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| Subject: Sanam |
| Posted by: KtownHoo on Sat Nov 7 2009 9:09:10 AM |
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Message:
Last night was the first time I have seen Sanam play more than a few minutes on a
webcast. I was very impressed. I saw two big similarities to SD: great scrambler and seemingly tireless (Tulsa is long ago), and seems to have a terrific temperament. Like SD, he seems to be able to keep on keeping on and let loose of mistakes. I defer to the judgment of others who know more and have seen the two more than I have, but I would say Sanam is a great shotmaker, better than SD. I suspect the papers in India will want him out of school and trying to get in the Aussie Open. I would not get carried away for these reasons: 1. Playing well on your home court in front of a friendly crowd is a lot different from being on the road for weeks at a time and trying to keep up for match after match against excellent players. I am sure SD will make this clear to him if he doesn't know it already. 2. IMHO his second serve is a serious handicap in this level of competition. I think he has to work on getting comfortable hitting a more demanding second serve. 3. IMHO he needs work on his return of serve. He hit some fabulous shots on Kim's second serve--especially the down the line returns on wide serves, but he was diving after a lot of serves, some with great results, many not. 4. I thought his decision-making was not consistently good. He his some great drop shots, but gave up points on some also. He intentionally blocked some serves back which he could have stroked just to put them in play. Perhaps this was intended to change the pace of play, but I don't see it working at this level. Even if I am right about my critique, I was thrilled with the level of his play. He played a top 100 player dead even, and I thought Kim was playing very well, and certainly was poised throughout the match. As I looked forward to the spring season, my analysis is that the Hoos have tremendous depth (wish there were an event which required 10 players), but I didn't think we had a player who could win consistently at No. 1 against the top 10 teams. After yesterday, it looks to me that we have 2 players who can do that. I see us as at least a top 4 team. |
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Sanam -- KtownHoo Sat Nov 7 2009 9:09:10 AM |
Yeah, I think you captured him well..... -- WahooFla Sat Nov 7 2009 9:37:15 AM |
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