Serving Lessons

NEW YORK—Once upon a time, this opening-day column would have been devoted to one or more titans of the American game, an Arthur Ashe, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, or Andre Agassi, and the subject might have been an evaluation of his chances to win or defend the title.

Instead, the space will be occupied by some thoughts on the reigning U.S. Open mixed doubles champions, a pair of kids named Melanie Oudin and Jack Sock, both of whom have thus far offered more promise than fulfillment, are wild card delegates in singles mainly because of their American nationality, and were on a quest to survive the first round against seeded opponents.  

Their matches overlapped slightly, with Oudin assigned to Louis Armstrong Stadium and Sock to the Grandstand—appended like a prosthetic device to that creaky old venue. Those were pretty choice designations for players ranked No. 107 and No. 243 respectively, but then, this is the American Grand Slam.  

The show of respect and encouragement did not particularly help Oudin, who was soundly beaten by 15th-seeded Lucie Safarova, 6-4, 6-0.  But Sock justified himself on the Grandstand court that has hosted a number of remarkable upsets over the years. He knocked off no. 22 seed Florian Mayer, 6-3, 6-2, 3-2, ret. The theme that linked the mixed doubles partners and played a dominant role in the fates they met was the importance of the serve.  

Oudin still is sometimes disparaged for having gone on that magical mystery tour all the way to the U.S. Open quarterfinals in 2009 (we should all have something similar happen in our line of work). She fought gamely in the first set today, but the telltale stat as it ended was her first-serve point conversion percentage. She won just 60 percent of the points when she put hers in play. By the time the blowout was concluded, that number had dropped down to an anemic 51 percent.  

The fans were predictably behind Oudin all the way as the second set began. When she fell behind by a break, you could feel the heart of the crowd swell. Then Safarova squeezed the life out of it, slapping Oudin’s next few serves around as if she were swatting a particularly lazy house fly.  

Oudin quickly fell behind 0-40, and when she hit a cross-court backhand pass to win a point, the burst of applause was as damning as it was appreciative. Oudin, sweat sheening her freckled face and fleshy arms and shoulders, looked up. It was a brave thing to do, because there was little hope in those eyes and no relief in sight. She banged her first serve right onto the corner of the box immediately after that, and Safarova punched out a clean down-the-line winner.

It must be a nightmare, trying to play this game at the pro level without a passable serve. I find myself admiring Oudin for having somehow managed it as well as she does.

Sock, though, is an entirely different story. Today he was wearing a bright red shirt, blue shorts, and a white cap—unnecessary accoutrements if his intent was a patriotic statement. It would be difficult to mistake the fresh-faced, 19-year-old Nebraska native for anything but an American.  

Sock is just 6’1”, but he’s thickly built; he looked especially imposing in comparison to his reed-thin German opponent. Sock looks as if he just hopped off a combine; he ought to be wearing a sweat-soaked sleeveless t-shirt and chewing on a yellow stalk of timothy. But the only thing he’s mowing down is opponents, with a game built around a powerful serve and forehand, as if he were following the blueprint once drawn up by the mentors of his fellow Nebraskan and role model, Andy Roddick.  

It didn’t take much away from Sock’s performance when Mayer retired, citing “dizziness.” You might have done the same, after a comparable amount of time spent trying the track the course of those whistling and whizzing first and second serves Sock sent his way.  

Although Sock’s nine aces weren’t exactly Isner-ish, 44 percent of his serves were unreturnables, and he won 79 percent of his first-serve points on a 60 percent first-serve conversion percentage. He also won 68 percent of his second serves, and his fastest first serve was 135 M.P.H. —fully 16 M.P.H. better than Mayer’s top speed.  

But it was the way Sock used his serves that most impressed me. He had an early lead in every set, and whether or not he’d be able to hold it against as calm a veteran as Mayer became the looming question. On a number of occasions, it looked as if a few errant shots by Sock (like most youngsters, he can be a little wild) might give Mayer just the opening he sought. But Sock basically served his way out of trouble each time. Mayer saw only three break points, and didn’t convert a single one.  

“I think my serve was definitely pretty reliable when I was down,” Sock said afterward. “I was down Love 30 once or twice, down Love 40 once.  Came up with some good serve/first ball combos. I think those were definitely some turning points, not letting him get a break and not letting him get some momentum back.”  

When I asked Sock how he rated his serve on a scale of 1 to 10 today, he joked, “I think my second serve was a 9.63.” He turned serious. “I think my first serve was pretty good. I mean, when I missed the first serve, I think my second serve really helped me. I was able to start off the point ahead even with the second serve. My serve was a 10 coming up big on some points when I was down.”  

Leading up to this event, Sock has said that he might be ready to take his game to the next level, and there’s no reason to doubt him that based on the way he played today. He was out for four months earlier this year following surgery for a torn abdominal muscle, but has played well in patches this summer. The highlight: He won three rounds in Atlanta, taking down Alex Bogomolov and Steve Johnson before he was eliminated in the quarterfinals in a tight-two setter by Isner.  

“I think I'm definitely in better shape this year overall physically than last year,” he said. “And I think actually my surgery had a little bit to do with it, having to take a couple months off.”  

When Sock recovered—but before he returned to the tour—he worked intensively with Gil Reyes (Andre Agassi’s former fitness coach, now a  Team Adidas trainer) on his fitness, as well as on his serve, now a formidable weapon. He chose to think of the period as the off season he never had in late 2011, when he was too busy chasing rankings points and plotting his breakthrough.  

Sock is a great example of a player who heeds that age-old advice to work on your strengths, not your weaknesses. If your strengths are sufficiently commanding, you may not even have to worry about what chinks you may have in the armor. It’s a particularly valuable approach when it comes to a serve-based game, because that’s the style most conducive to keeping opponents away from the elements of your game that may let you down, all other things being equal.  

Last year, Sock also won a match at the U.S. Open. But in the second round he had to square off against Roddick. He has a better draw this year; his next seeded opponent is theoretically No. 11 Nicolas Almagro. First, Sock will face fellow unseeded player Flavio Cipolla.  

“It's the best,” Sock said of the upset-friendly atmosphere for which the Grandstand is famous. “You can't ask for a better tournament, a better atmosphere, a better environment. That Grandstand court was awesome. The fans were pretty close and really into it. It was a great environment. I'd love to play on there again sometime.”  

Sock may get his chance sooner than he thinks. And if not in singles, almost surely in mixed doubles, where he and Oudin may once again prove that while two serves undoubtedly are better than one, you can get the job done either way.