The recent Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic made me question how someone who is widely-recognized as the greatest of all time can have two championship points and not win the match. I have played plenty of matches where I was in this situation and did not win. However, most people would…
Against high level players and great movers on the tennis court, it is often better to play the ball down the middle at the beginning of the point. These players tend to cover the open court and use their speed to get the opponent to hit an extra shot and go for more. Many…
In the heat of the match it often seems like you need to come up with a great shot or a great point in order to win. We often remember that spectacular shot that the top players hit in their victories and forget all of the simple things they execute over and over again…
It would be great if each time we walk on a tennis court our level of play equaled what our expectations are. This rarely happens. One of the characteristics of the best players in the world is the ability to hang in and keep the match close, despite being disappointed with their play. I think…
Tennis is a great sport, partly because you only need one other person to go out and hit or play. In addition, you can also do a lot of things by yourself to practice and improve. The most obvious is to go out and hit serves. Since the serve is the most difficult shot…
There are many different approaches to returning serve. Many players like having more time so they can take a bigger swing at the ball. These players tend to stand somewhere behind the baseline. There are also players who use more of an abbreviated swing and try to get the return back to the server…
Many tennis players rely on rhythm to be successful. Hitting several groundstrokes in a row often gives a player confidence to hit that more aggressive shot as the point gets longer. There are quite a few ways to disrupt your opponent’s rhythm. One is to try to keep the points as short as possible…
When I learned how to play tennis, I remember being told to keep a firm grip on the racquet to help eliminate wrist movement during the swing. Obviously, tennis has changed pretty dramatically since then and almost every player relies on some wrist action to add speed to their shots. Starting with a very…
Most of us play tennis with the idea that it would be best if the ball does not come back after we hit our shot, but it’s extremely important to think that the ball is always going to come back. Try reinforcing this idea by actually hitting your shot so that the opponent is…
Players have become better and better at handling the deep, hard shots that most of the modern players use to get their opponent in trouble or to win the point. Many of today’s best players are capable of taking a few steps back and using the speed and depth of the shot to hit…