U.S. Open Player Spin (Page 2)

A first serve might be traveling 120mph when it left the racket, but how fast was that serve spinning? How much more spin was there on a "spin" second serve compared to a first serve? What about the heavy topspin forehands of the European players? How did the spin of players such as Tomas Muster or Sergi Bruguera compare with players with a more classic style such as Pete Sampras, and who hit the ball with less spin or "flatter" with less spin? How "flat" was a flat ball? How "heavy" was heavy or exaggerated spin? Did balls hit with underspin spin more or less than topspin? What about volleys and dropshots?

From our field tests, we believed our digital camera could answer these questions, and our 10 days of filming on center court at the Open proved that this really was true. The answers we discovered to our questions regarding spin surprised even some very experienced observers of the game.