Daniil Medvedev worked hard in the early rounds of the Miami Open more than two years ago when he noticed a significant shift in his opponent's tactics. Carlos Alcaraz convincingly beat him in the Indian Wells final a few days ago, who hit him with a relentless shot. Suddenly, everyone was playing ball against him.

"A lot of people maybe saw the finals, so they started shooting me," Medvedev said. "It's not the same. It's like: 'Okay, keep doing it. I'm there.' Oppose (Alcaraz), I'm not there."

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Medvedev won the final laugh of the last week of the Miami championship, but his observations reflect a wider shift. Although it has long been a common strategy, in recent years it has received greater attention as many players have learned about its effectiveness.

There was a time when titration shots were largely considered to be the territory of tougher players who were underweight. Despite his unparalleled differences in the game, Roger Federer is also skeptical of the descent footage early in his career, describing it as a "panic shot." Today, there is a clear consensus that the fall perfectly complements increasingly powerful sports. “I have a lot of players coming to me and saying, ‘I don’t know what shooting you are going to choose,’” Japur said. “This is beautiful.”

The emergence of Alkaraz strengthens this view. Almost every conversation with the top players on this topic ends with a reference to the Spaniard. When asked how best to use the drop shot, Mirra Andreeva's game was built around her wisdom and feelings, just shrugging. “You watch Carlos Alcaraz play on TV and try to do the same.”

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Although Alcaraz is one of the most destructive ball shooters around, he also has a clever hand and feel. When his opponent takes a step back and gives himself more time, he can use space and uncertainty by decreasing speed. This is further exacerbated by Alcaraz's proficiency in forehand drop shooting, which pairs perfectly with his evil topspin forehand.

For Alcaraz, the key to the elite shot is the previous shot. "You have to play strong, just to push him to take a few steps," he said. "And then do it. I don't know how to explain it. It's natural for me, good technical."

Despite the massive pasture bounce that makes for effective drop shots at Wimbledon, Clay is still its traditional platform. The slippery nature of the surface makes the player’s first step challenging when chasing down shots. Players are usually more defensive in defensive positions behind the clay baseline, which is a slower surface that requires patience to the opponent. "It's much harder to accomplish this, so you have to find a different approach," Alex de Minaur said.

Over the years, top players have greatly improved athleticism, which means more people can chase good down shots and lower them into crazy cat and mouse chases that are able to test athleticism, hand skills and instinctive decisions to limit. In this case, a specific type of falling shot has become the focus: strike back.

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No one can get rid of these rallies like Novak Djokovic, and thus get rid of them, and no one can get back at the shot like a counter-drop or a clever angle. "It's a decision made in a second," he said. "In fact, there's almost an outskirts of a vision of knowing where the opponent is. If you see him moving forward, then in the last second, maybe you're just trying to get the ball deep and not hitting back."

“Tennis is a very advantageous sport, these split decisions are normal for us, and our brains have to work very quickly to make those decisions.”

The quality of the drip depends on various factors. Good camouflage is essential, players shape the drive terrain that hits the conventional, then change the grip at the last minute and drop the ball so they can brush off the sides and generate the backrest needed once they bounce to the ball. Court positioning after the shot is also important, and players often choose to follow the shooting percentage to close the angle.

Alkaraz emphasized the importance of timing. "The most important thing is that you have to find a good moment," he said. "It's much better to do a bad drop shot in a good moment than shooting when it's not a good time. You have to find the right balance."

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There is no consensus on how many feelings can be improved in adulthood in the years of career growth. Jack Draper immediately set his sights on his shooting percentage, which is still in progress even if he regularly tried and tried during the game. “My coach said ‘Let’s practice shooting.’ I said, “Ah, the more I don’t want to practice. ”

Emma Raducanu loves learning how to learn to incorporate them into her game this clay season: "The good way we've been talking about is if I have a shot, that means my back-ball is pretty good. Although I really don't have those opportunities because I'm playing too slowly."

Musetti, Alcaraz, they can be thrown out of the ball you shouldn't

Daniil Medvedev

Jabeur, known for his titration shooting, noted that while touch can be innate, players have to develop it. "It's probably 60% of natural, 40% of learning and adjusting," she said. "And you have to feel smart about it, too. I'm not smart about it, so many shots, my coach looked at me and did that." She imitated the coach's solemn shake of her head.

Although Medvedev tried to incorporate titration shots into his game, especially on clay, he had no fantasy about the more difficult extra talent that consistently executed, and his view on the subject could only be strengthened by going through many attempts to copy Alcaraz's tactics: "(lorenzo) Musetti, Alcaraz, they could throw it out of allcaraz. "That was the most dangerous time, because you didn't expect it, they still managed to make a good guy."

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He said: "I laughed at me or Karen (khachanov), when we dropped the shot we could make some good balls, but we wouldn't be able to do that with a long ball on a big spin; our down shot would be the ball from another guy (to smash)." He said with a smile.

Madison Keys has long been one of the most devastating shooters of all time, but she has a hated relationship with shooting. Recently, her husband and relatively new coach Bjorn Fratangelo have been encouraging her to include it in the game, especially with her nuclear forehand. "When it works well, I think I'm great. When I do the wrong time, it's a stupid decision, and I'm like, 'That's why I never hit it," she said with a smile.

"I tried to use it more. Bjorn said that if I used it on the forehand side, he would basically get up and quit at that moment; that was the only goal he left for his coaching career. So maybe I wouldn't just keep him with him."