In the heading I wanted to refer to two distinct episodes: let’s start with my great mistake. In my last post, I wrote about junior girls who were competing in the Fed Cup; besides the usual Kostyuk, I mentioned Juvan vs. Boskovic, Swiatek, who played in doubles, etc. etc. Pity that I didn’t realise that (at least) one more junior was involved in the Fed Cup, i.e. Olga Danilovic, who, by chance, in a promotional playoff between Serbia and Latvia, ended up by beating no. 15 in the world Anastasija Sevastova, with the quite shocking score of 6-2 6-4. I found only highlights on the web, so I can’t comment on the match; though, I can tell you that when I learned about this result, I felt quite stupid indeed.
Ok, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, ideo precor beatum Ambrosium confessorem.
Done. Let’s now focus on the main topic of this post, i.e. the great day I enjoyed, which was last Saturday. Actually the evening before was pretty bad, since I had to face the following issue: Robi Vinci was playing the qualis in Budapest and the following match was possibly the generational clash that can most intrigue me: i.e. Kaja Juvan (a.k.a. the Beloved One) vs. Patty Schnyder (a.k.a. the Immortal One). I love both players and, really interesting aspect for me, Kaja’s game (together with Chwalinska’s and maybe Mandlik’s) is the closest in Juniors you can get to Patty’s way of playing. More, there will not be many further opportunities for me to see either Vinci (who will retire next May) or Schnyder. The big issue I had to solve was this: the WTA TV showed no match of the qualis of the Hungarian Open; what to do? As I am intelligent, I found an immediate solution: get up early and catch a plane to Budapest (from Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch there are plenty, luckily).
The match really paid me off, as it was the best one I have seen during the last two years, at least at juniors’ level (indeed Patty Schnyder feels to be still a teen).
Basically, it ended with a draw between the two; the Immortal One has eventually beaten her 22 years younger rival by 7-6(9) 4-6 6-3: as one can easily imagine, though, Juvan had opportunities to win, having had some set points in the first set. The match was a great mix of the tennis I like: little muscle shots, great variety, superb volleys from both sides – even a serve and volley by Kaja (good girl!!) – and lots of drop shots (which the Beloved One played much better than her opponent, I must say: indeed she owns that shot, as stated countless times). Let’s say that during the match I felt Schnyder to be a bit more offensive and to be in charge of the majority of the rallies; though, Patty had a great problem to solve: her tennis is grounded on variations and touch but it always has been and, compared to today’s average players, is now even more, very light. And, to some extent, the toughest junior one can play against and beat by playing a tennis as the one Patty owns, is actually Juvan: she is not the kind of player who panics when handling a low and short ball, a higher top, a slice (not even the “90° left” forehand’s chops which sometimes Patty hits) nor a change of rhythm. A further problem that Patty had to face is Juvan’s huge defensive skills: Patty showed not to own enough power to be able to break Juvan’s defence down. On more than one occasion the Swiss kept moving around her younger opponent and tried wanna-be winners; though the ball came always back to her, even by a lob, when Juvan was in greater troubles. After 7-8 shots, Schnyder eventually missed. How did she manage to win then? In my view, by playing her usual game (it’s not that every shot of the former 7th in the world magically became ineffective against the 490th player), by relying on her famous external angle when serving from the left and thanks to a lot more of experience.
Switching now side and focusing on experience from Kaja’s side of the court: my impression was that, at a point way in the match, Kaja had only to run and keep the ball in the court to secure the win to herself since, as said, Schnyder could only seldom find a definitive shot and eventually ended up overplaying. Instead, Kaja in some clue moments went for a bit of unnecessary winners, which she missed. I think that this choice costed her the match and, evaluating what was going on, it was not a correct tactic to play too offensively certain points, at least yesterday. Having said that (and assuming it’s a correct interpretation), the girl is 17: the above is clearly not a problem in her game.
Focusing now on Kaja’s upsides: even more, she demonstrated not only to be one of the few juniors who can handle tricky balls and manufacture shots but also to own a unique ability in volleying. In the third set, Kaja played 2 service games by serving, charging on the second shot and volleying. On her serve she approached as such something like 5-6 points in a row (or nearly in a row); it was a tremendous series and also the few people besides me (who may have had tennis tastes different to mine) were quite surprised, if not amazed. In my view, this is the best part of Kaja’s game: volley and drop shot. Her serve was not bad: she only won 51% of points on her first serve; anyhow she can hit at 165 and I’m quite confident that, ageing up, she will gain the 10 km more she needs to make her serve it a bit more a decisive shot. Basically the same applied to the second serve Kaja showed yesterday, with which she had a higher conversion ratio than with her first serve. Though, as said, Patty is a light player and she may have conceded more in returning than other players may do.
Downsides: Kaja does not seem to own yet the winner hit from the baseline, the shot which leaves her opponent at three metres from the ball as, for instance, her peers Kostyuk and Swiatek do; in this respect, I don’t know how much margin she has, since I guess this is something that you own or you don’t own and which cannot be learned, if not to a certain extent. The only question I pose myself is why, if the above are the features of Kaja’s game, she does not play even more vertical, attacking more the net (which she does much more than most of her peers, anyway); why not to make the serve-charge-volley she sometimes displayed a constant of her game. Her coach, who is building a magnificent player, may most probably answer me convincingly, or prove me wrong. Also, Kaja misses a bit too much, especially with her backhand, hitting it sometimes 50 cm long, sometimes in the net, for no apparent reason. Though the above happens quite randomly and I do not see any kind of issue which cannot be remedied ageing up.
One last curiosity: I am fairly sure that, when shaking hands at the end of the match, Schnyder spoke a bit more than what Juvan was expecting. From the motion of Schnyder’s head and the big smile she turned to Kaja, I am reasonably sure she was sincerely praising her younger opponent for the beautiful match she played: I guess (or I want to believe) she didn’t expect that kind of tennis from a 17-year-old girl.
Kaja Juvan, as Patty Schnyder and as Robi Vinci (and some others, such as Schiavone, Radwanska, “Diotisalvi” Chwalinka) are the kind of players who ensure that girl’s tennis does not become only a muscular and utterly boring sport as men’s has since Santoro’s retirement (ok, let’s not consider Federer and Nadal, before being shot by someone); these talents must be preserved and encouraged when young and always honoured, in victory and loss, when close to retirement.
