Mackenzie McDonald had to do something different. Down in the dumps at 0-4 and a set down against Rafael Nadal, the king of clay.
He did what tennis players have been doing with alarming frequency at Roland Garros – instead of tossing the ball up and slamming it down the court, he flicked it underhand to start the fifth game. The ball looped in slow motion. Nadal made a dash for it and calmly dispatched a winner. It’s hard to deceive the king on clay, but the underarm serve – called a service à la cuillère (spoon serve) – is suddenly the flavor of Paris.
Alexander Bublik served an underarm ace in his first-round win over Gael Monfils; world No 5 Daniil Medvedev did it during his opening loss; Sara Errani resorted to it against Kiki Bertens in their draining match; Monica Niculescu pulled it out of the drawer on match point in her final qualifying round to enter the…