About six years ago I was in a press interview at the Siebel Open in San Jose, and the following was posed by another writer to Pete Sampras. “Pete, sometimes your tennis appears simply flawless, as though you play without ever missing a shot, does it feel that way to you?” And though Pete generally conducted these press interviews with detached disinterest, he genuinely warmed to this question, and I will always remember the reply. Pete said, “Actually about once a month it feels just that way, and on those days both my shots and my decisions are perfect.”

Federer slices heavily crosscourt from a cornered position behind the baseline, hitting a wicked defensive shot

Well it is easy to remember his pinpoint serving, routine volleying, reliable return of serve, and his one of a kind, if not signature, running forehand winner, whipped either sharply crosscourt or perfectly up the line. But the other side of the equation may be less obvious but every bit as important. That is, what exactly constitutes “perfect decisions?”

In my mind, this decision thing clarifies the ebb and flow of professional matches, and equally determines your own success or failure on court in each and every match.

And the decisions, or choices either made or not made, flow from court position, the quality of the opponent's shot, and the quality variety of your own tool box. Not necessarily the plan you create prior to the match, but rather this is a discussion of the split second decisions made from shot to shot. That is, if the court is open and the opponent’s backhand crosscourt is somewhat short, can you instantly seize the opportunity and step forward to finish the point with a backhand up the line? But equally can you discern when the opponent’s shot is deeper and perhaps that up the line winner becomes more difficult and less doable. But there is more to this story than simply playing the winner when the court is open.

Martina moves inside the baseline taking the offense with a down the line backhand. This shot will either be a winner or set her up for a finishing volley.

On the professional tour, Federer and Hingis are the two players who routinely make masterful decisions. More than just banging the ball around the court, their variety of shot, variety of pace, variety of spin, and variety of placement enable them to play defense as well as offense, to play from the baseline, the midcourt and the net. And who comes to mind from a previous era that used all the court with truly every shot in the book, John McEnroe of course!

At the simplest level, and this is true for both recreational and professional players, tennis strategy occurs on three levels. First and foremost, reduce your own errors, and do not, repeat, do not, beat yourself. In this storyline there are two opponents, yourself and the other guy/girl, and before you can even begin to concentrate on beating them you must not beat yourself. We have all played matches where errors seemingly flowed from our racquets and in those instances the opponent did little other than keep the ball in play.

Secondly, define and play against the opponent’s weakness. Between their serve, forehand, backhand, forehand volley, backhand volley, and overhead, generally everyone has an Achilles heel (mine is the forehand) and the skillful opponent exploits those weaknesses either throughout the match, or at pivotal moments.

Third and finally, hit it where they “ain’t,” namely when the opponent is out of court play the ball firmly and decisively to the open court.

Federer moves forward inside the baseline driving a topspin backhand up the line.

But once these three issues are under control then the full range of shot selection comes to the fore. Factors influencing shot selection, and by extension factors that can work their way into your own on court play include the following.

Degree of difficulty – just like in diving competition every shot has a theoretical degree of difficulty, hitting a screamer on the sideline is more difficult than pushing the ball back to the center of the court.

Risk and Reward – the screamer to the sideline with obvious risk has definitely more reward. The ball pushed to the center has reward only when used against an error prone opponent. So the reward is contingent on the ability of the player but also influenced by the positioning of the opponent.

Centered vs. cornered – as regards court position, you may either be relatively centered in the middle of the court (at baseline or net) or cornered, that is out of position in the corner at the baseline or at the net.

Martina is stretched well past the baseline and deep into the corner, and plays an underspin backhand crosscourt. This defensive shot gives her a little more time to recover, and forces the opponent to play up the line (the net is higher).

Offense and defense – you may attempt either a shot that intends to win the point outright or leads to a winning position, or simply keep the ball in play waiting for the opponent to miss. These decisions are intertwined with your and the opponents court position and the difficulty of their incoming shot.

Buying and robbing time – as to ball speed; when the opponent is cornered you may rob their recovery time by hitting the ball sooner or harder, or both. When you are cornered and defensive you may slow the ball down to buy recovery time

Angles and court position – as you are positioned deeper your angle of play diminishes, as you move forward your angle of play increases. When Roger or Martina go for the sharply angled drive, they find that angle when playing inside the baseline.

Anticipation – by counting tendencies over the course of a match you may have reasonable expectations about the opponents shot in certain situations. Generally the opponent is more predictable when your own shot has been deep and well placed, and or when the score is extremely close and the opponent goes to their favorite shots.

Over the next few months I want to explore these issues in greater detail.

As always, we would love to hear from you! Questions, comments, personal experiences all create helpful dialogue for everyone! Please click here to send us your email.

If you wish to be removed from our newsletter list, please send an email to newsletter-unsubscribe@tennisonenews.com and leave the subject line blank. A confirmation email will be sent to you, and you will be removed from our newsletter list once you reply to that confirmation.

Copyright Notice: The contents of the TennisONE web site and contents forwarded to you by TennisONE are intended for your personal, noncommercial use. Republishing of TennisONE content in any way, including framing or posting of these materials on other Web sites, is strictly prohibited. See our full copyright statement

ShortCourt Warm-Up and Soft Hands

Click to see a free sample of TennisOne's Slow-Mo™ videos.

Newsletter Archive