It feels like I just did the analysis of the Roland Garros 2020 final matchup, when now, just 8 months alter, it’s time for another RG final and Impacting Tennis racket match up analysis. In these posts, I talk about what the rackets let the players do and how that translates to match play on the court and how it shapes the match ups.
The 2021 Roland Garros will be featuring Novak Djokovic and surprisingly – Stefanos Tsitsipas (and no Rafael Nadal). Luckily for me, I haven’t done this analysis of jet, as they never played each other in a grand slam final before. Furthermore, this is the first GS final for Stefanos, to this comparison will be quite “fresh”
Ever since Stefanos started moving up on the rankings and I got a hold of his racket specs a couple of years ago, I was pointing out that his racket set up is too “light-weight” to compete with the big boys on a consistent basis in a grand slam setting without using too much energy to be able to close out the match. He is apparently playing with the same setup and his game and stroke mechanics also suggest that. Let’s take a look at the racket comparison. (for both theirs specs check the database)
So what do I mean when I say Tsitsipas can’t play consistently well enough with guys like Djokovic especially over longer 5 setters? He has a significant lover static and swing weight than Djokovic, this means that on average he will need to swing with much faster racket head speed than Djokovic, which results in more miss hits and off-centre hits and unforced errors. His game is based around explosive footwork, early take backs and hitting the ball in front of his body on both sides. With this he is compensating for the lack of racket ceiling/power, but is relying too much on his focus and explosive leg work all the time. In contrast, Djokovic uses a higher swing weight, static weight and lover MGR/I, to have a setup that lets him play more consistently with a consistent level of required energy output from his body, to still play high level points and keep the ball heavy and deep in the court.
The only way I see Tsitsipas winning the RG final is if he somehow leverages his youth to keep the energy levels high thought a possible 5 seter, together with a high level of grit and concentration to keep the racket head speed high and explosive and precise leg work at a high level at crucial moments, to be able to counter Djokovic’s inherently heavy and deep ball coming from his racket, because one thing is for sure, Djokovic will spend less energy in an average rally and will be able to sustain the level for longer as a result. To keep the concentration high enough might be hard for Tsitsipas in the given circumstances as this is his first grand slam final and Djokovic is flying high after just beating Nadal on Friday. But the match will be anything but routine for Djokovic as it will be definitely a match for the history books, just for the fact that Djokovic can become the first player to win all grand slams twice and be on a good way to tie the grand slam count with Nadal and Federer. Besides that, definitely and enjoyable match for me to see my theories play out and to see who will be able to leverage their rackets and their abilities better
Remember that this is just the racket match-up analysis, and there are many other factors in play, but to me, the understanding of what the racket enables you to do, is the foundation of how you build your game and strategy around that.
I try to make the finals more interesting as you can observe the different rackets and strategies behind them at work. If you are interested in more racket specs that tour players use, check my database.