You’re on an island. No subs or a fourth quarter buzzer to bail you out. No sport is less forgiving. You need to know when to go for it and which shot to dig out of your repertoire. It’s all out war; vicious spins, lightening fast opponents, and thundering serves. Billie Jean King once said that, “Tennis is a perfect combination of violent action taking place in an atmosphere of total tranquility.”
Sprinting to retrieve a drop shot or leaping to smash an overhead requires physical prowess. Players battle for countless hours hoping to be on the winning side when the words “Game, set, match.” are declared. Tactically, it is akin to chess. You strive to hide your weaknesses and exploit your opponents’. A variety of strategies can be employed to keep your opponent guessing. Serving and volleying, counter-punching, power hitting, and my favorite, carefully setting up the point and ending it with the shot of your choice.
The tennis net is 3′ 6″. However, that is only the height at either side. The middle of the net is 3′, a whole 6″ shorter. This added margin allows you to hit harder cross court and worry less about hitting into the net. Additionally. hitting cross court gives you greater margins from hitting long or wide. This is due to the greater distance that the ball travels compared to the down the line shot.
Hitting down the line is not without its place. It generally takes time away from your opponent and it naturally allows you to approach the net behind your shot. However, if your opponent anticipates your down the line shot they can use numerous angles that you’ve given them to pass you or otherwise hit a winner.
Like billiards, tennis is all about angles. The closer a player is inside the baseline the more angles they can exploit.
The forehand is typically the stronger wing so one tactic to catch your opponent off guard is to hit a forehand where you would normally hit a backhand. You can then choose to direct the ball up the line a.k.a. “inside-in” or out wide a.k.a. “inside-out”. Typically inside out forehands are more effective since they are traveling over the lower part of the net and they are directed to the opponent’s weaker backhand side (for righties). One of my favorite tactics is to establish the inside-out forehand early and moving in to the net behind their weaker backhand strokes. Later as my opponent tries to prepare for it and maybe even prepare to run around their own backhand, I occasionally direct the ball up the line instead (inside-in). Break the pattern occasionally to keep your opponent guessing. Two videos below show Roger Federer, one of the best shot makers alive, execute an inside-out and an inside-in forehand respectively. Try it, it adds a whole new dynamic and it’s fun. Those with powerful backhands sometimes even execute the rarely seen inside-out backhand.
Inside Out Forehand
A Collection of forehand winners, but where the video starts playing several inside in forehands are hit.
There is a lot more to tennis than these few tidbits. Different spins, lobs, and volleys can also be powerful. The predictive power from the statistics of the sport are also fascinating. More of that will be written on later.