Explanation of the heading: Noel hits only slices with her one-handed backhand; this feature makes her resemble to the famous Italian player, Roberta Vinci; plus, Noel has beaten Osuigwe in the final of a Grade A (as Vinci has beaten Williams – in a semifinal?): “Vinci” in Italian is an actual word, which means “you win”. Ok, stupid heading as usual.
So, as you probably understood, and as promised, I managed to follow a bit Alexa Noel and I’ve chosen, of course, to focus on the final of the Abierto Juvenil Mexicano, so that I could also check out how Osuigwe is doing. During the first few games the players held their serve without particular troubles: Whitney gained many direct points through her serve (even if she hit also some double faults), whilst her opponent missed few returns with her forehand and hit, with her backhand, many sliced and slow returns, which ended just an inch long (Alexa played this kind of return throughout the match).
Besides the fact she is a small girl, immediately a few peculiar aspects of Noel’s game appeared to me; she serves with her feet close together, something I never saw before and I suppose does not allow a particular swing of the weight from right to left. Nevertheless, she hits first serves which are literally explosive (even if at the early stages of the match she preferred to hit slower first balls); she is also particularly effective with her second serve, which is always deep, and quite fast too. Another feature of her game is, as anticipated, that she hits only sliced backhands. From the beginning, Alexa’s slices were nice and deep and possibly they imbalanced her opponent, who was missing a bit too much, especially with her own backhand. Noel also grabbed a few points through well-executed drop-shots, but it was clear that she was not relying on this solution as much as, for instance, “DioTiSalvi” does.
On 2-2 Osuigwe was up by 40-15 but, following a double fault, a fantastic sliced backhand by her opponent on a low ball and a couple of Alexa’s slices, Whitney was broken for the first time in the match. From now on Alexa started to hit only rockets with her first serve, gaining many direct points (and hitting a few aces); she also rewarded the public with a long the line sliced backhand winner against a short ball hit by Osuigwe which was pure joy to see, and with a couple of nice forehand winners from a central position. From time to time, Alexa missed her forehand long but, I must say, it appeared to be really difficult to play against her backhand because, whatever Osuigwe did beside hitting a winner, the ball went back to her always very deep and she couldn’t take any advantage from her attacks. Though, it must be said that Osuigwe’s tennis today was terrible: quite often the lift in the second serve did not kick in and she double faulted a lot; both her forehand and backhand landed several times 1 metre long. At a point Whitney hit a short ball which Alexa recovered with a high chop that she was forced to follow to the net: Whitney had ages to prepare the passing shot but, again, her backhand ended 50 cm. long. The first set ended 6-2 in favour of Noel.
Both players started the second set serving very well and held their serves up to 3-3 without facing many troubles; it was now that Noel managed to break her opponent again, but this time she was immediately broken back. At this stage, when Osuigwe was down 3-4, there was a bit of a swift in the match, since the no. 1 in the world realised that, to obtain some valuable free points, it could have been wise to play high balls against her opponent sliced backhand: playing as such she indeed managed to break her opponent, but she was still too faulty: this was evident when, following an inoffensive backhand by Noel, Whitney missed an easy winner hitting her forehand wide, or when she missed a very easy volley against a sliced passing shot which had really slim chances of success. Also relying on Osuigwe’s mistakes, Noel managed to find the decisive break and to take a 5-4 lead; she played the last game waiting for other unforced errors, which punctually materialised: she won the second set by 6-4, gaining thus the most prestigious trophy of her career.
Some comments on Alexa’s game: she serves beautifully (both first and second serve) and heavily relies on this weapon when in troubles. She can hit some winners with her forehand, which is not the most explosive, anyway. Her sliced backhand is beautiful. She can play a lot of variations with it, hitting high and long balls without pace, or shorter and sharper trajectories which do not basically allow the ball to bounce. She plays different from other girls, also hitting chops with her forehand, from time to time. However, I find some downsides in her game: hitting only a sliced backhand, it is foreseeable that she finds troubles against balls higher than her shoulder, or if she is forced to play a passing shot with it: yes, Roberta Vinci? The above was made clear during the last games of the match I saw, when Osuigwe slowed down and started to exasperate trajectories, even if often enough Whitney couldn’t profit from the advantageous situations she built up, and missed the winner. Possibly Osuigwe was taken by surprise by her opponent’s unusual game and indeed she didn’t play her best tennis; thus, this time things worked out well for Alexa, who also exploited her opponent’s tactical weaknesses; though, this surprise element or opponent’s unawareness won’t last forever.
Further, it is fine to play with Roberta Vinci’s slice (is it, still?), but to play as such one has to have the full game of the Italian, including her supreme ability at the net: the young American, instead, showed up at the net very seldom even if, when she did, she hit good volleys (apart from the first one). But, given that she misses quite a lot and has not shown supreme defensive skills, if she wants to be successful by playing as she is doing, she should attack much more, in my view: she actually should attack even when she shouldn’t; her base-line shots do not seem effective enough to rely only on them.
Another issue: Alexa sometimes tends to play metres behind the baseline: this could have been an intelligent tactical choice against an opponent who was missing one shot over three, but for sure she can’t afford to play always as such: she is not Nadal. I need to see her again to understand if her position was a sound tactical choice or a weakness.
Having pointed out all the above, Alexa is fun to watch: I won’t insert her in the “Beloved Ones” category, but I would be happy indeed to see further matches of this girl.
About Osuigwe: what to say? She missed basically everything throughout the match and showed very few winners compared to what she did in the French Open’s final. Once more, she showed to be tactically immature, which is no surprise, as she is only 15. It was not, thus, a surprise that she ended up losing a match which, in my view, she could and should have won.
A final consideration: as mentioned in my last article, Alexa reached the final in a Grade 1 held in Mexico just after the Abierto Juvenil: she has beaten Himari Sato by 6-4 6-2 and won also that tournament.
