Safina's Serve??????????????????

Question

It's great to see Dementieva finally win a big title but how bad was Safina's serve today? It looked liked she switched it with Dementieva's. As soon as there was pressure, like a break point or a really crucial point and she missed her first serve I knew she was probably gonna hit a double. In her Semi-Final with Na Li she was up 40-love in one of her service games and hit 4 double faults in the next 5 points to lose her serve. What do other people think?

Answer 1

safina's serve during the match was a complete joke!!! she must have broken the record of double faults in a match!!! I think it was the main reason she lost the match.. but it wasn't the only reason though, her plan of breaking the rhythm worked well at first and it was the best against a hitter like dementieva who benefits the most from the power and speed of the coming ball... however ,when the match moved forward this plan didn't seem to work any more and there were times when safina should have hit straight backhands down the line and it really should have ended the point but instead she continued hitting crosscourts to dementiva's backhand waiting for her to miss.. it's either she was sticking with the dictated plan without thinking or, even worse, she could not hit a straight backhand!!

Answer 2

I was gonna ask the same thing. Her first serve is a weapon- very powerful and I am guessing she won a decent percentage of points when she got her first serve in. Her 2nd serve sucks. It is short and lack any angle and more to the point, its far from consistant. If Safina had a decent second serve I have no doubts she would on won that match. Credit to Dementieva, she did really well to get there and I have never seen her play that well, she was really really good. Made a bit of a fan of me actually (except the screaming at the end, annoying). But I feel Safina is the better player and if she could get that 2nd serve going and improve it I think she will have an amazing chance at getting to numebr 1- actually I think shes got a fair chance anyway with womens tennis how it is. But that final was the best womens tennis I think all year, so good on the girls for giving such a good match