I think women’s tennis should be the exclusive domain of power players like the Williams sisters, yet they often -  as do most power players - fall into the trap of playing the game the way their opponent wants them to play.

They allow opponents to take their rhythm away, bringing on frustration at not being able to open up their shoulders and hit the ball hard and, as a result, they then make a succession of errors that come from that frustration and the breakdown of their rhythm.

When presented with ‘change up’ tactics, power players need to be more capable of going to Plan B, to be more flexible and patient in their approach. Only then will they indeed be able to use their power wisely to dominate all the retrievers out there. If they do this they will show that the retrievers - particularly those who lack the power to hit winners - that their sliced, flat, or high spun balls from the back of the court will never draw errors.

'The Williams sisters should have won every Grand Slam title of the last seven seven years'


Ultimately this will force the retriever to hit a faster ball at some point in the rally at which the power player, who has just been waiting for a bit of power to respond to, can retain her technique and reply with a slightly faster shot; still not hitting their biggest shot until they have upped the pace sufficiently.

Sadly, I see power players losing their rhythm all the time and, in the end, matches they could have easily won. Alicia Molik’s loss was a wonderful example. If she hadn’t been so keen to try and find her 100 per cent rhythm and was merely happy to hit the ball initially in rallies just a little harder than her opponent and a little softer than she might like; she would have been able to both develop the rhythm she wanted and counter her opponent's clever but subtle attempts to keep her from finding any rhythm.

Pete Sampras was very good at responding like this in rallies and not going for the big shot too soon, recognizing that his non-power type opponents were simply trying to knock him off his big shot rhythm. With a bit more patience, Mark Philippoussis, who consistently allowed such opponents to use such tactics successfully against him, could have won many matches which he ultimately lost.

I think if players like Venus and Serena Williams, and the seriously under-achieving Alicia Molik, showed such patience and adaptability with their shot selection and technique they would win all the Grand Slams in the next two years regardless of what surface they were played on. But a player like Justine Henin consistently foils such power players through playing within her rhythms and only when an opportunity through the course of the rally arrives does she open her shoulders and blast a forehand or backhand winner.

Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Amelie Mauresmo, to name a few of the top ranking players, all have reasonable power but they use it wisely. Even so, the Williams sisters, regardless of their comparative few tournaments played, should be winning all the slams they have entered. But instead, in the last few years (with the exception of a couple of Slams, they did win) they have allowed both the mundane retrievers as well as the better mental ability which their opponents have displayed, to get the better of them in tight contests.

I just wish Venus, Serena and Alicia would not allow themselves to stay in it consistently. And I think they would be surprised if they started matches within themselves and only pushed the envelope a little bit rather than a lot as they build and maintain their rhythm keeping a low error count.

I also think, barring their times off from injury, that the Williams sisters should have won every Grand Slam title of the last seven seven years between them. A big call I know; and yes; they have been quite successful in the last seven years, but my point is that they could have won at least double what they will finish with. Enough Slams to rival the numbers of players like Billie Jean King, Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf.

As a tennis fan I want to see all the players make the most of their potential. I love the potential I see in Molik. as well as the potential in the Williams sisters, but I am saddened by their unwillingness to ‘change-up’ their power games.