A Small World – Part III – Johnson, Muller

Written by: Tennischiro on 30th July 2011

A Small World - Part III - Johnson, Muller |

The final match that I focused on on Tuesday was the Johnson/Muller match. Again, I was going to be watching a match in which I had a bit of a personal stake, or at least a personal interest. I have watched Stevie Johnson come up in SoCal junior play for a good 8 years, sometimes just at a distance marveling at “little Stevie’s” wonderful racket work, sometimes watching him beat up on one of the kids I was coaching. He’s not little anymore; he’s a big man (6′ 2″ and a lean 190 lbs.) who routinely hits second serves over 105 mph. The last couple of years I have done some work with Stevie’s college coach, Peter Smith, and I’ve even gotten to see some of Stevie’s college matches. On one clinic, I worked with Stevie and his dad, Steve, and I had known Steve already through junior and USPTA events in SoCal. Then I got to see them as Stevie was practicing with Ryan Sweeting just last Saturday. So there was no point in denying it. I was going to be in for an emotional roller coaster watching this match …I hoped!

I missed the first game watching the end of the Harrison/Berankis match over the railing, but Stevie started out with a quick break and was holding serve easily. He broke again quickly in the 3rd game and within minutes of the start of the match, the USC star was up 0-4. Then the Luxembourgian began to play. He got in a few more serves and started to up the pace on his groundstrokes. He was able to hold and force Stevie to serve it out at 5-2. Johnson responded with 4 first serves and a love game. He had played a near flawless first set and clearly had shaken the tour veteran Muller who had 10 years of pro experience compared to Johnson’s 3 years of college competition. Stevie had put in 15 of 19 first serves and won all but two of those 15 points. He lost only one of his second serve points and that was on a double fault. Johnson’s first serves were well into the 120’s and, as I pointed out earlier, his second serves were routinely above 100mph.

The other thing that was great about watching Stevie in this match was he brought an enthusiasm to the contest that is all too often lacking in some of our competitors. That enthusiasm is perhaps best personified in Rafael Nadal as he sprints to the service line after the coin toss to start a match. I was reminded earlier on seeing Gustavo Kuerten’s coach, Larri Passos, what great joy Guga brought to the game. (He laid down in the clay and made “snow angel wings” after he won at Roland Garros.) He was bouncing around, eager and ready to go. Sure, it was only his second main draw, tour level match. He qualified here last year and lost to Somdev Devvarman who won back-to-back NCAA championships for Virginia when Stevie was a junior and senior in high school. (If you go to the ATP site and pull up an individual player and then his playing activity, you can find not only the record for each player, but also the individual match statistics.) If you look at the statistics from that match and compare it to Johnson’s performance here just a year later, it is clear just how much he has matured and improved.

Muller, on the other hand, is perhaps a little travel weary. He’s played over 500 professional matches, counting Challengers and ITF Futures. And, despite the fact he reached the top 100 for the first time in 2004, he has had to play a lot of those lower level venues the last couple of years. But he is back doing well again and, at 28, is close to his career best ranking of 59 (Current ranking 71 this week). He has had great results here in LA, reaching the final in 2005. That year he knocked off Nadal at Wimbledon. Gilles has done well in the US where he has reached the quarterfinals of the US Open as well as earning the world number one junior ranking by winning the US Open Juniors in 2001. Last week, this son of a postal worker had a big week reaching the semifinals of Atlanta where the 6′ 4″ lefty came back to win a tie-breaker 2nd set against John Isner, but faded 6-1 in the third. He would do well to try to find that spark and enthusiasm that could give him another half-step in quickness getting to the ball. But right now, he was settling in for the grim battle of first serves against a surprisingly worthy opponent. You know Muller had to be thinking, “Where did this kid come from?” Just across town, Gilles.

I had the pleasure of watching the first Kosakowski/Smyzcek match with Bong Hernandez and I was sitting with a bunch of players from Griffith Park in LA and watched the second match with an old practice partner, Robert Figureroa, but I had abandoned them to see this match and I was sitting alone in the shady southwest corner of the stadium. My nerves would go nuts if I didn’t keep busy. I started out to take notes, but I hate my own handwriting and even I can’t read it (Hey, I’m a doctor!). I knew Peter Smith had wanted to be here for this match, but was coaching his son and other SoCal 16 year-olds at Zonals in Salt Lake City. So I decided to text him the whole match, point by point, game by game. The benefit, besides keeping me busy and calming my nerves, was I ended up with great stats on the match. I don’t know why there isn’t more of an effort to have people keep their own statistics on tennis matches the way spectators sometimes like to fill out scorecards for baseball games.

As they entered the second set, it was clear that Muller was now fully engaged and ready for a true battle. Muller pressed Johnson’s serve in his first service game at 0-30 and 30-40, but Johnson managed to hold. Muller was now making more first serves, moving forward aggressively and he held again to put Johnson behind 2-3, serving in the second set. I say behind because that is what 2-3 says. But Johnson was not really behind. Except for a little hiccup in the first two points of the second game of this set which gave Muller his only break point, Stevie had completely dominated his service games, he was up a set and he was on serve. But pressure comes from inside as much as from outside and Johnson must have felt the pressure of the moment.

In looking carefully at the ATP posted statistics on the match as well as my own “texted” recording of the match, it was clear what had happened in the critical breaks in the second and third sets. In the 2-3 game, Johnson got up 30-0 on a short forehand off a return of a first serve and then a ufe from Muller even though Stevie let him see a second serve. The door opened a crack when Stevie double-faulted in the net. At 30-15 on another second serve, Muller moved to the net and won the point with a volley. At 30-all, Stevie got the first serve in, but hit his forehand was short and Muller took advantage of the opportunity: 30-40. Muller sees another second serve, but he let Johnson off the hook as he missed the forehand return. Johnson made only his 3rd first serve of the game, but his sudden struggle with his prime weapon may have shaken his confidence just a bit and he ended up playing defensively and allowing Muller to attack and take the point. Then at ad-out, Johnson made his second double-fault of this critical game to give Muller the lead, 4-2.

Johnson made 79% of his first serves in the first set and did almost as well through his first two service games of the second set. Stevie has a wonderful service motion with great rhythm. I have no explanation of why he would suddenly have so much trouble and only be able to make 3 of 8 first serves and, worse, miss 2/5 second serves he had to hit in the game. You have to believe experience and that internal pressure has to have a lot to do with it. More experience will help Johnson to recognize the truth: that he was ahead and in control of his service games. But when a big lefty like Muller hits a couple of aces and winners and leaves you standing still, it is hard to say to yourself, “Hey, I’m still ahead. I need to keep doing what I have been doing and be patient on his serve. He’s still giving me some chances.” Instead, I think, Johnson felt the pressure and rushed himself through his routine just enough to throw off his normal ritual and service rhythm. The result was missed first serves and two double faults.

To his credit, although Muller continued to press the attack on his service game to take it to 2-5, Stevie put in 4/5 first serves and attacked successfully to force Muller to serve for the set at 5-3. Stevie missed a chance when he failed to put a forehand return in the court off a second serve at 30-30. Johnson saved one set point when he used his slice backhand to draw an error from Muller, but the southpaw made two more first serves (5/8 in the game) and finished off the set with a his own winner and then a backhand error from Johnson: 6-3.

At this point, on paper, the match is all even, set apiece. But in reality, the momentum has just swung big-time to the veteran. He’s no longer behind and he is beginning to find his comfort level and get in more first serves. The kid is ranked outside the top 500; he is supposed to win this match.

Stevie needed to realize that Gilles had failed on two of the only three break points he had let the lefty see in two sets; and he might have survived that one as well if he hadn’t double-faulted. And he seemed to settle in to a good rhythm, making 6 of his 8 first serves. Despite getting down 0-30 on a deft attack by Muller and a let cord on the second point, Stevie fired an ace and a service winner in the wide corner to make it 30-30. When Stevie let him see a second serve, Gilles attacked and earned another break point. Johnson put another good serve out wide to go back to deuce. Despite allowing another 2nd serve, Stevie won the deuce point after a long rally and finished the game off with an ace: 0-1 Johnson.

Things were looking better for the American, but Muller fired off 3 aces to even the score at 1-1. Muller would go on to make 71% of his first serves in the third set and 9 aces as well. Stevie answered in the next game making 4/6 first serves and attacking successfully to put the pressure back on Gilles.

The 1-2 game in the third was just a hold, but it may have been the key game in the match. Muller would give Johnson 4 errors to go with 2 double faults and 2 points Stevie won on winners, but it was not enough. On the only break points Johnson saw in the third set, Muller hit an ace and a tough wide serve that drew an easy volley winner. At the end of the game Johnson just missed two passes. In addition, in a key stretch in the middle of that game where they were trading unforced errors, Stevie framed a forehand off a second serve. That game could easily have gone to Johnson. But it was not to be.

They traded two love games to get to the “key 7th game” with the score all tied up, set apiece, 3-3. Johnson got off to a 30-0 lead off a 101mph second serve and a first serve. Looking pretty good! Johnson double-faults twice! Ouch! Missing his first serve again, he puts in a second at 105 and makes a forehand winner to go up 40-30. Everything is still OK. Johnson proceeds to miss his next 3 first serves, make a forehand unforced error to deuce, miss a short backhand to ad out and then Muller made a winner on his 2nd break point of the set: 4-3 Muller.

Muller would go on to serve out the match with the loss of just two more points against serve. Johnson showed some character as he got 5/8 first serves in at 3-5; he had to come back from 15-40 down in that game and finished it off with a volley winner and two aces. But Muller closed it out at love in the last game with two more aces of his own including one on match point.

It was the kind of performance you would expect from a veteran like Muller. He got knocked down early, but he got back up and made more and more first serves and passing shots as the match went on. But I think Johnson should be encouraged and we will see a lot more of him at this level of competition. Except for those 2 games he allowed service breaks, he served very well and very effectively. Take away the 16 points in those two games, and he made 42 first serves in 62 tries and he won 33 of those 42 points. More importantly, when you take away the double faults, he won 17 points on 30 second serves. In those two break games he double faulted 4 times on 12 second serves. In the rest of the match, he double-faulted just twice in 24 chances (still too many in my book, but acceptable in today’s game, especially if you are serving 105mph second serves). You can make the same kind of analysis with respect to Johnson’s return game. He started so fast sweeping Muller aside as he broke on both of his initial opportunities. But he was 0/5 on his remaining chances. A couple of those were all about Muller’s play, but Stevie had to do a little better with his chances. Take those 5 points away in the second and third sets and Johnson actually won 22 out of 65 of his receiving chances.

So I’m not going to be too upset about Stevie’s loss. He showed he can play with the big boys. He needs to get just a little tougher mentally in those pressure situations, but his game holds great promise. All that nifty racket work he showed off as a kid is paying off in wonderful defensive skills that are fun to watch and give him something extra in his tool kit. His slice is also very effective. I think he needs to firm up the forehand a little bit and make the shot trajectory a little less parabolic and more elliptical like Federer, especially on the short balls. Frankly, Muller’s forehand winners tended to be a little too flat for my taste and brought quite a few errors as a result, but you could clearly see the contrast with Johnson’s stroke that seemed to me to be just a little flippy on the short balls. I look forward to seeing what happens after another year under Peter Smith’s tutelage at USC. That one more year to firm up all the little bits and pieces that are “almost there” could make all the difference next year.

In the meantime, we have to congratulate Gilles Muller on a good comeback. He played well and kept his composure in the face of a tough 1st set beatdown. He got it together and didn’t allow another break. If he keeps this up, there is a good chance his ranking will continue to improve as he goes into the meat of the summer hardcourt season in Montreal and Cincy.