At Roland Garros,
Corentin Moutet, worthy heir of Michael Chang? With his spoon serve, the Frenchman drives his opponents crazy, who never know what to expect when the left-hander’s hand stops bouncing the ball on the Parisian clay. How many did he pass to Jarry, Shevchenko and Ofner? 15? 20? 25? Not bad, but one man is capable of producing more: Alexander Bublik, the Henry Ford of the spoon, whose last feat of arms is still fresh. It was at the Lyon Open. Without a solution against a Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard possessed by the soul of Pete Sampras, the Kazakh had split six spoon serves in a single game to save double-break points. A total success (if we exclude his defeat).
Bublik’s first masterpiece was two years ago, at Wimbledon. Six services messed up like it’s impossible for a tennis puke in which Nick Kyrgios, the man who resurrected the legendary shot, was the only one to have fun. ” I love that. But if it were me, I would be charged with tanking and fined at least 15,000 pounds. » Not impossible, Nick. Not impossible.
“A move like any other as long as it is efficient”, according to Moutet
Is spoon-serving the prerogative of rebels? The casting of its users – to which we can also add the name of Davidovich-Fokina, who is placed there in the hothead category – leaves little room for doubt. Consultant for Prime Video, Camille Pin prefers to talk about creatives. “They are players a bit in the vein of Benoit Paire, Hugo Gaston, players who like to actively annoy the opponent. One of the goals of this sport is to make the other person fall for you in one way or another. »
An area in which the terror of Neuilly-sur-Seine knows how to excel, even if he claimed purely tennis intentions after his victories against Shevchenko and Ofner. “Why couldn’t we serve from below? We can serve from the top. We can do amortization, why can’t we do it in service? I find that it’s a move like any other as long as it remains effective and it’s not to make fun of the opponent. »
Or to disrespect the sport, like Bublik at Wimbledon 2022, where it was more a question of throwing away a match that was already over than trying to surprise. “It’s a question of context,” theorizes Camille Pin. Otherwise, how can we explain that Chang could have been applauded where Martina Hingis was thrown out ten years later for the same gesture against Steffi Graf?
A blow in the service of entertainment
The context, therefore, that of current tennis, tends less towards condemnation than tolerance towards spoon serving. “To ban it, I think it would go against what the tennis authorities want to develop at the moment,” analyzes the consultant. They want a spectacle, and this is a move that goes in that direction. » Even Rafael Nadal, who once pinned Nick Kyrgios for his “lack of respect towards himself and his opponent”, ended up turning around. It was in 2020, at Roland-Garros: “if you do it in order to improve your game, or for tactical reasons, I support 100 percent [ce coup]. » The same goes for Daniil Medvedev, a very occasional user.
“ “When Nick started doing it, some people explained to us that it was disrespectful, I don’t agree,” defended the Russian at the Australian Open the same year. Furthermore, I really think that if used well it can be a real weapon, but you really have to know how to execute it well. » »
Moutet started against Thiem in Bordeaux in 2003
There is a tactical explanation for this opening, starting with the positioning of the players on the pitch. It’s again Ben Shelton, willing to talk tennis this Saturday before flying back to Florida, who talks about it best. “On the big clay courts, the opponents go so far to restart that on TV, you barely see them. On the court, you start bouncing the ball and you hardly see them. It’s very difficult to make winning serves in these conditions. »
Spoon serving appears to be an effective way of punishing excessively defensive behavior on the return leg like that of Sebastian Ofner. “Ofner was really very far away,” Petar Popovic, Moutet’s trainer, confirmed to us after his 3rd round on the Lenglen. It is a weapon to use when the opponent is far from the line. »
And a full-fledged strategy since last year, and a match against Dominic Thiem at the Bordeaux challenger. A match of which we were able to find a summary and in which he indeed made two or three spoon serves followed by a winning point. “I would have to look at my statistics, but I won a lot of points when I did,” says Moutet. If it were the other way around and I lost more than I gained, I would have stopped doing it. »
Moutet can afford it. Not only does he have the skills to do it, but he trains for it, with around ten serves attempted per training according to his trainer, who is delighted with the colt’s audacity. “I have nothing against that. I find it funny and it works. He has the best spoon serve ever. I’m not going to change something that earns it more points than a normal serve. Of course you shouldn’t overdo it. [Vendredi], he made two in a row, I hoped he didn’t make three (laughs). »
Sunday against Jannik Sinner much closer to his baseline, it is likely that the Frenchman will be more stingy with spoon serves. “For the drop shots, it will be harder,” his trainer even generalizes. But it is hard to imagine never using it, if only to benefit from its other positive effects, namely the effect of surprise and the destabilization of the adversary. Getting into the skull of the South Tyrolean android will not be easy, and all attempts are welcome to achieve this.
