There is a specific type of tennis player that the WTA tour produced in abundance for about a three-year stretch between roughly 2022 and 2024. She was a baseline grinder. Not especially big, not especially explosive. Built around extraordinary footwork, elite point construction, and a forehand loaded with topspin that she could angle into corners or drive deep to push opponents behind the baseline. The archetype worked beautifully because it exploited a temporary gap: a large portion of the tour had not yet figured out how to step in and take the ball early against those high, heavy balls. So they got pushed back, and they got beaten from there, repeatedly.
Source: lastwordonsports.com
