Behold the reemergence of the drop shot........I knew it was a fairly new shot now days.....
Roger Federer saw it as a ‘panic shot’ but the drop shot is back in vogue thanks to a greater understanding of its effectiveness.
A little more than two years ago, Daniil Medvedev was working his way through the early rounds of the Miami Open when he noticed a distinct shift in his opponents’ tactics. A few days earlier, he had been convincingly beaten in the Indian Wells final by Carlos Alcaraz, who dismantled him with a relentless stream of drop shots. Suddenly, everyone was hitting drop shots against him.
“A lot of guys maybe saw the final, so they started to do only drop shots against me,” says Medvedev, smiling widely. “It’s not the same. It’s like: ‘OK, continue doing it. I’m there.’ Against [Alcaraz], I’m not there.”
Medvedev had the last laugh that week as he won the title in Miami, but his observations were reflective of a wider shift. Although the drop shot has long been a common tactic it has received greater attention in recent years as many players have come to understand how effective it can be.
There was a time when drop shots were largely considered the territory of craftier players, relied on by those whose weight of shot was insufficient. Despite the peerless variation in his game, even Roger Federer was sceptical of the drop shot early in his career, describing it as a “panic shot”. Nowadays, there is a clear consensus that the drop shot perfectly complements an increasingly powerful, athletic sport. “I’ve had so many players come to me, saying: ‘I don’t know what shot you’re going to choose,’” says Ons Jabeur. “That’s the beauty of it.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us
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