Shelton & Evans - practice session at Indian Wells on 3.8.23, including highlights from their practice set. 00:00 Shelton's kick serve is a problem 00:08 Warmup (Shelton near side) 01:55 Highlights from practice set
what make it ridiculous is the toss. in the first clip, the toss goes slightly right so dan split steps slightly right, and the when the kick goes left, it kills him.
Shelton's height (6'4) combined with his incredible arm strength and speed creates a deadly serve. His kick serve literally bounces all the way above most players.
Doesn’t take much to bother that guy. And he has a one handed. If Shelton wanted he could put that same kick right into Evans back left shoulder on with some of that twist. He would be helpless
That is an insane kick serve obviously but the best way to return such a serve is to step in and hit it. Not let the ball play you as Evans is doing here. It is actually easier to hit the ball than to counter the side spin kick serve with a slice. He is literally being bullied here.
@@Jingoa Difficult, totally agreed. Doesn't work - Nope. Try it and you would be surprised. The best returner is Novak and he always tries to hit the ball. Also, my point was not about hanging back. Evans is literally dancing around trying to slice a serve with so much topspin and sidespin. Either step in and hit it or stand back and hit it. The key word is "hit it".
![Ben Shelton v. Dan Evans - 2023 IW Court Level Practice [4k 60fps]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
