re: The Championships, Wimbledon 2013 Official Thread

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Interesting what Murray says about playing in grass. It is stunning to me how today's players love sliding- even in hard courts (the joker loves to do this). Ugh, I've seen juniors trying to imitate- injuries waiting to happen.

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I slide on hard courts. It's the most efficient way of starting and stopping on a hard court, and by a comfortable margin. I actually don't worry about getting injured sliding on a hard court. It feels natural to me.

Djoker has taken sliding on a hard court to a different level, and it's why he is the best mover on a hard court. Basically he borrows the concept from clay court tennis of sliding into your shot, and he does it on a hard court. So as where I, and everybody except Djokovic, slide on a hard court, the hypothetical sequence is: (1) run like hell towards shot, (2) hit on a dead sprint, (3) slide out on your would-be next stride, (4) get back in position.

Djoker combines steps two and three so that he starts his slide before he hits the ball, slides into the shot -- which, with his flexibility, saves him a lot of real estate -- and then move back into the court.

The result of this is that he doesn't get pulled out as wide in baseline rallies. Sure, he's saving only one stride per stroke, but that's huge in professional tennis. When i watch him play, he always seems to be in perfect court position, and it's his great flexibility combined with his sliding into shots rather than right after them, that allow him to pull that off.