“He defends when he has to defend, and attacks when he has to attack, without mistake and with no risk, that’s most important”. 15 year old Manas Dhamne’s coach, Luca Vanni, from the Piatti Tennis Academy, breaks down Dhamne’s match from the Junior Wimbledon Boys’ competition.
Q) What was the game plan?
LV – In the Juniors it is not easy to plan from the beginning. Every player is different and we don’t usually know all the players like we do in the ATP, as there are no videos available to see. So the plan is to start every time by trying to put the ball in and go fast with the legs. Just to find more stability, and to be more comfortable on court. Just moving and moving a lot. Try to put as many shot that you can inside the court and also to see how the other player is going to play. This help to find our rhythm.
At the beginning, we try to put as many first serves in. At the beginning, the match was tight for both players. After that, Manas is playing really solid. He defends when he has to defend, and he attacks when he has to attack, without mistake and with no risk, that’s most important.
Then yes, we stopped 10 minutes for the medical timeout and started again. And the second set for me, he did just a few mistakes that he could have avoided. He started to get comfortable, and in tennis that is not a good idea because you start to think. The score got close. But after he always played with the good percentage, the serve and was moving really well. I think we just played a really good match.
Q) You probably covered it already. But what are you most happy with as a coach?
LV – He used the slice backhand more than previous matches because he saw that he was able to cut the rhythm of his opponent because his opponent was playing a lot of flat shots. I think the key is also his forehand is a bit with the topspin and also with the slice today, he mixed it good.
For both it was first round of Wimbledon, so it’s also tough to manage the emotions. This was the most important thing at the beginning of the match, to try to manage the emotion. He was feeling good and adjusted well to the emotion. That’s what I told to Manas, if the match is not going in your way, we have to be focusing on what we did in the last days and we have to find the solution to do it because it’s the only way to find the rhythm and come back on the way.
Q) One last question next match possibly against number one seed?
LV – Yes. But like I said before, I don’t know anybody because I’m on the junior tour since just the last two months. But I think we have to think about how to learn something every day for his future. That is the most important thing, and try to do it on the court. We have to improve the few days before the slice, the serve. And also in tennis is, make the right things when it’s important moment. And Manas has really, really good mentality to be a professional tennis player. I don’t know like top 10 or top 50, but professional tennis player.
