Lucie Šafárová is one of the most supremely talented tennis-players I've ever seen. She's a fearless, ambitious shotmaker who loves to go for broke, and hits many spectacular winners. Her athleticism is amazing: she runs like the wind. Every time I see her play, she is a joy to watch.
In the quarter-finals of the Australian Open 2007, Lucie's average groundstroke-speed was measured at 71mph: 1mph faster than her opponent Nicole Vaidišová, and only 2mph slower than men's #2 Rafael Nadal. And she achieves such speeds with flairsome power: she may be only 5'9" with a light frame, but her groundstrokes are flat and she hits them with superb timing.
Left-handed Lucie has a blistering forehand in particular, with the way she loads up and then uncoils. Whether she's hitting a down-the-line, crosscourt or off-forehand, they're like thunderbolts! She has the ability to come round the outside of the ball to hit a crosscourt forehand.
I always love watching two-handed left-handed backhands, because they remind me of Monica Seles. Lucie's backhand can be just as powerful as her forehand, but it is more liable to 'misbehave', and she seems to react worse to missing her backhand than to missing her forehand. Her backhand down the line is the outstanding shot on that side.
Lucie often achieves great depth on her groundstrokes, and a low height over the net. She gets down well to low balls.
Lucie has a swinging lefty serve, and frequently uses it to set up a groundstroke-winner on the third stroke of the rally. Her favourite play from the deuce-court is the serve down the middle followed by the off-forehand, while in the ad-court, I love the way she hits a serve out wide - with that weird-rotation slice to pull her opponent outside the tramlines - followed by the off-forehand. But she mixes it up by serving to all four corners of the service-box - her serve is very tough to predict.
Lucie's serve can break down because it's a quick action with a low toss. So it's hard for her to get that kick-spin on her second serve, which equates to height, i.e. many of her double faults (not that she does serve that many) are into the net.
Lucie has Seles-like returns of serve. She takes them early, often standing up to 1˝ metres inside the baseline to receive. She's very aggressive off the second serve.
Tactically, Lucie loves to go for the sidelines, which is the basic building-block of the spreading rally. She loves off-forehand + crosscourt forehand combinations. When she's hitting a down-the-line drive, she often uses a slightly off-angle so that it lands just inside or even on the sideline.
Lucie has wonderful left-handed angles, and she can mix up the pace with very short, softly-spun crosscourt forehands and backhands to the sidelines, which are a speciality of hers.
Lucie is a very sharp-eyed player who is always looking to take the initiative. She loves to punish floaters and short balls with her blistering groundstrokes. She's also willing to come to the net - especially to dispatch floaters - although she sometimes lets herself down with weak volleys. But I believe she's a great volleyer in the making; she tends to play old-fashioned punch-volleys rather than the drive-volleys which have become so common in professional tennis with modern racket-technology.
Lucie has great passing-shots: perfectly judged and well disguised. Her dipping backhand pass is particularly impressive, as it lands at the feet of the incoming volleyer, making that opponent have to play an awkward half-volley.
Lucie's athleticism often results in breathtaking gets and amazing pick-ups at full stretch. For example, she has been known to hit a backhand pass-winner down the line off a smash!
Lucie's determination to run down every ball is, of course, one of her great strengths, because a lot of players don't like it when they have to play extra balls that they don't expect. But it can also work against her when, as happened in her third-round loss to Jelena Jankovic at Wimbledon 2007, she gives everything she has in the second set but has nothing left for the third.
Lucie often plays with strapping on her right thigh, but this is mainly just a precaution so that if she has a slight thigh-strain, it won't get worse.
Lucie often looks awkward when her opponent wrong-foots her by hitting back behind her (I am not a traitor when I say this - I'm sure it's already the first thing that any coach tells her next opponent). In this position, she'll often hit a sliced backhand - a shot she only hits when she's on the defensive (but which, in time, she could also develop into a useful approach-shot).
Lucie's main weakness is that she is a streaky player who loves to go for broke, but also has patches where she makes too many unforced errors, and that's why she finished 2007 with a career-high ranking of #22 rather than #1. She can break down at the end of long rallies.
Lucie is a determined competitor with tremendous fighting spirit, and seems mentally strong. She never seems to get tentative; she just keeps going for her shots. She tends to take a lot of time between points, and often catches her service-toss.
As of the end of 2007, Lucie has won three WTA singles-titles: Estoril 2005, Forest Hills 2005 and Gold Coast 2006. She has had wins over such top-ten players (at the time she beat them) as Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nicole Vaidišová and Patty Schnyder. She knocked Amélie Mauresmo out of both the Australian Open and French Open 2007, and inflicted one of Justine Henin's four defeats of 2007 at Paris, where she beat three top-nine players in a row to reach the final.
Having never seen Lucie play before the Australian Open 2007, I already considered her among the many attractive East- and Central-European girls on the WTA Tour. I used to call her "juicy Lucie" before I learned that it's actually pronounced "lootseeah"! She has beautiful big, blue eyes, and the most wonderfully sculpted lips. She wears tops that frequently hike up to expose her midriff. Her face tends to look better from the side than from the front, and when she wears her hair in a ponytail rather than letting it fall down over her ears.
Lucie's normal talking-voice is one of the sweetest I've ever heard, and she also makes lovely noises when she's playing: a high-pitched, two-tone grunt reminiscent of Monica Seles (albeit much quieter!), and cute squawks when she has to hit a ball at full stretch.
By the end of 2009, this biography will include a detailed review of each year of Lucie's career. For those who were expecting this by the end of 2008: my apologies, but 2008 was a really hectic year for me. I expect a lot more free time for Lucie's biography in 2009.