Miami Tennis • Rising ATP Star Pablo Carreno Busta Beats Kevin Anderson

Pablo Carreno Busta (R) of Spain shakes hands with Kevin Anderson (L) of South Africa after Carreno Busta defeated Anderson during a men’s quarterfinal round match at the Miami Open tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA, 29 March 2018. EPA-EFE/ERIK S. LESSER

Went for a swim in the Atlantic today. There’s something to be said for depth in these situations. When you hit the point where your feet no longer touch, the things beneath you suddenly matter. Out here the predators are bigger, the threats greater. When one ventures into this part of the ocean, there is tremendous risk.

In the final set of the Carreno Busta-Anderson semifinal, these adversaries flirted with the depths. Millimeters defined in and out shots, with both players hammering fearless baseline groundies. These are some big fish! Eventually, the Spaniard conquered the South African 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (6), but as the scoreline suggests, we’re talking two apex predators.

Lesson: when you watch pro matches, focus on the depth of the ball. In hopes of neutralizing the serve, returns often land within the back three feet of the court to prevent servers from striking the first ball offensively. Rally balls and defensive balls frequently find the back two feet of the court in hopes of stopping an opponent’s advance. Second serves land within the back eighteen inches of the box to dissuade aggressive returners from creeping inside the baseline. At this level, playera must flirt with the disaster of too much depth because staying in the shallow end does not let them swim with the big fish. There are many who are unwilling to wade out into deeper waters , where the risk is greater but the rewards are too. The question for you is what type of opponents do you ultimately want to beat -small fish in the shallows or the big ones in the deep? Anderson and Carreno Busta have learned how much risk it takes to reach the finals of a premiere ATP event. Today, the Spaniard didn’t have to worry about the swim back.