Tennis Play Patterns - Where to Hit the Short Balls

We talked about why to hit the ball up the line on approach shots in Edition 2 of The Tennis Podcast. Now, let’s expand the short ball attacking scenario from my footwork section, and by the way, the location of the ball right to left on the court and the direction you are running will definitely affect your choice of footwork patterns.

I laid out the tennis court photo again on the website (the image is at http://www.thetennispodcast.com/ ). For those listening on their iPod, I break the court down into six sections lengthwise with the dividing lines going from the net to the baseline. Three sections on each half of the court.

Section 1 is the area wider than the deuce side singles sideline. Section 2 is the area between the singles sideline and half-way to the center of the court. That’s a tough one. The singles court deuce side of the court is split in half. The half closest to the singles line is section 2. Section 3 is the half that meets up with the center of the court. Sections 4, 5 and 6 are the same only travelling across the ad-side of the court.

Now that the court is sectioned off, we will make shot assignments for each section. I worked with some top juniors on these play patterns and was surprised to find that many of them had no idea where to hit the ball from defined areas of the court, or why. It didn’t take them long to figure it out!

Sections 1 and 6 are short balls, probably hit on an angle to get us out of position. The response should normally be to hit another big angle cross-court and begin to retreat to a postion on the court that can still cover an angle response, yet have a chance to get the down-the-line deep shot. So, hit an angle and prepare to cover everything. Usually, the down-the-line shot by your opponent will have to be hit UP over the net and will give you a little time.

Sections 2 and 5 are short balls that you should be able to do something with, however, as we reviewed in Edition 2, you should normally go down-the-line or risk being passed easily down-the-opposite-line.

Sections 3 and 4 are short balls closer to the center of the court and you may elect to go either way since you will be able to get into position for the follow up passing shots. Usually, I encourage the players to go cross-court aggressively over the low part of the net and in a comfortable direction for them to really hit out.

Be sure to layout play scenarios and practice hitting the responses over and over so that most of your choices are automatic.