Daniil Medvedev played Chris Eubanks in the Wimbledon July tournament I had a deja vu moment watching the match on TV (see excerpt below from THE LITTLE GREEN BOOK of Tennis.) I remembered watching Henry Logan, our league’s first black basketball player ( 1965 ). Henry scored 60 points, 42 in the second half. At 5′ 10″ tall he dunked nine shots.

With due respect, Medvedev had the same look on his face as we did watching Henry. (” Where the hell did this guy come from? And what the hell do I do with this level of serve and volley play ?)

As he received serve from near the back stands. To , stunningly no avail.

I found myself blurting out for him to move in on the return. Mid- set in the fourth , Medvedev moved up! The end of the match looked much like the college match in 1999.

Now here is the Hackalooski—In the US OPEN Finals, the match played at an unbelievable level and equal score, a pattern emerged. Serving from the deuce court at the wide forehand corner, with Medvedev receiving way back, the Joker ran off serve and volley points at will. Pretty soon John McEnroe joined my advice. John’s advice built on a career as one of the all time best serve and volley players, serving and receiving. Me having watched the small college match mentioned below. Often crucial points, this “ace in the hole” cracked the match.

I’ve got to ask—Why didn’t you at least try moving in on the return, Daniil ?

Passing Shots 

Dominic Moerstedt played on my first Elon team. A fine player, Moerstedt had grown up in a German academy that had also housed Boris Becker and Steffi Graff. Extremely talented, Moerstedt liked to try “big bombs” for passing shots, hit from way back at the fence. I told him about an earlier player, passing on the rise, moving in on service returns, etc. Still “boom—from way back.” The first match my team played without me there (25 years’ perfect attendance!) came Dominic’s senior year. My wife had to have a surgical procedure (kidney stones—ouch!), and I sent Dr. Alan White as an able substitute coach. He still brags about his tennis coaching. We both were lucky. After the first day of the tournament, my number one player jumped into an indoor pickup soccer game in our gym. Pop! Leg injury. No number one for the finals. I returned to a hobbled team plus another problem. Dominic was playing Alex Evans, an excellent Australian player from my old school Atlantic Christian. Evans “owned” Moerstedt. In several previous matches Moerstedt had never gotten more than two games a set off the talented serve and volleyer Evans. This match was for the tournament. My advice to Dominic went like this: “Dominic, we’ve tried it your way to no avail. Please at least move in aggressively on your service return and passing shots.” We had practiced this a lot recently, in all fairness, and Dominic had the kind of talent to pull it off. It shocked everyone—Evans, Moerstedt, our team members and me: 6–2, 6–2, Moerstedt, and Elon was Conference Champs. What really surprised me is why the strategy worked. By hitting the passing shots quicker I’d hoped that Dominic could make Evans volley from an unstable, unusual position. What actually happened is that Alex tried to get in quicker and it disrupted his ordinarily dependable serve. Confused by a different rhythm, he lost a lot of confidence.