| Ericsson Open: Andre Wins Easily, Venus Dramatically | |
Dateline: 04/02/01
If anyone still had doubts about whether Andre Agassi is ready to be the most dominant player in men's tennis this year, those doubts may not have lasted even as long as Jan-Michael Gambill did in Sunday's Ericsson Open final. After a competitive first set, Agassi just demolished Gambill for a 7-6 (7-4), 6-1, 6-0 result.
The set scores reflect Agassi's primary strategy: wearing his opponent down. In the best shape of his life at age 30, Agassi knows he can stay on court as long as it takes, and with his ability to hit angles on his groundstrokes and his serve, he can make a younger opponent like Gambill (23) run until fatigue starts to corrupt his strokes.
Gambill is considerably bigger than Agassi, which gives him more pure power, especially on serves. As with most bigger players, though, the price for power is lack of foot speed. Gambill is hardly slow, but it takes a lot of energy to move a big body, and his use of two hands on both his forehand and backhand adds to the burden on his legs. He can't stretch for a ball as far with two hands as with one, and when he's forced to hit with just one hand, he produces a weaker, less reliable shot.
Agassi's exceptional timing on groundstrokes enables him to expend less energy than his opponent, because he takes the ball earlier. By playing farther forward, he cuts off angles sooner, which means he runs less, and he sends the ball back to his opponent sooner and with more severe angles, which gives the opponent less time to react and more distance to cover.
