Monday, October 03, 2011

Borg Vilas Shot Location Chart

I watched the video of Borg and Vilas that I had mentioned before (see this post) and charted approximately where each shot landed.  The result is the photo below.  The "R" was Vilas' return of serve.  The circled "83" was where Borg's approach shot landed.  Vilas missed that shot long to end the point.  Including the serve and return (which I didn't number), the rally was 86 hits, including the missed shot at the end. 

As the shot chart shows, you can't have that long a point if you're hitting many balls close to the lines.
I was always taught, and still teach myself, that you want to keep the ball deep.  Seems like both guys wore out the service line area to me.  That isn't considered good depth.  But on this point, on this surface, with these balls, two members of the tennis hall of fame thought this depth was good enough.

I think this targeting is probably good enough for those of us not destined for the hall of fame.

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