More Dementieva's Serve

Dementieva definitely improved her serve immeasurably. But it's no less of a liability. Her old serve (the one that John Wertheim calls "the wounded seagull") was so weird and had so little pace that many of the big hitter opponents she faced seemed to have trouble with it. Big hitters love pace, and this serve was the exact opposite of pace.

Now she has a more traditional serve instead of a knuckleball. It's less of a weird surprise to her opponents. Sharapova actually made her serve look as much of a liability now as her old serve.

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