Rise of The Star, Yuki Bhambri: The Nuts and Bolts Are in Place

Yuki Bhambri, aged 17, is currently the No. 1-ranked player in the junior circuit. He is the reigning Australian Open Junior Champion.

This is the first in the two-article series on analyzing the game and future prospects of this young talent.

This article takes a look at the mechanics of the player's game, while Roh takes a look at the Big Picture.

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You think based on your axioms. You play based on the elements of your game.

The elements of your game can roughly be divided into two: movement and shot-making.

There is always an optimal relative position, and relative velocity of the ball with respect to the player, for hitting a particular shot.

When you have good movement, and a wide comfort zone around you, from which to hit shots effectively, you get to manage the match from a higher level. You tend to be a world-beater.

What training, experience, and growth do are widen your comfort zone, add speed to your movement, reinforce the power on your shots, and add variants to it.

So what must one look for in a young budding player? The basics of the stroke-play and the intent of the movements.

And in Yuki Bhambri, it could be observed that all the nuts and bolts are present.

Service

He has a solid first serve which he delivers flat, and with a lot of pace, angled or down the T. Sometimes even players on the pro-tour are content with just blocking it back.

On the second deliveries, and sometimes on the first, he delivers a kick-serve which generates bounce off the ground. When angled on the BH side or towards the body, this too can extract a weak return.

Forehand

His major weapon seems to be his forehand, a fact which coupled with the previous aspect of his game would mean that he should be able to go for a 1-2 combination with the serve setting up the forehand. This is normally enough to hold serve consistently.

His forehand needs a bit more study. During the process of hitting the shot, he swings the racquet using not just his arms, but the full rotation of his shoulders as well. This contributes to the racquet-head speed.

If one notices how he projects himself off the ground in the process of hitting the shot and lands after it, one could notice that the movement in the air, of his body, complements the shot adding to the racquet speed.

The whole shot is executed with a lot of smoothness and flair: no jerky adjustments or re-calibrations, which means that the anticipation going into the shot is good.

The cross-court forehand looks solid and his down-the-line forehand will only improve as he adds a few pounds to his body.

If one has to be able to execute a shot with such flair and smoothness, then one needs to be in position, and start the motions going into the shot, early enough. This brings us to his movement, which is absolutely top-notch.

Footwork and Movement

It is noticeable how well he is able to get into position, and how much time he has to play his shot.

And indeed one cannot fail to notice how well he plays the inside-out forehand or the inside-in forehand: a hallmark of players with great footwork.

Both these shots need the same kind of movement: run around a backhand to deploy your more powerful weapon...your forehand. In addition to that, as you execute the shot, you move forward into the court to add speed to the ball.

When you have enough time to set up your shots, you can start adding variants to it as well (you have the luxury of time), hit the ball a milli-second late if you so wish, or make a minor adjustment and go for a drop shot. Good movement is a real good help when it comes to expanding your artillery.

Backhand

Bhambri's two-handed backhand is rock solid, and has good consistency. What was most noticeable was that, on occasions he is able to go down the line as well as cross-court. The backhand, if not a killer is a solid weapon with good depth and consistency.

The sliced back-hand, mostly on return of serve, stays close to the net and stays low after hitting the service box. Reminds one of someone.

Return of Serve

Bhambri's return of serve is really top-notch.

He takes the serve standing close to the baseline, and on many occasions goes for out-right winners from both flanks: forehand and backhand.

Offensive returns are great to see and will give him a lot of opportunities to break serve.

Tidbits

What is perhaps not proportionate with the rest of his game is his net-play. He can afford to approach the net more given that he has a great serve.

Bhambri could perhaps slice a bit more on his ground-game, and his service returns.

He is what can be called, "an offensive base-liner". He plays close to the line and doesn't shy away from taking the ball early stepping into the court.

With a bit more speed on the running, and a bit more pace on his strokes, he is all ready to climb up the tennis ladder.