During the first week at the US Open tennis championships we’ve seen two quite remarkable “tweeners” or between-the-legs shots. Five-time US Open champion pulled off one his best tweeners of his career Monday night in a win over Brian Dabul.

Federer hit an even more memorable last in his semifinal win over Novak Djokovic.

Said Federer of the two, “Obviously the importance of last year’s was probably a little bit more important just because I think it was Love‑30 to go Love‑40, two points away from the match, and it was a semifinal. So obviously that has a little bit of an impact, too. But maybe in terms of difficulty maybe this one was harder, because I had the feeling I had to run a longer distance and I was further back somehow, I felt. I had to really give the last big push at the end. I didn’t have time to set it up. So I felt like this one was incredible again. I turned around and couldn’t believe the shot landed in the corner.”

Here’s Federer’s tweener from his 2009 US Open win over Djokovic:

And from his win Monday over Dabul:

They both are pretty sick, but the Djokovic is the better shot.

Yesterday, French Open winner Francesca Schiavone made her own tweener in her win over Alona Bondarenko.

“Is instinct, I think,” Schiavone said. “When you calculate that it’s good time to do it and good ball to do it, you do it. So is nothing program. Is just instinct. Is art. Is something that is coming from inside, and you have just to take in a good timing, otherwise the ball fly.

“The process is just to calculate how the ball is coming. If is coming too fast, you can’t do it. If is coming a little bit slower, you have the time to play a normal shot. But the instinct decide to play that shot. And after, of course you feel fantastic.”

Filed under: US Open
Tags: Francesca Schiavone, Roger Federer