It’s the Grass Court Season and Nicolas Mahut is At It Again

Mahut’s occasional serve-and-volleying and intermittent groundstroking and charging look great on grass, and always have.

This in spite of the fact that the grass is considered to be slower than the US hard courts, plus the Luxilon-ization of the strings, the “heavying” of the balls and the Kalashnikov firepower inherent in today’s graphite/kryptonite racquets.

I think Mahut proves that volleying can still work, because it is the best way to put pressure on one’s opponents, and rob them of time.

Mahut does have great hands, terrific feel and beautiful volleying technique, all of which help him tremendously, but I think Federer, Stepanek, Chardy and even Nadal could emulate Mahut more and become far more effective on grass or hard courts, and stand better chances against the dominating 2-handed backhander baseliners.

June 11th, 2015 at 6:48 pm

For a brief moment, I thought it was a strange picture of Rafa.

June 11th, 2015 at 9:25 pm

it’s because grass with modern equipment is a surface that often rewards one dimensional tennis players with big serves. the difficulty in breaking levels out the field. if there is one surface that needs 5 sets, it’s grass.

June 11th, 2015 at 11:33 pm

“it’s because grass with modern equipment is a surface that often rewards one dimensional tennis players with big serves.”

ROFL.

You need to be an accomplished volleyer, and have skills at the transition game. These are things you don’t need for the simpler game on Clay, which all you need is to learn how to slide.

June 12th, 2015 at 10:37 am

Mahut must be getting close to retirement. It’d be nice if he has some good results before then. He seems like a good guy.

June 12th, 2015 at 10:55 am

Love Mahut.

Just wish he’d go all the way and actually win something.

June 12th, 2015 at 4:38 pm

Just for the record..real tennis is not played on grass. Grass is for cows. Real men like clay.

Sometimes, universal truths need to be repeated.

June 12th, 2015 at 9:48 pm

^so you’re a cow. Your playing on it more than any other time in your career. Strange that now your soooo infactuated on playing a surface that is not “real tennis”.

If its bad comedy, you can count on HR.

June 12th, 2015 at 11:44 pm

”You need to be an accomplished volleyer, and have skills at the transition game. These are things you don’t need for the simpler game on Clay, which all you need is to learn how to slide.”

an accomplished volleyer like roddick? a transition game like novak’s?

you USED to have to have good volleys … before modern racquets.

you might want to explain why the australians want their juniors growing up on clay now, and are phasing out grass, saying clay develops the whole game far more.

finally, even top players admit that grass matches far more often hinge on a handful of points in sets and this proves it levels the field more than other surfaces.

now continue making a fool of yourself in smug fashion.

June 13th, 2015 at 9:33 am

Smug, now that is something I always thought about your posts, so touche.
Roddick’s skillset has won Wimbledon? Roddick hit his big served and …..stepped backwards, hardly ever moving in.
You want to credit racket tech, but the court has changed since 2001, and its not just “racket tech”, as you say. Its basic knowledge, an aggressive game works on a speedy surface, a defensive game on Clay works. When they slowed down the courts, we got pong. At least we are seeing more of a balance now.

June 13th, 2015 at 10:56 am

Mahut is a natural for grass. It’s a shame he’s not been able to win more on grass, but he’s been very unfortunate to play in the tournaments when the top players were playing for grass tune-up.

June 13th, 2015 at 5:55 pm

@ Snowbird

Congrats to Mahut he has won !

June 14th, 2015 at 12:09 pm

Nice win for Mahut!

June 14th, 2015 at 5:36 pm