Tennis analyst Sandy Farquharson argues the lob is the most decisive shot in a match. On slow courts like Buenos Aires, a well-placed lob forces opponents back and prevents net pressure. At the professional level, margins are razor-thin, and lob depth and accuracy often decide who wins.
Chapters
If you look at your games, you say, "Right, we ended up losing that match and we lost it," whatever the score might be, 6-3, 6-4, for example, the difference was usually the depth and accuracy of the lob. And it's really the only shot, I think, that you can almost put the result of a match down to. Do you know what I mean? Like, you might miss a few more viboras than you would otherwise, or you might miss a few of the topspin, but the lob is so crucial because it's really almost in every point you are hitting that lob and it's dictating how frequently you get to net, how much pressure you're putting your opponents under. And we used Buenos Aires as an example, but it was a slow court. And so there you had to hit that lob and you could get away with a little bit more against an Ausburger, for example. Ausburger on a faster court could have hit his smash and got away with it. But even, you know, that pro level is just such small margins. Yeah.