let me give you some background. It was LDVTennis ,a long time fan of steffi and a serious tennis fan with technical as well as startegic tennis knowledge who first talked about sania's immense potential.Atithee wrote: Sania, in spite of the wide spread international coverage, was rarely spoken in those terms except by some of us in this forum and Indians in general (yes, I do remember Serena commenting on her Top-10 potential but what else do you expect her to say while on her first trip to India?).
he is a yale PHD and american from what i can gather.
But he solved some of the key mysteries of appraising potential for me. I picked it up from there and posted his views there.At that time only i and Completely conked(who was also in wta world) were sold on this idea in 2005. Infact we were criticised in this forum for posting those ideas. read those in "sania the shotmaker thread"
I tried to persuade others around to my view. sooner, others fans picked it up . its for themselves to explain how much they accepted LDV's or my views .Though my feeling is, others were willing to view it more realistically with time than they were willing to do initially.
Experts are divided about sania, because she had serious weaknesses like the serve and movement. even LDVTennis was unsure about how much she can overcome the wekanesses.
for instance if you talk ana and vaidisova, their serve and forehand are largely in place. Its easier and safer to bet on them. they were able to rise easily as shown because they never had these serious weaknesses.
Let me tell you this. A player with an exceptional serve or forehand would be a top player in the game.Players with exceptional forehand have dominated the game. Because that's how tennis is and will be.