On this week’s Mailbag, Gill Gross answers your comments, including: is Daniil Medvedev actually good on clay, why have their been so many upsets at the Rome Masters, why hasn’t Jannik Sinner won a big title yet, was Carlos Alcaraz losing early in Rome good for Roland Garros prep, are Alcaraz’s pace absorption struggles due to racquet technology, an updated men’s singles tier list, why does an all-time great need coaching, do tennis players watch tennis, can Medvedev finish year-end No. 1, and does Petr Korda’s 1996 Australian Open have an asterisk?
00:00 Intro
01:45 Clay Medvedev
08:21 Rome Upsets
14:57 Jannik Sinner
21:13 Alcaraz RG Prep
24:28 Alcaraz Racquet Tech
27:37 Tiers Update
29:45 Coaching GOATs
32:52 Pros Watching Pros
36:19 Medvedev YE1
37:34 Petr Korda Asterisk
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Gill Gross provides in-depth ATP tennis analysis. Match breakdowns, draw previews, the latest news, and other tennis insights…
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29 Comments
@gill Rafa's racket specs are pretty heavy no? 389 swing weight with his new released racket? Alcaraz 's pure aero 98 is 330 swing weight… Am I wrong?
Gill, tennis is not the only sport where an athlete pays to his coach. It is the same in professional boxing.
I am slightly disappointed that you wrote 'Clay Medvedev' instead of 'Clayvedev' 😅
talk about nadal … i dont care sinner and nobody care !!!!
Everyone has their own journey. Sinner is still growing, improving so much skill he's trying to hone in on and under the surface. When he masters it and improves on some of his weak points, he's gonna be monstrous and start winning some big ones
Sinner time will come but Italian fans are the worst calling him a failure, a loser, someone that won't never win a big title (he's still 21!!!). I don't know if abroad you've an idea how bullied he was after losing to Cerundolo (or Berrettini for dating a kinda celebrity). I am wondering if Fritz, Rune, Ruud, Tsitsipas, Zverev, Auger Aliassime, Rublev are receiving the same toxicity from their fellow citizens during a negative phase. I think Sinner had a bad day with some kind of illness and probably burnt too much energy giving himself to the fans in Rome. I am sure his time will come soon because when he's on top, doesnt matter the surface, he looks like the next step in the evolution of tennis.
Certainly respect your opinion Gill but I think you are severely overestimating Medvedev. Tier 2 for me are players who can win the whole thing but are not outright favorites. I am following Meddy's game and while he has certainly improved, he is nowhere near the level required to win Roland Garros. I would be very surprised if he made it past the quarters and stunned if he reached the final. Thats certainly not the case for Rune, Sinner and Tsitsipas.
He's too one dimensional and he's kind choked the two times he was in a real position
Surprised Rublev wasn't given a mention in tier two. Won his last match vs Tsitsipas, won two of his last three against Medvedev, 2-0 against Rune this year in big tournaments, finally a Masters 1000 champion. Though the memory of how uncompetitive he was against Djokovic in Australia lingers.
Federer's easiest slam was probably 2006 Austalian Open: Davydenko as 5th seed in the quarters who Federer owned, world number 21 Kiefer in the semi final, then unseeded Baghdatis in the final. Far easier than Wimbledon 2017.
Many thanks for your meticulous explanations, Gill.
The following for you is like addition knowledge (Chris Lewitt), but perhaps not for all subscribers.
One of the easiest shortcomings to exploit in a player who does not move well on terre battue is to make him slide leaning on his weak leg. I haven't seen Daniil play too much on red clay, but his leverage when he slides on it is not good. Daniil doesn't come out of direction changes well (a bit stuck) nor when he has to slide a lot after hitting because he's late to the ball.
Due to his height, it is difficult for him to get low when sliding on red clay; and you are going to have to do it too often.
Players with soft hands: Federer, Nadal, Alcaraz, Rune or Djokovic could be a big problem for the Russian.
Fortunately for him, he never had to play on dirt, nor will he ever have to, against a Manacori who mastered all the imaginable lots of picking apart opponents on clay.
Medvedev had a very easy draw until now.
The reason for all these upsets: mens tennis is incredibly weak right now with no dominant player. It's not PC to say that but its not like 2015-2016 when Djokovic dominated.
I think Alacaraz's win in the US open could be considered an easy path as there was no competition from any of the big guys, Nole, Rafa, Zverev. Sinner was thee only possibility.
Excellent overview of both Medvedev and Sinner!
Gill…you are the best! Thank you, sir 🙂
OMG, three videos dropped on one day plus a Three episode. Tennis YouTuber is a 24/7 job. Gill, get some sleep already… ❤
I think people get impatient with Sinner because of what Alcaraz, and recently Rune, has achieved.
Thx!
He’s only been playing tennis for like 8 years. Give him some time Geez
it's simple: Sinner body is still developing he growth from 6,2 to 6,4 in the last year and he is building up muscles
Rune and Alcaraz have now better legs if Sinner could have at this moment legs like Medvedev he would be already unstoppable
Better picks for weakest draws for big 3:
Federer- possibly RG2009, or AO 2006 (unseeded Baghdatis in the final, 21 seed Kiefer in the semis, but tough quarterfinal with Davydenko although he was pretty bad at slams).
Djokovic: Wimbledon 2021 or 2022 jump out as obvious ones. US Open 2018 is another one.
Nadal’s US Open 2017 is the obvious one, but RG2010 could also get a shoutout.
On whether players watch tennis question, Medvedev mentioned he watches most of the matches until he in a tournament and stop once he is out.
Rafa has absolutely not a setup close to Carlos.
A talk with the tennisnerd about the technical part of the game an how it influencees certain plays would be great
I like the new tier 2. I think Rune could well move into Tier 1 by the end of the year.
Great content as always. Just to correct one number, Korda won the AO on 1998 against Marcelo Rios, not on 1996, (I know the question had it wrong, not you) and it has a big asterisk because Rios is the only number one to never win a Grand Slam.
So jannik is tennis noob, with a growing body. He has amazing ballstriking already. Will be dominant.
Big mouth Gill Gross who never played tennis in his life acting like a tennis expert. Lol..
Frankly I think bad draws plague Sinner. I’m Miami 2023, he faced Dimitrov, Rublev and Alcaraz, and beat all three. He then played Medvedev, who beat ZERO top 10 players to win that event.
Great comment about Alcaraz racket set up. It’s quite clear to see that he struggles against big hitters (sinner) as having a. Light racket will create a lot of instability. Your were correct with novaks and Andy rackets being really heavy (they weight the middle of the rackets for stability however the downside of this is it’s harder to hit winners . Alcaraz gets alot of racket head speed on the light racket when he has time I think he should consider adding a small amount of weight when he gets older and stronger, this way he can still keep aspects of his game the same. Your incorrect about nadals set up he also has one of the heaviest rackets on tour. However he weights it all in the heady which is why he get so much spin coupled with his technique. Also honourable mention Medvedev has changed his string which we are seeing the benefits of so small adjustments with alcaraz’s talent will definitely help him I’m not sure he need to improve much technically (other than the serve) which weight would help