Blasting forehands as only he can blast forehands, del Potro eliminated a shaky Federer in four sets in the quarterfinals on Wednesday night.
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"He's playing forehands from all over the court, and you don't really know where you should stand exactly, because he's just so fast and just turning around, hitting those forehands," Tsitsipas said.
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A familiar feature of men's tennis is the battle over forehands.
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Using my forehands more and (being) very aggressive at certain moment.
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Her serve and crushing forehands can still strike fear into opponents.
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Both, for different reasons, are dealing with more than forehands and backhands.
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But she kept missing all her forehands, which was surprising to me.
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So I was hitting forehands, and he was able to keep hitting winners.
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Instead booming forehands flew high and wide and she committed 88 unforced errors.
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Cornet held for 3-163 then broke her opponent with some sidespun forehands.
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He torqued forehands with such force that the resulting yellow arc appeared harshly parabolic.
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This was more than a battle of topspin forehands and eye-catching defensive skills.
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The fans saw running forehands whipped back across court and pounded down the line.
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It is mostly Nadal uppercuts, up the gut of the court, and mostly forehands.
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He studied Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, and learned to boom forehands across the court.
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Goffin relied on some masterful forehands to win the second set and level the match.
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Her serves and forehands can misfire by yards, and her shot selection is sometimes questionable.
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She started hitting only her two-handed backhands, then eased into hitting forehands and serves.
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There were heavily spinning forehands followed by balls that cut flat against the hot air.
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When I'm playing my best I'll be hitting 2:1 or 3:1 forehands throughout points.
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From that point on Nadal assumed control, battering huge spinning forehands that reared up off the clay.
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"To be honest, I feel my forehands and serves are working well at the moment," he said.
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Doubles is as much about trust and forgiveness as it is forehands and volleys, reflexes and rhythms.
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I didn't want to go down just making shots, seeing forehands rain down on me from Rafa.
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The Bulgarian then sent one of his forehands long to allow his opponent to serve out the match.
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He rifled two forehands down the line to clinch the tiebreaker, as an invigorated crowd chanted his name.
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Williams unleashed some savage forehands that rocked the Italian then secured her first break with a crosscourt winner.
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"For sure, you know, we took risk," Monfils said, talking about health risks, not forehands down the line.
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Now some gifted child hitting forehands and backhands, in Majorca or somewhere else, knows where to start dreaming.
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"Then I saw the crowd waiting for more tennis, waiting for my good forehands, good serves," he said.
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Once Nadal plants himself two meters behind the baseline and spins his web of forehands, there is no escape.
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Hitting forehands up and down the court is a wonderful way to enjoy the sport at a recreational level.
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A player flips the racket between hands to hit forehands from either side, eliminating the need for a backhand.
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Against Shapovalov, Raonic tracked down several fearsome forehands, using chips and dipping passing shots to frustrate his young opponent.
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By the Miami final Mr Nadal had abandoned the tactic, allowing the Swiss to use 20163% more forehands than backhands.
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Having lost nine consecutive games, Del Potro finally held serve to trail 3-1 and started hitting big forehands again.
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At other times she was fading it short and then when Keys was out of position, whipping up unreturnable forehands.
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Then I can see how I'm getting around and if I'm having a good enough ratio [of forehands to backhands].
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The Russian played predominantly at the baseline, pounding groundstrokes and stinging forehands that zipped by Tsitsipas and painted the lines.
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" The Times said: "Nadal's forehands found the court's white lines as if they were magnets, as he repeatedly hit winners.
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Federer was sloppy from the start on center court, sending routine forehands wide and providing Ferrer with early break opportunities.
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The Russian eventually forced a tiebreak but made a mess of a couple of forehands to hand Babos a deserved lead.
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On Friday, they had to deal not only with each other's topspin forehands and inner strength but also with the wind.
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She recovered and, with a series of bullet forehands and serves, finished off the set 22004-24 in a half-hour.
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They also both pound forehands with reckless abandon, a quality that was prominently on display during a bone-crunching first set.
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Nick Kyrgios of Australia combines athleticism and a distinctive technique to deliver one of the most explosive forehands in the current game.
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She sent down aces but missed simple forehands and was troubled by the wind as well as her own lack of composure.
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He said he had experienced no further trouble, and mention of a stroke today mostly makes him think of forehands and backhands.
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The first surprise came when Tiafoe, who turns 21 on Sunday, finished off fifth-seeded Kevin Anderson behind powerful forehands and serves.
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Even when French Open champion Barty took the initiative with her big forehands and backhand slices Kenin said she still had confidence.
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The second set went with serve until Pospisil found two stunning forehands when Millman served at 4-5 to claim the win.
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But he then repeatedly summoned surprising reserves of energy to come up with thunderous forehands, clutch serves or effective shots on the run.
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A powerful 6-footer, Bertens has a cannon of a serve, which she follows up with one of the heaviest forehands on tour.
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It promises to be a hard-hitting match, with big serves and booming forehands, when Isner meets del Potro in the fourth round.
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The gamble nearly paid off, as Edmund dominated Goffin with powerful serving and devastating forehands to take a two-sets-to-none lead.
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Coric pounded Murray's backhand — often turning around his own backhand to deliver forehands instead — and also left Murray stranded with several drop shots.
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Addie, a lefty who mastered the monkey bars at two, capered about like a leprechaun, indifferent to the fate of her swooping forehands.
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"Serving for the third set I got a little bit tight, stopped moving my feet on a couple shots, sailed some forehands," he said.
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Some of that change is also due to Mr Federer's aggressiveness in hitting "inside-out" crosscourt forehands from the backhand side of the court.
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There were aces, cleanly struck backhands, wickedly angled forehands, right-guess returns and full-swinging passing shots on the line off the full stretch.
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Del Potro, still crushing forehands and serves, though no longer crushing backhands, took out Stéphane Robert of France, 6-1, 7-5, 183-0.
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Williams lost the third and fourth match points in near-identical fashion, netting forehands after being pushed into the corner by the desperate Pliskova.
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The 'Dominator' was in full control, dictating the play with deep forehands, and he sealed the set with a cracking backhand winner down the line.
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Novak Djokovic, a three-time Wimbledon champion, was playing Edmund, who ripped forehands down the lines and in the corners to take the first set.
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Djokovic flubbed some forehands and returns he normally makes in his third-round match at the BNP Paribas Open and cracked a racket in frustration.
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"Right," Querrey conceded on Thursday as two of his young teammates, Frances Tiafoe and Denis Shapovalov, traded bon mots and forehands behind him in practice.
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Khachanov, an imposing Russian with one of the heaviest forehands in the game, beat Zverev and Djokovic to win the Paris Masters event this month.
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On set point Djokovic pounded three consecutive forehands deep in into Chung's backhand, each one returned at full stretch, before Djokovic cracked and netted a forehand.
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She hit drop-shot winners under maximum pressure and came up with squat-shot forehands to reboot rallies after Williams blasted returns at her quick feet.
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Federer was sloppy from the outset on center court, sending routine forehands wide and providing the underdog Ferrer with early break opportunities in the Montreal encounter.
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The 20-year-old hopped into his backhands, such was his determination to throw himself forward, and launched into the air to hit his punishing forehands.
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The fourth-seeded Nadal is aiming for a 10th title in Monte Carlo and looked to be coasting until Edmund found his range with huge forehands.
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"This is tennis heaven," said Katrina Adams, the U.S.T.A.'s president and a former tour professional, who later changed into tennis gear and drove some forehands.
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It will be the first Grand Slam final for Osaka who has burst onto the scene with one of the most powerful forehands in women's tennis.
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After Cibulkova breezed through the first set, peppering the court with her powerful forehands, there were six consecutive breaks of serve at the start of the second.
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What matters most, of course, is that everyone emerges safe and sound from 15 days of watching forehands, backhands and long, sweeping slides in the terre battue.
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Sharapova got off to a shaky start as Babos, who mixed her game perfectly with serves to the body and sliced forehands, opened a 2-0 lead.
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And I prefer to play with these almighty lobs, fiery forehands, unreal slices and (the name's a giveaway) "ultra" overarm smashes active—because otherwise, it's just tennis.
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Nadal, the No. 4 seed, expressed growing confidence in his game, even if his wrist — the one responsible for his ferocious topspin forehands — is not fully healed.
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Barty, despite being 5-foot-5 and shorter than most of her rivals, generates the leg drive and racket-head speed to hit big serves and forehands.
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Her movement clearly hampered, she had trouble doing anything more than coaxing her serve across the net, allowing Kiick to wallop inside-out forehands down the line.
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In an hourlong lesson, forehands and backhands typically dominate the first 50 minutes, and there may be a few token serves or returns thrown in at the end.
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LONDON (Reuters) - Milos Raonic prefers playing his tennis like a Canadian lumberjack, axing down mighty serves and swinging away forehands to leave opponents toppling under his brute force.
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Bourgue won eight games in a row, including 16 successive points, by torturing his more celebrated rival with a mix of devilish dropshots, flying forehands and venomous volleys.
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In the final set, Wawrinka seemed to have the better endurance and struck his forehands with more force, raising the level of his game to match the circumstances.
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Tsitsipas showcased a well-rounded game that featured solid serves, relentless forehands and plenty of trips to the net but Rublev took his game to a higher level.
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But Kyrgios' 24 aces and punishing forehands proved too much for Hoang to handle and he went quietly into the warm New York night on the Grandstand court.
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Osaka won a long exchange of forehands in the third game to level it, and then converted the first break point of the match when Williams double-faulted.
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But instead of melting down, Wawrinka called for ice towels on the changeovers and muscled one-handed backhands and running forehands for winners when he needed them most.
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He cracked forehands from a sturdy crouch, his swing full and flowing, the ball cannoning down the sidewall to expire in the back corner, repetitious as a gif.
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The match always looked like being decided in the tiebreak and Williams took an early mini-break before dictating play with deep forehands to take a 6-1 lead.
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Giorgi had her only break point in the next game, but squandered it after another wide backhand error, and Pegula responded with fiery forehands to go up 2-0.
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He won 50 of his 51 first-serve points during his first two rounds at Queen's — either with unreturnable deliveries or, when the ball did come back, punishing forehands.
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Tennis press conferences can often be boring affairs where exhausted tennis players tiredly talk about forehands they could have hit better or break points they should have capitalized on.
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Clobbering huge serves and forehands, the veteran American was always in control as she set up a showdown with Romanian former world number one Simona Halep in Saturday's final.
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She fired down a huge serve on match point and when Strycova clawed it back she stroked away the simplest of forehands to seal her place in the final.
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He also seemed in need of oomph as he chased down Tomic's flat forehands and crisply sliced backhands, grunting and huffing before he even began the chase in many instances.
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Additionally, I broke with conventional wisdom about lefty-righty pairings: Traditionally, a lefty returns on the deuce side so both players have their forehands in the middle at the net.
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Two tight forehands thumped into the net to give Thiem a third match point and this time the Austrian hammered home a forehand to spark celebrations in his coaching box.
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But early on, Schwartzman's laser forehands cut through the misty air and found the lines on a regular basis, while Nadal's serves were noticeably off-kilter, at times nearly feeble.
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The top seed pulled herself back into the contest with her trademark powerful forehands and crisp volleys before Tomova double faulted in the 12th game to concede the opening set.
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Mannarino raced to a 3-1 lead in the second set, as Thompson struggled to control his forehands, and later held to love at 5-3 to clinch the title.
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It was vintage Nadal on a warm New York evening, as the energetic Spaniard wore down his 47th-ranked opponent with a breathless work rate and a bombardment of stinging forehands.
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Wawrinka was looking to capitalize on a break point and was facing one of the most fearsome forehands in tennis on the right arm of the Argentine Juan Martín del Potro.
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Berrettini was over-trying, over-wrought and overwhelmed and he blazed an easy smash wide in the third game of the second set, then misfired two forehands to gift another break.
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A ruthless Williams, however, bombarded Svitolina with punishing forehands and six aces to register her 101st U.S. Open win, which tied her with Chris Evert for the most at Flushing Meadows.
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His two-handed backhand is a fuller, more consistently penetrating stroke, which means that he no longer needs or wants to run around it as often to rip his trademark forehands.
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It makes for an odd vibe, and opening day on Monday was, first and foremost, about evaluating the size and passion of the crowds, not about scrutinizing the forehands and backhands.
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We did the forehands first: a minimum of 10 with both of us at the baseline, then another series with him feeding me balls from a position closer to the net.
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SW is roughly 28 weeks with child (that's the 3rd trimester btw) -- but despite her growing baby bump, the tennis superstar busted out her racket and smashed some baseline forehands this morning.
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Hitting searing forehands and serves of up to 224 kph (139 mph), Thiem was in combative form on Roland Garros's No. 1 court, dubbed the bullring, eventually running away with the win.
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A lesser competitor might have lost his edge long ago, but Nadal is still sliding after drop shots and throwing his body into topspin forehands with the gusto of a younger player.
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But Barty, 333, came into Thursday's match with a 4-1 record against her and had the American pinned on the back foot with a combination of big forehands and backhand slices.
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Andreescu and Barty have the skills to thrive on clay — their strong topspin forehands, quick feet and ability to hit sliced backhands, well-disguised drop shots and heavy first and second serves.
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You stand there in the zone and you're hitting the same shots over and over, and over and over, so there is no better form of meditation that hitting serves, forehands, or backhands.
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The sweet-spot in Nadal's racket appeared to be the size of a beachball on Monday as the Spaniard fired off formidable forehands, breathtaking backhands and thunderbolt aces to burst Sousa's Wimbledon bubble.
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Federer, 37, and Nadal, 113, have continued to push each other, contending for longer than even they could have imagined when they last traded topspin forehands and compliments at the All England Club.
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It makes me feel comfortable, and it's better perhaps to play someone who keeps the points short and goes to net rather than Murray, who makes you hit thousands of forehands and backhands.
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But after Keys hit one of her best forehands to pull even in the tiebreaker at 5-5, Williams eked out the next two points, and she quickly pulled ahead in the second set.
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But that fine formula ran into reality on Sunday as Tsitsipas slipped too often chasing Djokovic's shots and missed put-away forehands and groundstrokes in extension of the kind he had made against Nadal.
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Although he was not perfect on Friday — and even displayed some irritation with himself — he did unleash some of his usual balletic backhands that sizzled down the line, and some acutely angled forehands, too.
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Both strategies worked in the early stages until Osaka pushed the limits a little too far in the seventh game and was broken after she sent a string of forehands either long or wide.
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Here comes a backhand, then another and another, but they are followed by a long series of bolo punch forehands — five, then 12 — which he sends skidding through the air like Max Scherzer fastballs.
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Nadal was not at his swashbuckling best, but Federer gave him little chance to build the points or his confidence, providing no safe haven as he whipped backhands as well as his trademark forehands.
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Nadal really hit his stride in the final set once he had mastered his timing, smashing a series of blistering forehands that left Millman as much a spectator as those crammed into Number One Court.
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Serving at 20143-22014, 220-21, Halep was still on the precipice of a straight-sets defeat, but she played two bold points, taking chances and converting with forehands to avert the danger, and held.
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The players pushed one another back and forth across the baseline, trading forehands and backhands until finally, on the 23rd stroke, Williams forced Stephens wide to her backhand side and then sprinted to the net.
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Dominic Thiem, 23 and on the rise, was throwing himself into next-gear forehands on Suzanne Lenglen Court — sprinting and sliding for drop shots and exuding the relentless positive energy that wins Grand Slam titles.
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After thundering forehands past Federer with incredible regularity, the 28-year-old is growing in confidence even if he believes that beating Nadal will take an even better performance than he produced against the Swiss.
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The Canadian saved a set point with a barrage of bludgeoning forehands that cracked Djokovic's defences but then self-destructed, shanking a forehand return off a powder puff second serve before offering up a double fault.
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His core is what allows him to whip his body and spin the ball, rifling forehands that arc so sharply they resemble a diving paper airplane or slicing backhands so deeply they look to have brakes.
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Now, after not quite two full days of rest, the chances of another epic are good as he and the third-seeded del Potro prepare to lock forehands in their latest big-stakes duel on Friday.
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While she wasn't on the top of her game, Williams treated fans to flashes of greatness, blitzing Andreescu and an array of aces, forehands, and power tennis that helped Williams win her 219 earlier Grand Slams.
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PARIS (Reuters) - Backhands and forehands can be manufactured on the practice courts but no amount of coaching can arm a player with the natural instinct Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova has used to reach the French Open final.
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When he responded with two majestic forehands, one apparently defying physics as it curled around the net post, they were in raptures in the stands and former great Rod Laver smiled in admiration from the Royal Box.
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Nadal carried his momentum into the second set, winning 10 of 11 points in a blur of vicious swerving forehands and clubbed backhands that brought him an early break and a 2-1 lead in the decider.
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After a trade of service breaks in the opening set, Schwartzman had to dig deep at 6-5 40-0 down but some big serves and forehands got him out of trouble and he forced a tiebreak.
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The 6ft 6in tall ninth seed, a quarter-finalist last year, thundered down a series of 130 mph-plus serves and stinging forehands to see off the challenge from Baker, ranked a distant 589th in the world.
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It was filled with familiar flourishes: elastic passing shots, deep groundstrokes and expertly disguised forehands that left Young leaning the wrong way and occasionally shaking his head at the geometry lessons he was being forced to take.
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Stosur, who has not progressed beyond the second round in nine Brisbane appearances, dazzled in the decisive tiebreaks with a combination of solid first serves and devastating forehands to clinch her first win over Kerber since 2015.
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Thirty-two of the courts will be so-called smart courts, hooked up with analytical instrumentation that breaks down players' mechanics, from the angles they take getting to the ball to the spin rate on their forehands.
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Brady, who beat world number one Ashleigh Barty in Brisbane earlier this month, proved to be a tricky opponent whose punishing forehands saw Halep's serve broken in the very first game of the match at Margaret Court Arena.
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Naomi Osaka of Japan pummeled the sixth-seeded Kerber with a barrage of powerful forehands, dominating the defending champion, 6-3, 6-1, in a match that lasted only 1 hour and 1 minutes at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
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In Miami, as in the Australian Open final, two thirds of his inside-out forehands resulted in a point-ending winner or error, compared to a tour average of 30% and a career average for the Swiss of 36%.
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Williams and Garcia took the court in a battle between two players possessing huge forehands and a tendency to attack their opponent's second serve, the contest starting out as slow burner that lacked fluency after they traded early breaks.
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Bashing forehands as if felling trees with an axe, the 2014 U.S. Open champion struck a mind-boggling 83 winners to set up a clash with 49th-ranked Briton Kyle Edmund, one of the more unlikely semi-finals imaginable.
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Fighting off a match point at 5-2, the teenager went on the attack by unleashing a barrage of drop shots and laser forehands to sweep five successive games from her crumbling opponent to force the second set into a tiebreak.
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The Frenchman saved two match points in the 10th game with booming forehands to take the set into another tie-break but again lost momentum with erratic play and the match ended when he blasted a forehand service return wide.
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Nadal failed to capitalise, squandering a match point before Cilic unleashed two massive forehands to level again at 5-5 as the set headed towards a tiebreak where Nadal's ability to hold his nerve in clutch situations proved the difference.
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This time, Nadal prevailed, 222-22018 (222), 22-323 (232), but only after Khachanov stretched him repeatedly with huge serves and whipping forehands and only after Nadal needed on-court treatment and tape for pain in his long-troublesome right knee.
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Kyrgios was laser focused for the first half of the match as he deployed a lethal mix of monster serves, stinging forehands and smart net play but nearly unraveled when he got agitated over a fan who interrupted his ball toss.
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He thrashed two blazing forehands to earn three match points in the final tiebreak, then sealed it with a cross-court volley to book his third Grand Slam final after losing the last two French Open deciders to Rafa Nadal.
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Henman, who reached a career-high ranking of No. 4 and made it to four Wimbledon semifinals, was a common victim, the groans coming with double faults, forehands into the net or whenever he let go a ball that landed in.
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But on a murky Court Suzanne Lenglen where the weather matched his own darkening mood, the Italian lost the second set without taking a game, punctuating wild forehands with a clutch of double faults before getting treatment on his left knee.
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The world number 100, who beat defending champion Christina McHale in the semi-finals, took a 5-2 lead off a Kato double fault before wrapping up the opening set when one of her powerful forehands forced an error out of her opponent.
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Hsieh's serve is hardly a weapon — her second serves often crawling over the net — but she battled back from 15-40 to deuce in the final game, then closed it out as a weary-looking Halep dumped consecutive forehands into the net.
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With the partisan crowd also turning more silent, he won his next service game at love, hitting three missile forehands that landed as if guided toward the same corner spot, well out of reach of Nadal as he scrambled across the baseline.
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She fought off the first of the two set points at 4-5, 15-40 by winning a 20-stroke baseline rally, an exchange in which one of her forehands struck the net cord before landing deep in Williams's half of the court.
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PARIS (Reuters) - At six months pregnant, Serena Williams is refusing to let her baby bump get in the way of forehands or backhands -– she is still working out and playing tennis to retain her touch, her long-time coach told Reuters on Saturday.
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Thiem, mixing heavy top-spin and flat groundstrokes and angling balls across the sidelines, saved a break point at 1-2 and two more at 2-3 and there were signs that Nadal was struggling with his timing as he framed several forehands.
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Nadal broke Berrettini on his 10th opportunity to take a 4-3 lead in the second set and cruised to the finish, absorbing Berrettini's powerful forehands and redirecting them to his weaker backhand side to see off the first time slam semi-finalist.
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The fifth seed, who failed to win a grand slam title last year for the first time in a decade, lost the last six games as world number 63 Verdasco unleashed a series of explosive forehands to take his place in the second round.
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The Latvian 12th seed, who broke into the limelight in June when she blasted her way to the Roland Garros title, got off to a fast start but the unseeded Kasaktina mixed her game with sliced backhands and chopped forehands to slow her opponent down.
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Thiem was too fresh and too good for No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev on Tuesday, ripping forehands and big serves, while Zverev grabbed at an injured left leg, winning the other quarterfinal in the bottom half of the draw, 6-4, 6-2, 103-1.
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World number 43 Rublev, who two weeks ago earned the biggest win of his career when he beat Roger Federer in the third round at Cincinnati, attacked Tsitsipas with a barrage of all-in forehands and broke his opponent five times in the match.
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Those numbers are counter-balanced by her unforced errors — 54 on Saturday and 271 in total — but they were not enough to stop the energy-charged Ostapenko from bulldozing her way to the title, firing faster forehands on average than men's world number one Andy Murray.
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The ball kids, who are formed into teams of six and have been training for the tournament since February, are responsible for chasing down netted forehands, rolling balls quickly to the server's side of the court and running towels to the players, among other miscellaneous tasks.
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To ease your heartbreak of the fifth major being pushed back, may I introduce you to this blog that will inform you on how to set up a pickleball court at home so you can get all your forehands, backhands, and slices out of your system?
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The ballkids, who are formed into teams of six and have been training for the tournament since February, are responsible for chasing down netted forehands, rolling balls quickly to the server's side of the court and repeatedly running towels to the players, among other miscellaneous tasks.
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Nadal and Mayer won't be the only ones on court Saturday: The ballkids, who tried out for the job in June, are responsible for chasing down netted forehands, rolling balls quickly to the server's side of the court and repeatedly running towels to the players, among other miscellaneous tasks.
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The Serbian has been hitting all of his strokes — backhands, forehands, volleys — as solidly as we've come to expect over the extraordinary arc of his 16 Grand Slam wins, the last of which came in an epic, Wimbledon final in July against Roger Federer that lasted nearly five hours.
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Winning 82% of his first serve points and delivering high and heavy forehands on the windy afternoon that pushed back the at times confused looking Medvedev, the Spaniard broke the Russian three times in the second set before wrapping up the victory, a record 35th at the Masters 1000 level.
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Federer offered a reminder of this when he struggled in his Round of 16 match against Kei Nishikori, falling behind two sets to one before pulling a familiar routine: folding his wide forehands back into the corners, pushing his opponent from side to side, shouting "Come on!" after winners as a signal to all watching that he was supplementing his celestial game with a dose of adrenaline.
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In a sport where the best male players still typically hover around 21000 feet (top-ranked Novak Djokovic is listed at 26-22), not only do Isner and Opelka seem like human skyscrapers, they come to the court for each match with the simplest game plan possible: Crush serves, slam forehands and hide their considerable deficiencies in movement by keeping every point whiplash short.
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