Summary: <img width="580" height="362" src="https://blog.tennisevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/USATSI_federer_090515.jpg" class="attachment-large size-large wp-post-image" alt="" style="float: left; margin: 0 15px 15px 0;"><p><a href="http://blog.tennisevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/USATSI_federer_090515.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-10712"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-10712" src="http://blog.tennisevolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/USATSI_federer_090515.jpg" alt="USATSI_federer_090515" width="700" height="350"></a></p> <div class="smart-track-player-container stp-color-2d7bbf-EEEEEE"></div> <h2>Show Notes</h2> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hi, it’s Jeff here, and today, I want to talk about a fatal serve return mistake that Roger Federer made in the 2015 U.S. Open against Novak Djokovic.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now, in this match, Roger Federer was returning second serves from on the baseline, or just inside the baseline. Now, that’s an aggressive stance, and that’s a position that we saw Roger in most of the summer. And from this position, he was very aggressive on his return of serve: in Cincinnati, and all throughout the U.S. Open. He was taking solid cuts at his backhand, he was being aggressive on his forehand, dictating, looking to move forward either to come in behind the return or to come in early in the point, to knock off winning volleys, or—not winning approach, but in this match, Roger got tentative.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yes, Roger Federer is human. He got nervous, and as he stood on the baseline, or just inside the baseline, he was much more tentative with his swings, and when he did that, the ball sat up more. He wasn’t putting Novak Djokovic on the defensive right away, and Novak, such a good player—of course, the best player in the world, he could take those more tentative returns and start to dictate.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So, the moral of the story is that if you’re going to stand on the baseline, or inside the baseline, to hit your opponent’s second serve, you’ve got to be aggressive. You’ve got to think that you’re going to have that aggressive mindset and take control of the point early. It doesn’t do any good for you to stand just inside the baseline and to be passive with the return, because what will happen is your opponent will take that next shot and start running you or hit the ball behind you, and also getting you to back pedal or to move backwards, because if you’re returning from inside the baseline, you have to retreat on the next shot to get back into position.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I used to see Andy Roddick do this all the time. He would stand inside the baseline, and then, he really wouldn’t go after his backhand or even his forehand, and then, he was scrambling on the next ball.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I feel that returners, if they’re going to take a big cut at the ball, if they’re a little bit nervous, they should actually move back a few feet behind the baseline and take a full cut at the ball. Don’t get jammed on those returns in your body when you’re standing just inside the baseline. Give yourself more space, especially if you’re feeling tentative.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Now, there is one point, in particular, in this match, in the deuce court, where Djokovic served to Federer’s backhand closer to the tee, and Federer actually tried to move around his backhand and hit a forehand. He got so jammed, he looked terrible on that return. I mean he looked like a rec player that really struggled with the returns. And you just don’t see that from a guy like Roger, and I</span></p>
