The first tweener done in official competition: Vilas!
From "Jerriy" of TW forum:
Yes. And indeed, he invented it, in the late 60's.
The shot was executed for the first time in 1974 at the courts of the Club Obras Sanitarias of Buenos Aires in an exhibition match against the French player Wanaro N'Godrella. In a official match, the shot was executed by Vilas for the first time in 1975 in the Indianapolis tournament on clay, against the Spanish Manuel Orantes. I don´t remember if I heard some time that he made it in a previous game, but anyway, it's true; and you can see a text of his book "Quién soy y como juego"(1976) in which he describes how he discovered that shot:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/tenis-...08799115836741
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Maybe brown on
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Nice pic.
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Permalink Reply by Joe B. (BP, CA) on
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And with a wood racquet, no less.
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Permalink Reply by Mark / The Mayor on
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No kidding! You must be precise! I had forgotten that we used to call this shot "the hot dog". I was researching to see if it is understood that Vilas was the first and came across this yahoo answer that does not answer but has some insights.
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Great picture. It is universally agreed that Vilas invented the tweener? So, what is the documentation? Just Vilas saying he did it first in a real match? I mean, I believe him but there must be others that claim to be the first. I imagine there are many that would do it in practice or even practice matches, and there would be many claims of first. So I think the real test is first sanctioned match.
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Permalink Reply by Tim Prapong on
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Not universally agreed. "Auscon" of menstennisforums.com state:
It was first used in competition by Rod Laver, the year after he grabbed his first Grand Slam
Not being able to defend his titles, Rod was pissed, and so he decided to play every shot through his legs as a show of defiance.
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Also, from "LeeD" of TW forum:
My tennis years, the mid '70's, Nastase's backfire was the "in" shot. We knew about the tweener and the reverse bolo, but Nastase's shot was often a clean winner against top 30 PRO mens. So everyone tried it a few times, very few every figuring it out. Nastase could hit it DTL or short angle CC, even from the ad side of the court. A true goofaround genius, that twisted dude.
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So what does a Reverse Bolo look like?
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That is obviously a lame joke that failed.
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Ahhhh. The Bucharest Backfire. Looks like Avery could stand to get a little more pop on that shot. I have a similar shot in my arsenal but I slice it like a serve out wide in the deuce court.
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A reverse bolo slice, very nice. Better yet, call it the Baker Backslice. lol
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