In tennis, a player uses different strategies that both enhance his own strengths and exploit his opponent's weaknesses in order to gain the advantage and win more points. Players commonly specialize in a certain style of play, focusing on what they do best as a means of beating their opponents. Based on their style, players generally fit into one of three types: baseliners, volleyers and all-court players. A baseliner plays from the back of the tennis court, around the baseline, preferring to trade groundstrokes rather than to come up to the net (except in certain situations). A volleyer tries to approach the net and hit volleys, putting pressure on the opponent. All-court players fall somewhere in between. A tennis player usually determines his/her strategies based on his/her weaknesses. For example, most players have a stronger forehand, therefore they will hit forehands inside out to their opponents.
Offensive or aggressive baseliner
An offensive or aggressive baseliner tries to win the point by hitting winners from the back of the court, attacking with fast balls that the opponent cannot reach or return properly. Being an offensive baseliner player requires a deadly array of shots and shot-types. The tennis player may not try to win the point outright with one shot, but instead may hit the ball from side to side until (s)he spots an opening. Offensive baseliners normally have at least one great groundstroke, forehand or backhand. The best offensive baseliners have a huge serve to go with a great groundstroke or can hit huge groundstrokes off both wings. Usually offensive baseliners have the ability to read the game very well and also their opponents styles and tendencies so that they can spot a weakness and use one of their aggressive shots to act upon it.
An offensive baseliner can overpower and overwhelm most opposition. However, when going for winners, he can also produce many errors since an offensive baseliner has to repeatedly and correctly execute the most difficult strokes and shots in tennis. Errors can be due to physical and/or mental reasons such as tiredness and/or lack of confidence. Two great old-time players, R. Norris Williams and Ellsworth Vines, were famous for being unbeatable when their strokes were "on"; they played with such little margin for error in making their strokes, however, that when they were not 100 percent "on" they could be beaten by inferior players. Another advantage in being an offensive baseliner is since the shots they do are usually very ambitious or "high risk" and difficult to achieve, the offensive baseliner executing these sometimes truly amazing shots can shock and stun the opposition which increases confidence to the offensive baseliner and lowers the opponent's confidence.
Because of the predictable speed and bounces, hard courts are generally considered to be the best surface for an offensive baseliner who often employ a high risk strategy. However, offensive baseliners can often excel on both grass and clay courts as well. On grass, they can execute their "winners" and due to the quick and small bounce, makes it harder for opponents to retrieve; whereas on clay courts, some offensive baseliners might like the slow and high bounce because it gives them a longer time to change their grip and foot-positions in order to set up for a "winner." Some all-time great aggressive baseliners are Bill Johnston, Jim Courier, Andre Agassi and Monica Seles. Most players today are aggressive baseliners; a few notable ones are Nikolay Davydenko, Andy Roddick, James Blake, Fernando Gonzalez, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanović, Nicole Vaidisova, Kaia Kanepi and Lindsay Davenport.
Defensive baseliner
A defensive baseliner, or counterpuncher or retriever, returns every ball and relies on the opponent making mistakes. He has consistent shots, makes few errors of his own while making it difficult for opponents to hit winners. The game of the defensive counterpuncher has more to do with physical endurance and determination to retrieve un-retrievable balls as well as mental stamina. They tend to make relatively few errors because they don't attempt the complicated and ambitious shots of the aggressive baseliner. But that doesn't mean they don't ever attempt aggressive shots. A counterpuncher must have speed and agility to cover the court. He/She is a fighter, and has to have willingness to chase down every ball to frustrate opponents. Especially aggressive baseliners who naturally have a fiery attitude and flair, returning every aggressive shot which they do will just encourage their aggressiveness and thus encouraging errors and mistakes. Usually, the defensive counterpuncher frustrates their opponent so much that their opponent might actually try to change their game by either coming to the net in which case they can just execute "Passing Shots" down the lines, or by attempting to also be a defensive counterpuncher.
Counterpunchers often excel on slow courts, such as clay courts. The court gives them extra time to chase down shots and it is harder for opponents to create winners. Counterpunchers are often particularly strong players at low-level play, where opponents cannot make winners with regularity.
Great counterpunchers of all time include Mats Wilander, Bjorn Borg, Guillermo Vilas, Michael Chang, Miloslav Mecir, Chris Evert, and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario. Active players who employ this strategy are Lleyton Hewitt, Guillermo Coria, Rafael Nadal, Gilles Simon, Jelena Janković and Anastasia Myskina.
Serve-and-Volleyer
A serve-and-volleyer has a great net game, is quick around the net, and has fine touch for volleys. Serve-and-volleyers come up to the net at every opportunity when serving. They are almost always attackers and can hit many winners with varieties of volleys and drop volleys. When not serving, they often employ the "chip-and-charge", chipping back the serve without attempting to hit a winner and rushing the net. The serve-and-volleyers' strategy is to pressure the opponent to try to hit difficult passing shots.
Serve-and-volleyers benefit from playing on fast courts, such as grass or fast concrete. The quick bounce and faster pace of play give them an advantage because opponents have less time to set up for a passing shot. The number of serve-and-volley players is decreasing in today's professional tennis, however, because this strategy requires more experience to master and to defeat other playing styles (As well as changes in racquet technology that have improved players' passing shots). In addition to this, there has been a trend toward the slowing down of tennis surfaces over the past few years. Tim Henman and Lleyton Hewitt have each lamented that the surfaces of their respective home Grand Slams (Wimbledon and the Australian Open) play very slowly. The serve-and-volley technique works better on faster surfaces because the volleyer is able to put more balls away without the baseliner being able to chase them down.
Some of the great ones in history are Jack Kramer, Frank Sedgman, Pancho Gonzales, Roy Emerson, Lew Hoad, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Goran Ivanisevic, Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg, Patrick Rafter, Tim Henman, Jana Novotna and Martina Navratilova.
Bill Tilden, the dominant player of the 1920s, preferred to play from the backcourt and liked nothing better than to face an opponent who rushed the net — one way or another Tilden would find a way to hit the ball past him. In his book Match Play and the Spin of the Ball, Tilden propounds the theory that by definition a great baseline player will always beat a great serve-and-volleyer. Some of the best matches of all time have pitted great baseliners such as Bjorn Borg or Andre Agassi against great serve-and-volleyers such as John McEnroe or Pete Sampras.
All-court player
All-court players have aspects of every tennis style, whether that be aggressive baseliner, defensive counterpuncher or serve-volleyer. All-court players use the best bits from each style and mix it together to create a truly formidable tennis style to play against. In game situations, they have the ability to select an action usually executed by one tennis style. They usually have an attacking game, mixing some groundstrokes and volleys to keep the opponent guessing. Most all-court players won't rush the net immediately after a serve like a typical serve and volley player would. However, their game often revolves around "constructing" a point to where they will be able to approach the net and put away an easy volley or pulling their opponent into the net and hitting a passing shot. They are very versatile; when an all-court player's baseline game is not working, he may switch to a net game, and vice versa. All-court players have the ability to adjust to different opponents that play different styles easier than pure baseliners or serve and volleyers. All-court players stereotypically have the speed, determination and fitness of a defensive counterpuncher, the confidence, skill and flair of aggressive baseliners and have the touch, the agility around the net and tactical thinking of the serve-volleyer. But just because the all-court player has a combination of skills used by all tennis styles doesn't necessarily mean that they could beat an aggressive baseliner or a defensive counterpuncher or even a serve-volleyer. It just means it would be more difficult to read the game of an all-court player.
Among the best all-court players of all time are: Bill Tilden, Ellsworth Vines, Don Budge, Ken Rosewall, Rod Laver, and Steffi Graf. By most observers, Pancho Gonzales was considered a serve-and-volleyer; however, he considered himself an all-court player. Great all-court players today include Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Richard Gasquet, David Nalbandian, Marat Safin, Andy Murray, Fabrice Santoro, Justine Henin, Martina Hingis, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Amelie Mauresmo and Daniela Hantuchova.
Doubles Strategy
Though strategy is important in singles, it is even more important in doubles. The additional width of the alleys on the doubles court has a great effect on the angles possible in doubles play. Consequently, doubles is known as a game of angles.
There are three basic doubles strategies:
- both-up strategy (also called "two-up" strategy)
- up-and-back strategy (also called "one-up/one-back" or "I" strategy)
- both-back strategy (also called "two-back" strategy)
Both-Up Strategy
The ideal is both-up strategy, often called "Attacking Doubles" because the net is the "high ground," and both-up strategy puts both players close to it, in a position to score because of their excellent vantage points and angles. A team in the both-up formation, however, is vulnerable to a good lob from either opponent at any time. So, to be successful with Attacking Doubles, they must have penetrating volleys to prevent good lobs and good overhead shots to kill poor ones.
Teams that play Attacking Doubles try to get into the both-up formation on every point. When serving, their server follows most first serves to the net and some second serves. So, Attacking Doubles is also called serve-and-volley doubles. When receiving, their receiver follows most second-service returns to the net.
At the touring professional level, Attacking Doubles is the strategy of choice.
Up-and-Back Strategy
At lower levels of the game, not all players have penetrating volleys and strong overhead shots. So, many use up-and-back strategy. The weakness in this formation is the large angular gap it creates between partners, a gap that an opposing net player can easily hit a clean winner through.
Nonetheless, up-and-back strategy is versatile, with both offense and defense in it. In fact, since the server and receiver must begin each point at the baseline, virtually every point in doubles begins with both teams in this formation.
Teams without net games strong enough to play Attacking Doubles can play both-up when they have their opponents on the defensive. So, they patiently play up-and-back for a chance to hit a forcing shot and bring their baseliner to the net.
Australian Doubles and the I-Formation are variations of up-and-back strategy. In Australian doubles, the server's partner at net lines up on the same side of the court, fronting the opposing net player, who serves as a poaching block and blind. The receiver then must return serve down the line and is liable to have that return poached. In the I-Formation, the server's net partner lines up in the center, between the server and receiver so he or she can poach in either direction. Both Australian Doubles and the I-Formation are poaching formations that can also be used to start the point for serve-and-volley doubles.
Both-Back Strategy
Both-back strategy is strictly defensive. You normally see it only when the opposing team is both-up or when the returner is passing the net player on the return. From here the defenders can return the most forcing shots till they get a chance to hit a good lob or an offensive shot. If their opponents at net become impatient and try to angle the ball away when a baseliner can reach it, the defender can turn the tables and score outright.
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