, per ATP shot spot data, averaged about 3300 rpm's on his forehand, which is about as heavy as it gets. He is up there with the likes of Nadal, Berrenttini, Ruud, GMP, Fils. He also really contained his errors off that side, producing the Nadal body blow effect out there.

Jack did great in the final. He was aggressive and quite unstoppable on his serve at times. His inside out forehand to Rune's forehand completely flummoxed Rune. He just couldn't cope with the pace and spin. It turned out to be a great tactic but you need a hell of a forehand to pull that off.

[jimlosaltos]

Jack did great in the final. He was aggressive and quite unstoppable on his serve at times. His inside out forehand to Rune's forehand completely flummoxed Rune. He just couldn't cope with the pace and spin. It turned out to be a great tactic but you need a hell of a forehand to pull that off.

Yup. The inside-out left forehand opened the court up, BUT Draper's ability to end the point down the line was remarkable. I'm not sure I've ever seen someone hit the inside-in forehand hard to the corner so much, so consistently. Draper changed direction MOST of the time, hit 51% of forehand DTL. I'm not sure I've ever seen DTL be a majority of an ATP player's strokes, but that's what ATP/TDI showed.

[giancarlo]

I was thrilled when I discovered that Fonseca had been scheduled to play on Stadium 4. I got there early (so I thought), but I could not find a seat. So, I watched most of the match from the side entrance, standing next to the garbage can. And then, Jack Draper just played a fantastic match; his serve proved to be extremely effective (6-4, 6-0). Enjoy this clip; what do you see?

[jimlosaltos]

This link appears blacked out, at least on my screen giancarlo ?

[jeffreycounts]

This link appears blacked out, at least on my screen giancarlo ?

Hi Jim - the video plays fine for me on both my iPhone and in Chrome on my windows pc. What are you viewing this in?

[stotty]

The video is not working for me...just a black screen in both Chrome and Safari.

[jimlosaltos]

Hi Jim - the video plays fine for me on both my iPhone and in Chrome on my windows pc. What are you viewing this in?

Curious. Safari on Mac and Chrome on Pixel?

[jimlosaltos]

Curious. Safari on Mac and Chrome on Pixel?

It's playing for me now in Safari on Mac. Hope you don't mind me taking some screen captures. Helps me think through it.

Really extends way into the court on follow through and ISR. That part is a bit like Ben Shelton, but with straight, extended arm, and without all that body rotation Ben has.

filedata/fetch?id=106859&d=1743956997&type=thumb

[jimlosaltos]

Impact is way into the court.

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[jimlosaltos]

Good video!. Continental grip, I think, likely with butt cap in palm.

( Darn right-hander playing as a leftie, I have to think "backwards" Hard to do before morning coffee.)

filedata/fetch?id=106865&d=1743958925&type=thumb

[jeffreycounts]

Great breakdown Jim. The final still you posted is interesting in that the racket head is parallel to the baseline. I don't think I've seen that before.

I also like this position. His body is like an arrow pointing upward and into the court. And great external rotation of the shoulder with a high elbow here.

[jimlosaltos]

Great breakdown Jim. The final still you posted is interesting in that the racket head is parallel to the baseline. I don't think I've seen that before.

I also like this position. His body is like an arrow pointing upward and into the court. And great external rotation of the shoulder with a high elbow here.

His right/off arm staying back so long, practically pushing his chin, reminds me of Andy Roddick. Similar, tension before sudden explosion to enormous racket head speed.

[jimlosaltos]

The combination of how far into the court Draper makes contact with the ball plus his extension toward the target before rotating his arm outward at what must be really high racket head speed is fascinating. I took three stills from giancarlo's great video to perhaps help see the progression.

Baseball has done a lot of study of how the release point of a pitcher affects the "perceived speed" of a fastball. When Aroldis Chapman, a recent NY Yankee relief stretched his 6 ft 4 in frame "Chapman strides so far that he releases the ball nearly a foot closer to the plate than the average pitcher, adding perhaps another mile an hour of perceived velocity to his pitches."

How does this baseball perspective translate to tennis? For scale: “The difference between a 102-mile-an-hour fastball and a 92-mile-an-hour fastball, in reaction time, is four and a half feet,” said Ty Van Burkleo, the Indians’ hitting coach. “That’s a lot."

Another observation that makes me wonder, is how close the racket in the second image is to the ball. Normally, the racket head slows down from impact and the two separate rapidly. Does Draper's strength let him keep the racket head speed that high through the severe rotation to his left we see in the third of these frames? Look how far his racket traveled to the left while he was still rising. What kind of spin did that serve end up with?

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