This Tweener Lob Is Devious And Perfect

It’s hard to pinpoint why Robin Haase, a journeyman ranked No. 47, stars in so many unusual highlights for a player of merely solid status. But the bendy Dutchman has a taste for loose, weirdo shot-making, and today, without warning, he briefly turned a first-round Basel Open match against Sascha Zverev into an exhibition:

Haase carved a good drop shot, found himself over-running Zverev’s reply, and improvised a perfectly weighted tweener lob, some rare and potent dark magic. Zverev replied with a nifty tweener of his own, but it didn’t clear the net.

The second-seeded Zverev still came out ahead, 6-4, 7-5, avenging a bad loss to Haase in Cincinnati earlier this year. He lost the tweener battle, but won the war.