Innovative vs One Dimensional
I think about the Players on both sides that I've admired over the years and when I watch video of their games today, I must admit that some surprise me when thinking of the accomplishments they achieved.
Without doubt, I adored Steffi Graf. For those of you that followed her game, she had a backhand slice that was not only penetrating but she kept it low and deep to the baseline. You knew what was coming so just do something about it right? How could it be so hard to defend against this constantly over-used defensive & offensive shot of hers? Heck you look on the board, you see who your next opponent is going to be, you and your coach go out and all you do is drill against the backhanded slice all day long. If you aren't good at getting down low, then you either start or you forfeit because that's what it's going to takes.
Thank about the players that didn't give Steffi a hard time.
Monica Sele, Arxantcha Sanchez, Gabriel Sabatini, Martina Navratilova *, Well that was about it with an occasional win here and there because of personal crap going on in Steffi's life.
Monica was so good at getting down to the ball that I'm surprised didn't have scraped all over her knees when she played and Monica backed it up with match power along with very nice angles.
Sanchez, just ran all day long which gave everybody a headache. She was the backboard on the women's side.
Gabby, could have been much better than she was if she just learned how to conserve energy. And with all the money she poured into coaches nobody ever taught her how to serve or hit with forward momentum.
Martina N. was a great S&V Player and if you're a good S&V player, you're always going to give somebody problems (period) it's tough to pass somebody all day long.
But Steffi Graf as one dimensional as she was, never got rattled. Even looking at Match Point down, you couldn't tell in her face. She had that look like, this next point is mine. You had match point and she scared you.