The Point

It's early on in the final of the Philly Open 2021, and this is a casual point without anything too flashy.

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Analysis

The main thing to call out is the difference in how Mitchell moves to the overheads in this point. He hits four overheads, and the last one ultimately gives Arraya the opportunity to end it with a forehand drive. Let's look at the first two overheads:

Mitchell hits the first overhead high over his head, but he hits it softly and deep to Arraya. More importantly, if you watch how he tracks to this overhead, he gets his feet totally set before making contact so that he is moving forward back to the net after contact.

Same thing in this second one and it's an even better overhead from Mitchell. He is so set that he can actually take the overhead from his shoulder below the top of his head. This makes it really difficult for the opponents to attack off his shot. It also allows him to hit a softer ball, which gives him more time to get set at net for the volley.

Notice where Mitchell is standing on this second overhead: his back foot is beyond the service box. But being that far off the net isn't a problem because he got there early and set his feet. The fourth overhead is the one that catches him flat-footed:

Obviously this is a great lob by Arraya because he takes it off the deck quickly, and that's the reason why Mitchell is flat-footed. Regardless, the lob itself isn't too much deeper than the first two lobs. But because Mitchell is late to get under the ball, he has to jump to hit it. His back foot actually lands beyond the service box in about the same spot as it was on the second overhead. The difference is that in those shots he was able to get there ahead of time.

The final shot really shows the difference in Mitchell's positioning after the fourth overhead compared to the others. Because he couldn't get to the spot before hitting the overhead, he has to take time after hitting the ball just to get his balance and start to move back to net. By that time, Arraya is already winding up and ultimately strikes the ball with Mitchell still outside the service box.