Marius Copil – Clean Service 3.0
Tall Romanian from Arad, Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) has been always a very talented player, probably even too talented for his own good. So, I remember seeing him at the 2008 French Open Junior event and witnessing how he counted on his talented hands, mainly on the forehand side, more than on the optimal/efficient body activity in all of his strokes. After over 7 years on tour, in which his ATP Tour ranking was moving in the range of 120-300, Marius has finally made a breakthrough into the top 100 in the middle of 2017. His best result yet came at the ATP 500 Swiss Indoors in Basel a few days ago, as he was able to qualify into the main event and to make it all the way into the main draw finals where he narrowly lost to the local hero Roger Federer (SUI). This helped him to reach his career high of top 60.
In his impressive Basel campaign, Marius was able to beat four (4) top 100 and also two (2) top 10 players. Clearly, his biggest weapon in Basel was his service, which I would currently consider as probably the cleanest Service 3.0 with a perfect helix form on the ATP Tour. Copil surely profits in his service from a tall body with long extremities but at 191 cm (6’3”) he can be considered as not that extremely tall player when comparing him to the likes of John Isner, Milos Raonic, Kevin Anderson or Marin Cilic. It was clearly visible in his two-set winning Basel match against the significantly taller top 10 player Marin Cilic (CRO) who brings with his 198 cm (6’6”) even more impressive bodily parameters to the court, that an almost perfect service technique leading to an optimal and well-targeted body energy unloading is superior to a less perfect unloading of a taller player as Copil’s 1st services have been mostly some 25 km/h (15 mph) faster than the ones from taller Cilic during this particular match.
The first three (3) photos below are from Copil’s 1st round winning qualification Basel match against Misha Zverev (GER), the following photos are from his 2nd round winning main draw match against Marin Cilic (CRO).
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – ad side – 1 of 1 – follow through 1 – practically an ideal well-targeted long-axis pronation with a perfect helix form as a sign of an optimal body energy transfer and its unloading against the target – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – deuce side – 1 of 1 – follow through 1 – end of an ideal targeted long-axis pronation where the hitting (right) arm and racket are traveling on the right side (outside) of the ball trajectory for quite a long time – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – ad side – 1 of 1 – end of follow through 1 aka targeted pronation – practically all of the available energy was unloaded against the target already and the hitting (right) arm is starting to relax while still on the dominant (right) side of the body and having the palm facing outside – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match-warm-up – ad side – 1 of 6 – beginning in a comfortable wide stance – tossing (left) hand is connected with the racket – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match-warm-up – ad side – 2 of 6 – toss – initiation – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match-warm-up – ad side – 3 of 6 – toss / take-back / loading – tossing (left) arm stays in a very controlled position, take-back is delayed and thus rather abbreviated, feet are shifting from the platform to the pinpoint stance – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match-warm-up – ad side – 4 of 6 – cocking / push-off – hitting (right) elbow is clearly rising and leading the way, perfect eye control of the impact zone – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match-warm-up – 5 of 6 – ad side – follow through 1 – targeted pronation in the helix form as a sign of an almost ideal body energy unloading – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match-warm-up – ad side – 6 of 6 – follow through 2 / landing – relaxation – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 2nd topspin service 3.0 in a match-warm-up – ad side – 1 of 1 – follow through 1 – targeted pronation in a helix form – the actions are almost identical, just the angle of the racket goes more to the outside (right) – this service followed the one showed directly above – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – deuce side – 1 of 3 – toss – initiation, still in a comfortable wide stance, eyes are looking already into the impact zone – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – deuce side – 2 of 3 – follow through 1 – targeted pronation in a helix form as a sign of an almost complete body energy unloading, the power axis is perfectly controlled – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – deuce side – 3 of 3 – follow through 2 – relaxation while landing in the court – most of the energy developed in the loading part of the stroke was spend already (as shown above) – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 2nd topspin service 3.0 in a match – deuce side – 1 of 2 – toss / take-back – perfect eye control of the tossed ball, which is being released above head level – this portion of the action occurs still in the platform stance – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 2nd topspin service 3.0 in a match – deuce side – 2 of 2 – follow through 1 – targeted pronation in an ideal helix form, racket axis has some 50-60° declination outside (right) from the ball trajectory – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – ad side – 1 of 6 – start – in a calm comfortable but yet powerful wide platform stance – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – ad side – 2 of 6 – toss / take-back initiation – the ball release occures slightly above the head level – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – 3 of 6 – push-off short after its peak while racket reached the cocking position with a high elbow – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – ad side – 4 of 6 – follow through 1 – targeted pronation with a very solid helix form as a sign of an almost perfect body energy unloading in line with the power axis – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – ad side – 5 of 6 – follow through 2 – relaxation while landing in the court – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
Marius Copil (*1990 / ROM) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – ad side – 6 of 6 – this service was clicked at 215 km/h (134 mph) – Copil’s fastest service during the tournament was clicked at 240 km/h (150mph)!!! – ATP 500 Basel / Switzerland – October 2018
This article covers certain aspects of Marius Copil’s service and service in general only! Further extensive photo galleries and more distinct details about his service and other strokes as well as about the strokes of other players are available upon a qualified request at drmgb11(at)gmail.com. Some significant details of this kind, necessary for the peak performance in modern tennis as well as for a sustainable tennis training/development in general, are being discussed also in the seminar “TENNIS 3.0 – Future of the Game”, which is available worldwide upon request – www.tennis30.com / www.tennis30.cz
Photos (October 2018) & text (November 2018) copyright by Dr. Martin G. Baroch. Any further publication of either any of the photos and/or texts with the explicit written permission issued by the author/copyright owner only!! All instruction provided reflects just the personal opinion of the author and neither the author nor the CPTA accepts any responsibility for potential damages, direct or implied, of any kind!!
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