A big thank you to Colette Lewis, firstly because she hosts my articles and contributes to resurrect TUW in occasion of Bonfiglio: hopefully this will continue until my duties as father end, approximately in 30 year time, and I will have more free time to dedicate to junior tennis. Thanks to Colette also for asking me to check Liv Hovde; I have complied – taking advantage of her match being scheduled at lunch time – and this made my day.
My rule is: to express a serious judgement one should see a player at least 3 or 4 times, at least one of them live. It’s the first time I’ve seen Liv playing, but geez, it was one of those experiences that thrilled me. I usually don’t write this things, but the privilege to have 10 readers is to be able to exploit freedom of expression and of exaggeration: it’s form the times of Swiatek I didn’t see a girl playing as Liv had today. And you know what; Liv may have possibly impressed me even more than Berghem-Iga. I have already bet 5 coffees with other club members on Hovde becoming a top 3 in 5 year time. Actually the true bet is her becoming 1st, but I am starting to take some hedge.
Liv has won her match by 6-1 6-0 against an opponent (Aruzhan Sagandinova) who is a capable and complete player, not against someone passing thereby by mistake; nonetheless there was no match, as the scoresheet suggests. To start with the “negative” side of Liv’s game, her serve is not the most impressive one, I would say it’s quite anonymous. Her second serve is ok, at least she doesn’t double faults. Other than this, today Liv’s game was close to perfection.
Hovde is a symmetrical player, meaning that she can hit her forehand and backhand equally well, or at least there is no immediate difference of effectiveness between the two shots. The spin she puts in both baseline shots renders her a universal player; I think she can play equally well on clay and on hard courts. Physically she is not a huge built, but not even too small: Liv is about 1.68-1.70 tall, small shoulders, as it should be, for a girl at her age and with her frame.
First feature which impressed is her ease to hit down the lines backhands. Many times today she hit wide serves from the left court and closed with long the line backhands which seemed pretty obvious to her. Overall, it was like a storm of winners from any side of the court. It was just a matter of waiting a ball bouncing shorter than one meter from the base line (not a kind of ball that most players would define as “short”) for the bombing to start and a winner – leaving the opponent at four metres from the ball – to come, in maximum three shots. Sometimes Sagandinova attacked Liv with fine crosscourt shots which pushed the American outside of the court; instead of playing defensively or throw the ball up in the air and regain the centre, Hovde hit several times down the line winners on the run, leaving her opponent visibly discomforted. At a point Sagandinova hit a net with her serve, which became a tricky drop shot. Not even this stopped the American, who hit as return a very delicate forehand-chop winner. This showed that her hand can be soft, if needed.
Hovde is consistent in her game: she doesn’t take huge risks if not necessary and her unforced are really limited. She strikes so well that winners are hit with some margin. She is also fast and able to defend. A further good feature of hers: she never screams, no “come-ons”, no “vamos”, no “aleee-oooh”. We found a polite one, eventually.
Indeed, I have to watch Liv Hovde again; today I was maximally impressed, anyway; I found her to be by far the best player I have seen in Milan in the last years.
Let’s move for a little while to Italy: I missed his match; anyhow Federico Cina, who has turned 15 one month ago and is the son of the former Roberta Vinci’s coach Francesco Cinà, has beaten today 17 year old Sebastian Eriksson. In boys tennis 2 year difference between two players is a big gap, greater than in girls. Even more surprising is the score, i.e. 6-0 6-2 in favour of thee Italian. I saw Federico training; he owns educated swings and hits very hard for his age. But more than this I could not tell from just some rallies. Though he is indeed a hot candidate to be Sinner’s hair, as this is not the first time that Cinà obtains interesting scores, notwithstanding his young age. In the next turn there is a nearly impossible opponent waiting for him, i.e. the defending champion Gonzalo Bueno; it will be a good test for Federico to check at least put some pressure on a top junior. Chances that Federico wins: slim.
