19 year old Sydney born Alex De Minaur won his maiden ATP trophy yesterday in the most ideal of locations possible...Sydney. It's been in the making for just over 2 years now. Since the new defensive rookie made the official round of 32 (beyond the qualifications) in Brisbane in January 2017 he's been knocking on the door of success to lift an ATP 250 title.
His real notable progress since his ATP 250 debut in Brisbane 2017 would have to wait until precisely a year later where in the same event he reached the Semi Finals after beating Steve Johnson and Milos Raonic in the opening rounds before falling to America's Ryan Harrison in the semis.
Amazingly he backed that up with a run to the final of the Sydney ATP 250 just a week later. There must be something about De Minaur where he thrives to another level on home soil. In Sydney last year he fell to Russia's most successful young player Daniil Medvedev so it's rather fitting that a year later yesterday he went one better beating Andreas Seppi in the final at Sydney.
In between both Sydney events in 2018 and 2019 he also got to the final of an ATP 500 event in Washington last summer before he reached another Semi in Shenzhen, China and finally he reached the finals of the Next Gen tournament in Italy at the end of 2018 so it was an incredible 2018 for the guy who looks a lot like Andy Murray when he's battling from the baseline hounding every ball that comes his way.
Winning in Sydney yesterday was therefore hardly a surprise, he's one of the most exciting young players on tour and while everyone will be getting a little carried away about his chances to go far in the Australian Open next week, as a British tennis fan who has just seen our best player announce his retirement due to injury caused by his exhaustive style of defensive tennis, I have to wonder about whether De Minaur is destined to walk the same road as Murray.
Carbon Copy Style of Play
In his short time on tour De Minaur has already carved out a reputation of being a tireless worker on court from the back, he's a real percentage player whose game is based on complete court coverage, front and back, left to right, getting as many balls back deep at his opponents feet as possible and allowing them to make most of the mistakes.
Although he has the capabilities of hitting winners rarely will you see him throughout any match use this strategy, what you will see is a player who looks an awful lot like a younger Andy Murray, getting into dogfights with opponents and frustrated them from the back. At 19 he has youth on his side, he will recover fast and be able to tirelessly work on his game and perform in many slams and events.
It will be later on in his career when after 10 years of running around like a workhorse that he may come to regret this sort of play. What can really be done to mitigate the chance of heart break similar to Murray, where in his early 30's he may be sitting in front of cameras sobbing helplessly at the fact he struggles to even put his shoes on in the morning. From a physio and physical training point of view, a fair bit!
From an on court approach point of view the same goes too. He can look to strike more of a balance where on serve he plays far more aggressive and nearer to the baseline and keeps his defensive style for returning serve. Of course it's too tempting if you know entrenching yourself behind the baseline and asking your opponent endless questions is leads to victory, to then make the decision to switch up your game plan and play aggressively.
I wonder if someone gave Murray the choice of turning back the clock, whether he would change his style of play to be more aggressive, even if it meant sacrificing one of his Wimbledon trophies if it allowed him to now play through for another 5 years at the top?
Everything in the life of a sportsman is a delicate balance, with choices that will have negative as well as positive consequences when it comes to how and when you play your game. In Murray's case he chose defense over attack to become the first British men's tennis player to win Wimbledon since 77 years before. There's some big consolations to take home and soften the blow of his irreversible hip problem. But when all the courts are covered over 10 years time, will De Minaur have the same cabinet full with trophies as Murray does to look back on whilst nursing a career ending injury, or will he fall short even with his energetic defensive approach?
Let's Compare the Two on Court with Videos of Both at the Age of 19...
As you can see from both videos, although their position behind the baseline is not entirely the same they both prefer to take a very defensive approach to how they play tennis. Neither player looks to overly press early in many of their points from the back and this leads to covering more court ground and perhaps even more importantly it leads to extreme picks up where they are sliding everywhere, bending far over to recover the ball.
The way you choose to hit the ball in tennis will have a major bearing on what exactly comes back your way more often from your opponent too. For example Federer has survived so long in the game looking very healthy at the age of 37 because many of the balls that come back his way he simply doesn't chase down. He doesn't need to chase them down because he knows most of his game is based on aggression so he will have plenty more opportunities to hit wining shots where the ball doesn't come back.
He will also be aware that as he likes to take the ball early, those difficult deep shots Murray, De Minaur and Djokovic have to deal with occur substantially less with him. If they do come back, some of those times he will also be in the forecourt to cut off those points quickly and save his legs and energy. In fact as he's gotten older Federer has come more and more into the forecourt to conserve his energy and physical health. The Swiss Wizard gets many cheap points in his game. His serve has always been more lethal as well, meaning on serve he engages in less open points.
We can already see that Rafa Nadal is also struggling at the age of 32 with knee problems due to his ultra defensive way of playing. He is starting to pick up more and more niggles. I doubt he will be able to last as long as Federer.
If you watch Alex De Minaur play, you will feel tired yourself. 50% of his points look like a street brawl, he literally kills himself to return balls and whilst that sort of play will bring rewards, I am dubious whether they will be enough compared to major injuries I see occurring as he gets older, he could well be staring down cameras in many years to come, tearfully announcing an early retirement like Murray.
You can find out more about the analysis of a players coverage of the court at the excellent TennisAbstract.com blog. Whilst the writer focuses on Murray's and Djokovic's coverage of the court from a success point of view, he doesn't cover the negative side of such exhaustive play - which is the injury risk. Quiet remarkable for me is the fact that Djokovic has similar court coverage to Murray but has managed to stay relatively injury free in the lower body department, one indicator for this could be how much both players weigh and his degree of flexibility compared to Murray. Djokovic is capable of doing the splits and is a lot more bendy than Murray.
How can De Minaur avoid Murray's fate?
Staying Trim
Djokovic is 6ft 2 inches tall and weighs 77kg. That is incredibly light for a 6ft plus person. Murray is 6ft 3 inches and weighs 82kg. The extra 5 kg may not sound a lot but actually when considering the dynamics of running that additional weight is multiplied by 4 according to arthritus.org. That means Murray would be exerting an additional 20kg of pressure on his hips and knees than Djokovic does every-time he takes a running step on court Add to that the fact in tennis the player is constantly shifting left to right, up and down at a rapid pace and you realise how much damage this can cause your hips and knees overtime if you are a defensive tennis player having to change directions and cover the entire court all the time.
For me if Alex De Minaur manages to stay trim and light in body mass he has a better chance of avoiding injuries to his hips and knee joints over his career. But if he bulks up considerably as many tennis players now do his chances of avoiding a career ending injury are not particularly great.
Less is More
Some youngsters having tasted sweet victory can get carried away and want to play in too many tournaments per year for more trophies - they want the ultimate success too soon. This can lead to exhaustion both mentally and physically with both aspects impacting one another. With fewer rest periods for the body and mind to recover over years of competing this can increase the risk of developing a serious injury that one cannot recover from like Murray has.
Rather than jam packing his roster with too many tournaments per month, he could adopt a more patient and relaxed approach deciding to have 2 weeks off from competitions more atleast 3 to 4 times a year. This may sound impossible for today's generation of tennis players given the level of competition but it's not, each player still ultimately makes their own decisions and actually taking longer breaks from competing can increase your performance on court as you will be fresher and more rejuvenated to go.
You may actually think that physios and trainers know best right? They do know best technically speaking but only a player knows his own body. After-all if a trainer or physio knew best all the time why are top stars picking up serious injuries? Something is going wrong in the decision making process for Rest, Re-cooperation, Physical Conditioning and the Mindset development.
Bottom Rather than Top Heavy
A player like Roger Federer is the epitome of this concept. He is triangularly formed rather than inverted triangularly formed. The inverted guy you will see at the gym all too often, the guy with a huge upper body and skinny little sparrow legs. This sort of athlete wouldn't last two seconds on something like a Spartan course or playing a dynamic sport like tennis or football. It's important that De Minaur works on developing his legs more than his upper body as he grows into a man. Upper body conditioning is important, but focusing more on building the legs, flexibility and being well conditioned in the Quadriceps, Glutes and in particular the Calves is the most important part of a tennis players development. Add to that a secondary measure of improving core strength and stability. This will be a safeguard against injuries in the future.
This 2014 article by Eurosport does a good job of explaining Federer's physique and how he has managed to last so long pretty much injury free in the sport. In summation it's the fact that Federers Calves are so strong and his ankles so flexible that he moves effortlessly along court.
Ironically in the same article it quotes Murray making a similar point at the time after a match with Djokovic, he said:
The way that we (Djokovic and I) play against each other, it's just an extremely physical match. Whereas, maybe when I play against Roger, for example, it's quicker points. So physically, that's not as demanding.
If Murray and indeed Alex De Minaur come up against other opponents of a similar style then it's even worse for both players. This adds an exponential effect to how tiresome and physically demanding a match becomes. Both players cover the court incredibly well so every point can feel like a mini game itself and every set an entire match.
All in all to summarise if Alex can make smart choices and opt for the route of Federer, obviously not in terms of his play style but atleast in terms of his physical development and rest periods this will help negate the physical risks involved in his style of play. But in addition if he is willing to atleast develop more aggressively on court too, this will also help him avoid the fate of Murray when he approaches his 30's.
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