05 September 2011

EXQUISITE TOP SPIN VOLLEY WINNER: by KARIM DARWISH

This is a short few seconds rally, however with a very unorthodox and exquisite shot that you will not find in the books. To understand it better it makes sense to rewind and watch Karim Darwish's previous volley, a lot more conventional one: he hit the ball at service line heights with mid-low pace slice, looking to make it as tight as possible and as dying as possible. In comparison, the winning volley was hit with a totally unconventional top spin pretty low (however without risking to catch the tin); funnily even though it was a full pace shot, the ball died exactly in the back-wall nick, even if that was not necessary as Nick Matthew was going totally the wrong way, due to Darwish turning his upper body in order to fake a cross-court. Also, his backswing/swing was so quick, that it might have indicated a cross-court (straight drives, as they require more accuracy, are executed with slightly slower backswing/swing). Anyway, amazing shot from an amazing wrist as it has already been noticed in other examples too.