Marco Cecchinato's backhand is like Stan Wawrinka's, says a former No. 1
In an interview to Ubitennis he former world No. 1 Jim Courier recalled the 2018 French Open Marco Cecchinato's run where the Italian defeated Novak Djokovic and then lost to Dominic Thiem in the semifinals. 'There a lot of reasons that brought Marco to this win. First of all he believed in the win, it was not easy in such a high level match against Novak Djokovic. His down the line backhand is an amazing shot, he hit many winners. In the first two sets he delivered an aggressive tennis, then he dropped down a lot but he managed to stay there. The tie-break was one of the most dramatic ones I ever watched at the French Open', said Courier. 'He has an amazing backhand. I was commenting the match live for the American TV and I straight forward said at the beginning of the match that his backhand looked like Stan Wawrinka's. He has same kind of power. A very nice, efficient shot. What hit me the most is that he managed to play very well even under pressure.'
In April last year Cecchinato played the Barletta Challenger, the month after he got a great result in a Grand Slam. 'In Barletta Marco could not play at his best, he was mixing between ATP and Challenger tournaments in the beginning of the year', said his coach Simone Vagnozzi. 'Then he got convinced of his weapons, winning an ATP title (Budapest), defeating a player like (Pablo) Cuevas in Rome and competing with (David) Goffin gave him confidence.'
After the win over Djokovic, Cecchinato said: 'Amazing tennis. I was two sets up against Novak. In the third, I was a little bit tired. Also, in the fourth, I was two break down, and I start to play very well. And on the tiebreak, I played very, very well tiebreak, so many chance match point, and very good points. And in the end, I won the match. Is amazing for me.'
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from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2BhsjUc
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