Serena Williams and Jelena Ostapenko in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi

Everyone has been eagerly anticipating Serena Williams’s return to the game and she didn’t disappoint. In this blog post I want to chat about the exhibition match between Serena Williams and Jelena Ostapenko in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi.

It was an intelligently played, tricky match where both players looked to prevent the other from getting into a hard-hitting rhythm in a variety of ways. Their shots were well disguised, often making their opponent guess and run the wrong way, creating winners for both of them. They both placed their shots very awkwardly for each other, meaning neither could hit the other off the court. Serena remained competitive making Jelena run for awkwardly placed, well angled balls. Meanwhile, Jelena was also making Serena either, run and stretch for out-wide shots or having to return into-the-body shots, leaving her no room to get a full swing at the ball to try to dominate the point. These match-play tactics, combined with an above average use of slice and side-spin on a hard court, kept both players off-balance in most of the points and pushed each of them to defend as successfully as they can attack. I found it fascinating to see them sizing-up and testing out each other’s strengths and weaknesses, not just looking to dominate the points but to manoeuvre each other into a defensive position where they are at risk of making seemingly un-forced errors, caused by not adjusting to the idiosyncrasies of placement and spin.

Both players took the ball very early, hitting the ball on the rise very shortly after bouncing, making their reaction time significantly reduced. This impacts greatly on footwork, accuracy, the time it takes to retrieve the ball and adjustment to each shot. They both went up a gear when it came to the closing stages of the match to try to clinch the win. However, the third set was a sudden-death tie-break (the entire set consisting of a first player to 10 points, with a 2 point lead wins). This is not standard for singles play on the ITF and WTA so alters the pattern of the match and dynamics of play. It seemed to suit Jelena better than Serena. I think Jelena tightened her play by tracking the trajectory of Serena’s ball with her racquet before hitting it and stayed with a compact, efficient swing and match-play which helped her win the match despite it being a close run thing! Jelena again demonstrated how good she is whether ahead in a match or behind. Serena attempted higher risk shots, which are lower percentage shots, losing her vital points in the final tie-break. However, I think this was still good, positive play from Serena in the long run because this style of bold play often clinches big matches and if you don’t make yourself go for those shots in all matches, you become too tentative in general and find them harder to pull off under pressure. One example of a risky shot was when Serena suddenly ran up the court to hit a drive volley winner off a rapidly, vertically dropping high ball. I think this was great match-play from Serena. I practise these risky drive volleys as a type of drill but it is quite another thing to actually pull it off in a match against an opponent’s ball, rather than a hitting partner’s ball. Letting the ball bounce before hitting it may seem like the sensible option but Serena was right to judge that this would give Jelena too much time to recover, read where she might hit it and retrieve it anyway. So ironically, it shows more positive match-play from Serena to take the shot on boldly and miss it than if she had opted for the safer shot and so shows greater promise for her future matches this season.

They both served well and Jelena is a terrific returner of serve and managed to stand very close for Serena’s serve in this match ie on the baseline or just inside it throughout the match. This is a high risk tactic. I have seen many opponents being wiped off the court for standing in on either of the Williams sisters’ serves. We all know that Serena has an out-of-this-world serve, however, many criticise Jelena’s. Nevertheless, I think Jelena has a good service action. Her only slight problem is being erratic on her service games at times. I wonder whether this is possibly caused by a less than completely straight left arm, affecting the trajectory of her ball toss. If you look at Serena’s left arm, she keeps it perfectly locked straight every time she throws the ball up in the air, giving her a reliable, repeatable, controlled ball toss. Her toss is also so similar each time, it must be hard to read from her toss what type of serve you should anticipate. The slightest kink in the left elbow or wrist as you lift your arm up to toss the ball is magnified in the trajectory of your toss. This means that when your right arm is swinging and striking the ball, your arm and upper body have to compensate in relation to the ball. This reduces accuracy and power (not a problem Serena has!) and can make service games feel more stressful because the inconsistencies can lead to more double faults, weaker second serves, making you generally play more tentatively. Another potential problem is that to rein in the serve, you can start to toss the ball behind you to put spin on the ball to ensure it goes in and is hit with enough interest. Although tossing the ball behind you is great for creating lots of spin on the ball and is effective play at times, using it as a way to raise your first service percentage carries the risk of straining your back as you bend backwards repeatedly (amongst other possible upper-body injuries caused by compensating for your ball toss, such as shoulder, stomach, elbow, wrist) and can make it easier for the opponent to guess what type of serve is coming at them.

It was a hard fought, riveting, and thoroughly enjoyable match to watch. I’m already looking forward to seeing them play each other again and see their match pattern over a traditional 3 set match. Serena wasn’t pushing herself to the absolute maximum yet, (nobody would expect her to so soon after having a baby, and, anyway, it would be inadvisable for any player to try to over-push themselves physically after a long break and a short time to prepare for match-play) but she nevertheless didn’t make life easy for Jelena. As Serena pointed out, the first match back after time away from competitive tennis is always beyond tough.

Although Jelena lost to Kristyna Pliskova in Shenzhen, following her match with Serena, it’s hardly surprising because she is taking on another very good server and one who is under-ranked for her ability. It’s also not easy for Jelena to come down from the euphoria of her match against Serena, fly to another country and take on a deceptively difficult opponent so soon afterwards. Therefore, I think it’s not symptomatic of Jelena’s general form at the beginning of this season and all credit to Kristyna for playing so well and getting the win.