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From: cccallan@ucdavis.UUCP (Allan McKillop)
Newsgroups: net.sport
Subject: Re: Bolleteiri's kids (really Jimmy Arias)
Message-ID: <131@ucdavis.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-Oct-85 17:53:27 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucdavis.131
Posted: Wed Oct  9 17:53:27 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Oct-85 14:39:56 EDT
References: <2460@ut-ngp.UTEXAS>
Distribution: net
Organization: University of California, Davis
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> There's something to be said for
> "one-stroke players." Many top players have built their whole careers on one
> good lick, such as Ivan Lendl with his forehand.

Are you trying to tell me that Lendl is a "one-stroke player"?  Lendl's
serve and backhand are among the best in the game right now.  Yes,
he did START as a player with only a forehand, but he has inproved his
game from there.  I don't see that Arias has.

> Sure, Jimmy A. has settled to a lowly "#20" but that is a WORLD ranking. Even
> #100 could blow your local club champ off the court with one hand in his
> pocket.It's what Vic Braden calls "learning to hit the same old boring
> winner." He points to Evert and Connors as examples. They seldom use anything
> fancy, but have developed solid, basic, backhands and forehands which they use
> to just dog their opponents without mercy.

I am not disputing that Arias is a great tennis player with respect to
the rest of the world, what i am trying to say here is that he was once
as high as #5 in the world.  So what happened?  Why did he take a nose
dive (ok, his initial dive was due to a bout of mono, but what happened
to him after that?)?  Tennis players are constantly improving on what
has gone before them.  One needs to look no farther than Chris Evert-Llyod
and Martina Navratilova.  They first played in a Wimbledon final back in 1978
(Martina winning).  If you look at a tape of that match in comparison with
their match this year at the big W, you would be shocked how much they
have changed.  They are still both #1 and #2 in the world, but their
whole games have evolved.  I don't see something like that happening to
Arias.  He game is stagnating.  Is he really better than 2 years ago
when he got to the semis of the Open?  I don't see it if he is.

And what has Vic Braden got to do with this?  Puhleese, I try to avoid
even thinking about him as much as possible. :-)

-- 

Allan McKillop
(...ucbvax!ucdavis!deneb!cccallan)

"Where there's a will, there's a relative..."