Former WTA doubles No. 1 Pam Shriver is a fan of craft and improvisation, but she has warmly embraced "knockdown, drag-out power clash" while watching one-dimensional players.
This year's Australian Open women's final was billed as the clash of the heavyweights between Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina. Two hyper-aggressive players of first-strike tennis who want to destroy every ball in sight.
While watching the final in which Sabalenka captured her maiden Grand Slam singles title with a comeback victory, Shriver admitted to being won over by the relentless nature of the fast and furious style. She talked of Sabalenak and Rybakina being in the same bracket as retired WTA stars like Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati.
Seles and Capriati embody the one-dimensional but often incredibly efficient power game. And this couldn't be more true than watching the 1991 semifinal between them at the US Open, that avid fans can recall to this very day.
That was over 30 odd years ago, and Shriver described this year's Australian Open final as being on the same wavelength, adding that it reminded her of that US Open match. The Tennis Channel pundit also noted, that despite both players possessing equal styles, they possess distinct emotions.
The Kazakh is ice-cold and one of the coolest heads on a tennis court, even though she's been criticized for an apparent lack of emotion in matches. Sabalenka, while still playing a similar aggressive brand of tennis is the complete opposite - grunting on every point and showing emotion on the outcome.
"Well, I think there's a few that are starting to come to the top, first off. I'll just say as far as styles like I never would have thought I would have enjoyed two players bashing the ball as hard as each other as Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina right down at the Australian Open final."
"I mean that was just unbelievable tennis and it reminded me a little bit of a 30-year-ago match. When Jennifer Capriati took on Monica Seles in the semifinals of the US Open and it was 7-6 in third to Seles. But it was like this knockdown, drag-out power clash. It wasn't full of unforced errors and that's kind of what happened. That was great to see."
"Generally matches that I liked the most are contrasting style matches. You know, I hadn't really thought about that. Not only do you have contrasting game styles, but you also have contrasting styles for emotions."
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