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Service
Overload Strategy
Predictability is the bane of many racquetballers’
time in the golden service box.
~ McClayson ~
McClayson analyzed Sudsy’s usage of the Service
Overload Strategy for two match victories over Swain and Locker during
the 2000 U.S. Open.
Locker v. Monchik
Semi-final
Sudsy Monchik repeatedly drive served to Locker’s forehand along the
right sidewall and got many return setups that Sudsy crushed into
oblivion for easy points. Sudsy’s continual picking on Locker’s forehand
meant that Locker did not get too many opportunities to hit his favorite
backhand splat shot from deep left corner. In consequence, a huge chunk
of Locker’s offensive locomotive was derailed right from the get-go!
And when Locker shaded too far to the right side to
cover the drive along the right sidewall, Sudsy would punish him with a
tornado Z-drive that would jam Locker off the right sidewall. Sudsy
would rip a cross court drive to make Locker stretch for his backhand
returns. Both ways meant that Locker was forced out of his pre-game plan
and not able to setup for his killer backhand splat shot from deep left
court. Sudsy was overloading his drives and hitting over 80% of his
drives to the right corner to pick on Locker’s forehand.
This had the added effect of freezing Locker’s
backhand. The result is that when Suds does rip a cross court drive to
Locker’s backhand, his cold backhand was not effective because of return
inactivity. Sudsy easily had Locker on the defensive early on in the
match with his service overload strategy and advanced to face Swain in
the Finals.
Swain v. Monchik
Final
Sudsy used the same service overload
strategy against Swain. The result was another match victory against
another high caliber foe. Basically, Suds ripped drives along the right
sidewall to pick on Swain’s weaker backhand and forced Swain to hit
defensive returns. Many of those defensive returns came off the backwall
just enough for Sudsy to crush high percentage low shots to run Cliffy
around like a family of circles.
Cliff fought fire with fire and used the service
overload strategy as well against Sudsy in turn. Tit for tat! It did not
work as well because Sudsy was fundamentally sound on both wings. Also,
Sudsy was has a renowned top notched return game a la Andre Agassi.
These factors helped neutralized Swain’s reciprocal use of the service
overload strategy against Sudsy.
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