01 February 2011

THE SHOT OF THE CENTURY: by DAVID PALMER

I've already pointed out a couple of times that David Palmer in general doesn't go for the inch-perfect ball, he rather looks to find the angle that makes the ball fade into the side-wall. And it's the same story in the below rally; watch the reaction volley drop at 0:08, the boast at 0:13, the cross drop flick at 0:15 or the counter-drop at 0:17, in each case the ball goes safely way above the tin and fades perfectly into the side-wall making his opponent stretch and cutting his options to return the ball in diverse angles. But then, at the end, there was no other option, after Ashour's lob that stuck near around the middle of the back-wall, he had to go for the inch-perfect shot, and with a shortened grip, David Palmer hit a Ramy Ashour-like crazy poetic deep drop into the nick. The public erupts and Joey Barrington calls it rightly "the shot of the century".