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Gabe Jaramillo
gressive baseline game , instead he listened to his team mate , Suzuki and decide to slice and to keep the ball low and to attack the net as much as possible , that is not his game and he lost badly , but he was young and learned a great lesson that has helped him the rest of his career , he has to stick to his style of play no matter the surface .
Because of the similitude on today ' s speed on court surfaces the players can use their power base line game to compete on every Grand Slam and they don ´ t have to make extreme changes or adjustments depending on the surface . The speed on the surfaces today makes that players have the same style of play , making it possible for all players to play without disadvantage in any surface . Again the only big difference is movement and players have to be able to compete in all surfaces , the key is to start and an early age , volume of work on clay is sacred
5 ) What are the most important principles to be successful on clay courts ?
In April 1991 I was invited to Spain to talk in a big simposium for coaches , it was one of my first events as a speaker , my talk was at nine am , immediately followed by Pato Alvarez , that at time was the king of tennis in Spain . My talk was about modern tennis , playing on top of the line , taking time away from the opponent and playing an aggressive baseline game . When Pato walked to give his presentation , he started by saying that Jaramillo was very young , talented coach but that I did not know about clay court tennis , that especially on clay the players had to move back and that defense was more important that offense . After his speech , after all he was the King , people looked at me as young but inexperience coach . Only a month later at the French Open , Agassi and Courrier made to finals and Seles won the women side , all of them playing modern tennis , close to the base line , attacking , taking the ball up in the air with swinging volleys and putting every short ball away , after those results then people understood that the future of tennis had arrived .
In 1988 Agassi was playing the French Open , we didn ’ t know how popular he was , while he was walking towards the court to play his first round match , he got attack by many loving female fans , to his surprise they were pulling his shirt , his hair , all of them wanted to touch him , just to be closed to him , he was stunned by all these people and he got afraid , he was not expecting it , we had to run back to the locker room to change clothing and to come down . From that day forward every time he walked to the court he had police protection . He was the first player to have an entourage of security to take him to his court .
In 1978 Borg and Villas had the longest rally in the history of the game , 86 strokes ; that does not happen in today ' s game . Players used to hit many cross court to cross court until one of them hit a shorter ball and only then the opponent would change direction , in todays game is difficult to see an exchange cross court to cross court for more than three balls , players today change direction quickly . For one thing the clay courts are faster but the players are a lot more aggressive , they hit the ball earlier , with heavy topspin and with a lot more power . The game was very linear , even in the nineties Lendel had the most powerful forehand in the game , if we compare that stroke to Djokovic is not even a close similitud , modern players prepare , load and use the elastic energy to develop devastating strokes , it is about power , and to be able to hit with power they most move extremely well .