Are you the kind of player who likes to rush the net every chance you get? Would you rather stay near the baseline and carefully construct your points? Or are you more confident in going for every ball and simply outlasting your opponent? All of these approaches are aspects of what can be defined as your playing style, and if there’s one thing that can hinder your development as a tennis player, it would be neglecting to identify your playing style early on. So let’s find out: what’s your tennis playing style?
Since everyone is different, the type of tennis playing style that naturally appeals to you will also be different. The particular style that you use will depend upon several factors, including your skills, perception of risk, personality, and even the type of court surface upon which you usually play.
As a general rule in tennis, most playing styles loosely fall into the following four categories: aggressive baseliner, serve-and-volleyer, counterpuncher, and all-court player. Knowing your opponents’ preferred style of play is key to determining the right strategy and tactics to use against them. In this post, we’ll discuss the four styles of tennis play and the key strategies you can utilize to beat them.
The Aggressive Baseliner
The aggressive baseliner likes to be in control and dictate play. They rely on the strength of their groundstrokes to move opponents around the court and will aggressively go for winners from the back of the court. These players typically have a weapon in their forehand and, often, their backhand. At more advanced levels of play (4.0+ NTRP rating), they use the geometry of the court to hit angled shots that open the court for winners. Because these players like to be aggressive, they will attack short balls in the court and take the chance to make a few unforced errors to hit winners.
These players typically do not like to come to the net, and often, their volley is a weakness (at least, compared to their groundstrokes).
Key Tennis Strategies to Beat The Aggressive Baseliner
- Hit deep into the court. You need to hit your shots deep into the back third or quarter of the court. If you give these players balls anywhere near the service line, they will hit winners almost every time.
- Vary the height and spin of your balls. Every aggressive baseliner has a “wheelhouse” (a height of ball bounce that is their power zone.) You need to vary the height at which they receive your balls by mixing in high-bouncing shots with low, slicing shots. Also, vary the spin using your topspin, flat, and slice. Aggressive baseliners rely on getting a rhythm, and introducing variety to your shots prevents them from getting their rhythm.
- Bring them to the Net. Force them to come up to the net and beat you with their volleys by mixing in drop shots. Make sure you have a good drop, though. They will punish you for a high sitter or a drop shot that lands too close to the service line.
- Be careful when you approach the net. Aggressive baseliners usually have fantastic passing shots, and they love a target. Although it’s great to mix in coming to the net as part of your strategy to disrupt their rhythm, make sure you are coming to the net when you have them on defense.
The Serve-and-Volleyer
The serve and volley player likes to intimidate by following their serve in and attacking the net. They come to the net after most first serves and sometimes after a second serve (if it’s a good one.) And sometimes, they’ll come in aggressively on a deep or wide return of serve. When they don’t come to the net right away, you can bet they’re looking to pounce on the first opportunity to do so, usually within the first few balls in a rally. Their typical point construction is to serve, hit a well-placed first volley that opens the court, and hit a finishing volley to end the point. That’s it. Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am…point after point after point.
So, how do you take down this aggressive, intimidating player?
Key Tennis Strategies to Beat the Serve-and-Volleyer in Singles and Doubles
- Focus on your return of service. Yes, their serve is a weapon, so you need to be proactive about where you try to return it. Change your return location and use down-the-line returns (singles) and lobs (doubles) more often than you would against other playing styles. Both shots will keep that player back and take away their opportunity to come in to the net for a first volley. Also, mix in short, heavy topspin returns (dippers) at their feet so they’ll be forced to hit a slower, higher return. Be sure and follow those shots in for your own volley opportunities.
- Use sharply angled, topspin shots. Both as a return of serve and as a rally ball, using a lot of heavy topspin will give you the margin of error to hit angled, cross-court shots. It’s also effective at making balls drop quickly at their feet, forcing them to hit up on the ball. This gives you a chance to get offensive and have an easier volley for yourself to hit.
- Take their time away by hitting your return on the rise. If you return their serve by getting the ball on the rise, you take precious time away from them. This means they can’t get as close to the net as they would like for their first volley.
- Keep them pinned to the baseline. Serve and volley players do not want to stay back and rally from the baseline. They often don’t have consistent enough groundstrokes to sustain long rallies or be aggressive from the baseline. If they don’t follow their second serve or return of serve to the net, keep them at the baseline with deep shots and rally. Be consistent, and you can win the point from their lack of consistency from the baseline. Another way to pin them to the baseline is to lob any time they start coming in. Make sure your lobs are deep, or they could end up hammering you with an overhead.
The Counterpuncher
The Counterpuncher, or the “Pusher,” is all about consistent defense. Of all styles of tennis play, this is the one players hate most. This type of player knows the percentage shots and always hits them. They know that two-thirds of points won in tennis are from errors, so they will never make one. Counterpunchers will never go for too much on any shot. They rarely hit winners and will win most of their points because you will eventually make the error. To top it off, they are usually fast and have good court coverage. They wear opponents down, forcing you to go for too much and to make the mistake. The best counterpunchers keep their shots deep, have good lobs, and place balls effectively.
The counter-puncher is a tough style of play to beat at beginner and intermediate levels of play (NTRP ratings 3.5 and below), as these levels don’t usually have a reliable weapon with which they can consistently hit winners or force errors. But we have several key strategies to take those tennis players down!
Key Tennis Strategies to Beat the Counterpuncher
- Attack the net. Counterpunchers do not like being rushed and hate being pressured into going for too much. Be aggressive and come in to the net to finish off points.
- Be patient. You will have points where you will need to hit more balls than you want. You must patiently construct points to get your opening to the net. Impatience is how the counterpunch will ultimately beat you. However, don’t stay in long protracted rallies for too long. Otherwise, you are playing right into their hands.
- Hit behind them. Many counterpunchers cover the court well by running to the open court. Hitting balls behind them can effectively wrong-foot them and either draw a ball that you can attack and come into the net behind or, if you’re really lucky an error.
- Are you getting lobbed to death? Embrace your overhead. The lob is a high-percentage shot, especially for the Counterpuncher. Do not get into a long lob-counter lob fest with them. Take lower lobs out of the air with your overhead. Allow the high lobs (moon balls) to bounce, and then use your overhead, again aiming for their feet. If you are near the baseline, it will be like you are serving. Angling the overhead or aiming it at your opponent’s feet are good options, depending on where you are on the court.
- Move them forward and backward. Counterpunchers are excellent movers from side to side, but often they are not good movers from forward to back. Hit drop shots and short cross-court angles to move them forward, then follow it up with a deep lob or deep groundstroke to move them back again. It’s effective at forcing errors and short returns for you to attack.
The All-Court Player
The All-Court Player, as the name implies, is a player that is comfortable using a lot of different shots. The All-Courter adapts and uses shots that are best matched to exploit their opponent’s weaknesses. Against the counterpuncher, they are aggressive attackers of the net. Against the serve and volleyer, they are consistent baseliners. This player uses incredible variety in a very offensive way. As such, they are often a jack-of-all-trades that can hit every shot in the book – consistent groundies, sound volleys, beautiful drop-shots, and consistent lobs. However, because they have learned to hit such a wide array of shots, they typically don’t have a huge weapon.
Key Tennis Strategies to Beat the All-Court Player
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- Be aggressive and dictate the points. You need to take control of the points as much as possible and dictate play. All-courters employ counterpunch strategies because they know their opponents hate that, and thus, they control the rhythm of the points. To stay ahead, you are going to have to be the aggressor and dictate the points that you want to play.
- Stick to your weapon. Know what your weapon is (your forehand, serve, consistency, etc.) and focus on using it as much as possible. An all-courter will likely have a difficult time breaking down your much better weapon. This is why Nadal constantly weaponizes his heavy topspin forehand, especially to his opponents’ backhands.
- Hit high looping topspin balls deep into the court. Keeping high topspin balls deep will keep the all court player pinned deep behind the baseline. It’s very difficult to use variety from 3+ feet behind the baseline, even for the pros.