North American ATP tournaments Feb-March 2018

[PKBasu]

Yuki's FH used to be his strength. Oddly, it is inconsistent and clearly his weaker side today.
Beautiful backhand volley from YB. 30-15 on Sock's serve. Fine play from YB results in a Sock UFE. 30-all. YB challenge fails. 40-30. Ace from Sock. 3-1.

[PKBasu]

Service winner from YB, 15-0, YB wins a short rally 30-0. BH UFE, 30-15. Sock down the line UFE. 40-15, Service winner. Game. 2-3

[PKBasu]

Sock quickly moves to 30-0. And to 40-0. Coach Thomas Koon and Sanaa in Yuki's corner. 40-15 after a Sock DF. Ace makes it Game Sock. 4-2.

Yuki goes up 30-0 with a couple of good first serves. Misses a BH down the line. 30-15. BH UFE from Yuki. 30-all. Nice FH crosscourt winner, 40-30. Good serve makes it 3-4.

[S_K_S]

JS keeps running around his bh and hitting the inside out fh which unsettles YB or he slices the bh which troubles YB even more.

[PKBasu]

Nice service return from YB, but Sock comes up with a crosscourt winner. 15-0.
Fabulous BH winner from the net after an up and down rally. 15-all.
Great BH from YB makes it 30-all.
Fabulous FH crosscourt from Yuki is too much for Sock. 30-40.
Good back and forth rally is won by a Sock down the line winner. Deuce.
DF from Sock gives Yuki his second BP of the game. Ad-out.
Big first serve makes it Deuce. Sock has a huge team (as you would expect).
Poor BH return on a weak second serve (89mph). Ad-in.
Another second serve winner. Sock holds. 5-3. Massive opportunities lost in that game.

[PKBasu]

Beautiful forehand winner from the net. 15-0. Poor UFE. 15-all. Good 1st serve. 30-15. Volley winner from Yuki. 40-15. FH crosscourt winner. Game 4-5

[PKBasu]

Good service return results in a FH UFE from Sock. 0-15. And solid returning from YB makes it 0-30. Narrow miss on an ambitious FH return from YB. 15-30. Bad UFE from Sock. 15-40. YB misses a BH opportunity. 30-40. DF from Sock gives Yuki the BREAK! 5-5 in the second set.

[PKBasu]

Sock crosscourt winner. 0-15. Terrible UFE (FH) from Yuki. 0-30. He just gives it away! Another shocking UFE on the FH. 0-40. DF from Yuki, for a truly pathetic game. And he is broken at love. 5-6

Yuki needs to learn how to consolidate a break. He should have slowed that game down, stayed calm. Instead, he played quickly and atrociously in that service game.

[PKBasu]

Fabulous BH down the line winner from Yuki. 0-15. DF from Sock. 0-30. FH UFE from Yuki. 15-30. Sock UFE. 15-40. Another DF from Sock. 6-all.

[PKBasu]

Tiebreaker. 2nd serve winner from Yuki. 1-0
Bad BH UFE from Yuki. 1-1
Poor service return from Yuki. 1-2
Horrible FH UFE from Yuki. 1-3
Volley UFE from Yuki. 1-4. Big, big hole for Yuki now.
Nicely done, underspin from the net. 2-4 (gets back one mini-break).
Poor BH return on a Sock second serve. 2-5.
BH down the line return winner from Sock. 2-6.
Beautiful volley winner from Yuki. 3-6.
And a FH UFE ends the match. 3-7

[PKBasu]

[R2] Q-Yuki Bhambri l. 8-Jack Sock (USA, 11) 36 67(3)

[S_K_S]

Should have won the 2nd set after Sock had a melt down at the end of the set. Surprisingly played a really bad game after he had broken Sock for 5-5. You'd think he had all the momentum but then gave it back. Sock gave it back again but it was a missed opportunity.

Could never really get to grips with that sliced back hand from Sock. Handled the serve and even the forehand fairly well.

[Sin Hombre]

Maybe the Prof can give some insight on why Yuki struggled with the spin on the sliced BH.

[knarayen]

And that pretty much sums it up - Yuki's inability to consolidate a break with his own service game is becoming a pattern and it needs to be fixed at some point - I dont know if Koon is the guy who can help him fix it - but his follow-on service game is really much worse than those service games where he is routinely expected to hold. Easier said than done, but he should be expecting his opponents to come back strong after losing serve and he needs to be ready for more aggressive returns. It is painfully obvious that he is not ready for the more aggressive and accurate returns.

The first set was really about Sock serving and returning much better than Yuki - the 2nd serve return percentage wins were more than 2x Yuki's corresponding percentages.

The same pattern repeated itself in the second set. Once again the differential between Yuki's first serve and Sock's first serve (20 mph slower?) and the percentage wins of Sock's second serve returns against Yuki's second serve returns - the differential was way too great. Even after Sock's great meltdown at 4-5 and again at 5-6, when the second set was Yuki's for the taking.....Yuki could not capitalize for all the afore-mentioned reasons.

I hope Yuki is able to find the time to work on his serve game deficiencies...his strokes were a delight to watch all through the match - no question that if Yuki keeps this up and works on his problem areas, we have a potential top 50 player on our hands.

Go Yuki!!!

Prof

[knarayen]

Maybe the Prof can give some insight on why Yuki struggled with the spin on the sliced BH.

Sock's spin on the sliced backhand was really more of a chop than a slice..it was skidding really low and difficult to handle for most. But that was not yuki's main problem..see my match analysis above.