The Bet-At-Home Open were played here in Hamburg, Germany this past week. The tournament is an ATP 500 level event and I spend two days at the tournament watching a lot of great players play and practice.

Juan Monaco from Argentina ended up winning the tournament with a victory over the local favorite, Tommy Haas. With that win Monaco is now a Top10 player!

I made some interesting observations that I believe can help you with your game so I thought I would write them down in a quick blog post.

Take-Aways From The Tournament:

1. Fitness Rules The Tour

The fitness level is absolutely astonishing these days. As many of you know this is the area that has changed so much in the game in recent years. All players in the men’s game are incredibly fit these days, which makes it so difficult to hit any winners!

So what kind of fitness are we talking about ? These guys are ridiculously strong, especially in the lower body. Just looking at them it becomes obvious that they are training for maximum strength in the weight room and the days where players would get fit by going for runs are gone!

Take Away For Your Game:

If you are not already on some sort of strength program for your legs it is time to get started. Leg strength will determine how well you move around the court and many tennis matches are won simply by the player that can cover the court better!

Here is a basic exercise that you can get started with:
Lunges For More Leg Strength

Another interesting blog post on the subject might be physical intensity

2. Dominate With The Forehand

Players are hitting huge forehands and they run around their backhands a lot even if they have a good backhand. A great example is Tommy Haas, who got to the finals of the Hamburg event. He is known for a great one-handed backhand and an average forehand. Nevertheless, he still decides to run around the backhand quite often simply because he can generate a little more pace on the forehand side.

Pro players make a lot of use of the wrist and forearm muscles. This is not necessarily something that all of you guys should copy and I will talk about this in more detail in my upcoming forehand video course.

Take Away For Your Game:

If you have a great forehand then make sure you use it enough by running around your backhand in appropriate situations. If your forehand is not so good then it is time to put the work in and develop a solid forehand because this shot is extremely important!

3. Weaknesses Get Exploited Relentlessly

In the Top100 in the men’s game there are simply very few technical weaknesses these days. Players can not get away with one rather weak shot anymore. Andy Roddick still does ok with his weak backhand but that is only because he has a huge advantage with that incredible serve of his.

The trend is going more and more in this direction and the same thing is happening in the women’s game even though to a lesser degree. Actually the same thing is also happening at the recreational level even though I must admit to a much lesser degree. I believe that through mediums like the Internet, more and more players will receive the necessary information to develop better technique and a better tennis game in general and as a result the overall level will go up!

Take Away For Your Game:

If you still have one really weak shot in your game it is time to turn things around and finally work on that weakness rather than playing around it!

Allright. That’s it for now. Time to get to work and take your game to the next level!