Serve It Up: Gael Monfils
I was watching a rerun of Roger Federer’s match with Gael Monfils when I noticed something. (Yes, I am that person. I am a nerd, and apparently I don’t do too much to hide it!) Monfils’ serve: watch it. Well, now you can’t actually, because Federer beat him, but the man isn’t coming off the ATP tour so you’ll have a chance to watch him again.
It’s not the actual serve itself. The racket connects with the ball, the ball goes over the net (or it doesn’t), blah blah blah.
Check out his feet. I know, I know. Most women aren’t checking out a guy’s feet, usually we aim a little higher than that. But his feet. Monfils has a rather unorthodox approach; his feet are parallel to the baseline, spaced a couple inches apart. As he throws up the ball, he minces around until his feet are together. Not even Andy Roddick has his feet that close together when he’s unleashing his bombs.
It really gets interesting though when Monfils misses his first serve and has to fall back on his second serve. No acting like his shoelaces are tied together on that one. He uses a more standard approach with the back foot parallel to the baseline and the forward foot more at an angle.
Obviously it’s working for him. At least some of the time. And I’m certainly in no position to stand and pass judgement. After all, I’m the person that spent an hour working on her serve the other day and still kept spraying them wide.
