Tennis Tactics - Where To Aim In Singles

Hey everyone, Simon here from Top Tennis Training and in this video I want to help you to win more singles matches using three different strategies. So the first one is the most important tactic in tennis and this is to simply be more consistent than your opponent. Now you might think that's like saying the grass is green, but it's the most overlooked tactic in tennis. Players often think about hitting winners, they think about going for big forehands, they think about hitting aces, unreturnable serves, but they often neglect the fact that if you are more consistent than your opponent, you will win the match. If I make six balls in a point and my opponent makes five, I'm going to win that point. It doesn't matter how I do that, if I slice the ball, if I moonball the ball, if I get the ball just by pushing the ball, but if I keep it in play, I'm going to win that point if my opponent breaks down before me. So by simply being more consistent than my opponent, I can win the match. So the next singles match you play, don't feel like you have to go for more, don't feel like you have to hit winners to win that match. Simply find their threshold. So most players will have a breaking point, they might be able to keep the ball in play for six shots in a row, they might be able to keep the ball in play for eight shots in a row, but after eight they might break down. Simply find your opponent's breaking point and go past that. So if it's six balls, make seven, if it's eight balls, make nine. By doing this, you can win many tennis matches simply by keeping the ball in play. It also doesn't matter how you keep the ball in play. If you can hit an aggressive topspin shot and make them break down simply by the spin that you have on the ball, then fantastic, but if you can get the ball back in court only by slicing, if you feel I can only slice my backhand, but by doing so I can be more consistent, then do that. In a match, you use what works for you currently, and if that means slicing the ball, and that means that you can keep the ball in play by only slicing, do that. Don't feel like you have to be a hero and go for your backhand drive. The second tactic is then finding the opponent's weakness. So most players will have a weaker backhand, most players strength is their forehand in terms of the baseline, so you'll know that 90% of players will have a stronger forehand and the backhand will be the shot that you can attack. This is where they'll break down more often, or they'll give you a weaker ball that you can then come forward on and finish the point. So by finding your opponent's weakness, it will give you the option of exploiting that weakness on the bigger points. It doesn't mean that on every single point I'm going to serve into the player's backhand and rally only to their backhand. It means that on the bigger points, the 30 all, the juices, the break points, I'm going to serve into the forehand possibly, open the court, and then hit into the backhand. So exploiting the weakness on the bigger points is a great tactic to have, and there's also different ways to find that weakness. Some players will prefer a ball that's waist height, and they'll hit that shot really well. But as soon as you give them a higher one, they struggle with that, and they struggle producing power and length on that shot, so you'll know that they don't like high backhands. Other players will not like a slice, so if you slice it into their backhand side, they might not like picking the ball up. So there you've found another weakness, you've found that they don't like high backhands or low backhands. So you can exploit those two options. You can go sometimes high into the backhand, and sometimes low into the backhand. You can mix it up and exploit both of those different tactics. And a great time to find their weakness and see what they prefer is in the warm-up. So when you're warming up for the match, give them some high balls on the forehand, give them some high balls on the backhand. Give them some low balls on both sides, make them move a little bit wider, see how they cope on the run on the forehand, see how they cope on the run on the backhand. Give them a few shorter balls, how they move up to that ball. All of this will be building an image in your mind of how this player likes to play, what they like, and more importantly, what they dislike. And the third tactic is to come in and finish the point at the net. Now this is something that players of older generations used to really work on. Players like Pete Sampras, Boris Becker, they used to have a short ball, pounce on that short ball and come forward to finish off the point at the net. It's a great way to keep the point shorter, to reserve your energy, to save energy, but also by moving forward in the court, the angles open up, the court opens up much more. If I'm standing five or six steps behind the baseline, I can't really use the angles. If I get closer to the baseline, more angles open up, and if I come into net, the court really opens up, so I can use the width of the court really well by coming forward. Another thing that this does is it sends a signal to your opponent, it sends a message to your opponent that if they don't keep the ball deep, if they give you a short ball, they're going to get punished for it. Too often, players will let those short balls go unpunished. They won't come forward, and that sends a signal to your opponent that even if they hit the ball short, even if they hit the ball inside the service box, they're not going to get punished, whereas if you come forward, even if you miss that ball, if you miss the approach shot or you miss the volley, the opponent thinks, I have to really keep a good length here, otherwise this player's attacking me constantly whenever I drop it short. So it will also put more pressure on your opponent to hit deeper, and this can make them hit more unforced errors, because they feel tighter, they feel more nervous. Anytime you have a short ball, you're coming forward, and you're trying to finish the point at the net. Now that short ball doesn't mean I have to go for that short ball and hit a winner, kill that short ball, it just means that I use that short ball as the approach to then come forward and finish at the net. So the approach shot isn't the winner. If you hit a winner, that's fantastic, but the approach shot is more like a setup shot. You're setting up the point by coming forward, you're moving into a good position, and you're finishing the point at the net. So those are just three tactics that you can use to win more singles matches. If you've enjoyed this video, give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel also, and turn on the notification bell so you get our latest videos as soon as we release them. Signing off, Simon from TTT, see you soon guys, all the best.