Stan Wawrinka in Boca Raton

[klacr]

bobbyswift,

good question.

Stan was in town for the week. Although there was some light gym work as part of regular "maintenance", a large chunk of time was spent on the court, getting acclimated to outdoor conditions, getting plenty of reps in on the hitting side and building his on court cardio base.

Wawrinka was hitting with young American Denis Kudla. They played a few ground stroke games, played some volley-groundstroke games. Then Wawrinka's coach Magnus Norman had the players hit from the baseline, they had to hit crosscourt and then down the line and keep the ball in play, sustaining the rally the entire time. He timed them for 2 minutes for each round. Sounds easy, until you see it.
No time was spent teaching strokes. Both men didn't forget how o hit forehands and backhands, it was just to get some good conditioning in and plenty of shot reps to build confidence.

According to multiple sources, their was another reason why Wawrinka was in town. I'm not going to start rumors but I have two words for you...Donna Vekic


Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[GeoffWilliams]

Holy mons veneris!

[stroke]

To me, it is hard to choose between Roger's and Stan's backhand. I agree with what DB said. Stan can certainly hit a bigger shot with his backhand but I do prefer Roger's slice and how he tends to take the ball earlier. I think much of the perception of Roger's backhand being somewhat of a weakness comes from watching Nadal break it down with his hook forehands. I do not recall anyone else really breaking it down. Stan's backhand, with his stronger grip, does seem to stand up better to the Nadal barrage on that side.