Quote:
Originally Posted by cam_calderon
Shapo is 23, but he's been on tour for a long time. I don't know if he'll ever reach greater heights than he has.
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The talent is obvious, but he needs to change his approach to point construction (i.e. work the point until he gets himself in a advantageous position and then either go for a winner or an approach shot before trying to finish the point at the net). The other obvious thing he needs to do is fix his serve, a 47% first serve percentage and 7 double faults in two sets is just setting yourself up for failure.
I just wonder if he is truly committed to trying to make the changes to get back into the top 10 (yes, it was a short stay, but Denis was ranked #10 in the world for a week or two). I mean, he's already made over $10 million in prize money and who knows how much more in endorsements, he gets to travel to the best cities in the world hitting a fuzzy yellow tennis ball. It's not a bad life compared to the rest of us lol.
I guess what I'm trying to say is there's a difference between wanting to win and hating to lose and the truly great players are fueled by their hatred/fear of losing. I'm starting to see that transformation in Felix over the last 12 to 18 months, before he just seemed to be happy to get close and if he lost a match, to me he just seemed to shrug it off as no big deal. Now when he loses, he really seems to be pissed off. I think he knows he can beat anybody if he plays his best tennis (well still looking for that first win over Medvedev lol).