David Goffin: An Overall Great Tennis Player

David Goffin is currently one of the best European tennis players. He's among the best ten players in the world, thanks to his varied hits that make opponents uncomfortable.

David Goffin is a professional tennis player born on December 7th, 1990 in Liege, Belgium. He’s currently the seventh best tennis player in the world, according to the Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP.

Goffin is not very tall compared to other professional tennis players, but this doesn’t stop him from success. Here, we’ll summarize the skills that have made him such a great tennis player.

How David Goffin plays

David Goffin is most comfortable on the back of the court. He has a powerful drive, which allows him to create certain accelerations to overpower his opponents. Due to his style, he can create optimal conditions to be a good player on clay.

However, he seems to prefer high-speed courts. And so, three of his four titles have been won on hard courts, which are faster. David Goffin plays similarly to Rafael Nadal, from Spain. In other words, his points come from counter-attacks and the persistence to hit every ball.

He’s also been compared to David Ferrer. However, David Goffin seems to give in less to his opponents than both of these tennis players. He likes to power through the attack when the opponent is against the ropes.

The lift

Since he’s not a good server, David Goffin uses one of the basic techniques in tennis. This technique is to serve the ball with an open topspin for the opponent to remove it from their baseline. This helps him take the initiative for the next hit.

When he can’t have control over a point, Goffin tends to drop shot to make the opponent go to the net. Once his opponent is there he can do a passing shot, which is his specialty.

David Goffin always hits with topspin, thus he uses the continental racket grab. This favors him in the way that he can create different effects using the ball and vary the direction without much effort. Thus, being able to maintain his perfect and characteristic drop shots.

He’s not a defined tennis player, as maybe Roger Federer is with his backhand or as Juan Martín del Potro with his powerful right. On the other hand, he stands out as a comprehensive player who has a large variety of hits.

As with all players, he has his weakness, in his case, it’s his backhand. He could improve the strength of his backhand to make sure it affects his opponents more powerfully.

Winning mentality

Aside from his great physical and technical skills in his game, David Goffin has a great mental advantage. He’s a quick thinker and carefully analyzes each situation before, during and after the game. Furthermore, he analyzes both victories and losses alike.

He has changed quite a bit since 2009 when he needed more muscle mass to become a top player. Realizing this, he trained to gain strength and mass. He also has a clear tactic that he adjusts, depending on the rival. He customizes his strategies for each opponent to attack them differently and he never plays the same game.

Finally, we can conclude that although David Goffin is not the fanciest player in the circuit, he’s quite effective. And so, at only 28 years of age, he still has much more to learn and apply which can only make him even better.