Winning matches is easy (or easier!) if you have a strategy and can implement it effectively. Your strategy is your plan for success and it's tied to you and your game style – or put another way, the way you prefer to play, writes Anne Pankhurst, Programme Director for the David Lloyd Leisure Tennis School at intosport.com.
Your game style, for example, will be determined by how many shots you like or are able to play in each point. It's linked to your personality and to your strengths and weaknesses – technically and psychologically.
Then there are tactics: these develop from your strategy. Tactics can vary; your strategy will remain constant. Tactics are your specific intentions about how you intend to play a particular match. Your tactics depend on a number of factors that ‘surround’ the match in question. These factors include; the environment, the opponent, you (your fitness and your mindset), the stage of the tournament and so on.
Let’s deal first with the environment. This includes the venue, the surface, the weather and the audience. If you are playing on your home courts you will be close to home and be very familiar with the layout and the surface – in other words you have what sports call ‘home advantage’. If there is an audience it will (hopefully) be on your side. If you are playing anywhere else, you are in unfamiliar territory and need to get your bearings to feel comfortable. The court surface in tennis, as any Tour player will tell you, is a big issue – clay courts, hard courts and grass courts are very different in the way the ball bounces and, as importantly, your ability to move. Even within the broad surfaces there are many sub-variations of surface. Our tactics will change for each of them. So you need to try and practise on the surface before you play a match and work out what your best tactics will be. Think about a professional golfer - there's no way they would play a tournament without first playing the course.
And then playing indoors is not the same as playing outdoors. If you play outside then the vagaries of the weather are important. Wind, sun and humidity can affect what and how it is possible to play, as well as the way the ball behaves. Learn how to play with a wind behind you and one coming towards you, or cross court. You will need to use different types of spin: topspin will help keep the ball in when the wind is blowing from behind you and slice can keep the ball deep when you hit into the wind. Remember though, that when you change ends you need a different spin! (If you want to revise how to play with spin, check out the guide to spin in the tennis school). A cross court wind invariably means giving yourself a bigger margin of error and not aiming for the lines.
Sun can be an issue – there are advantages and disadvantages of playing on a sunny day. If your opponent is looking into the sun then keeping the ball high can make it difficult for he/she to see it. A hot sunny day makes the ball a little lighter and a bit more difficult to control too, so spin can be used to your advantage .The reverse is true in damp conditions. You are unlikely to play in heavy rain, but you might play in light drizzle or when the courts are wet. Then the balls are heavier and more difficult to hit deep. The bounce is lower and so you need to use your knees much more.
Next up in working out your tactics is the opponent. Matches come in three categories; those that you should win, those you should lose and those that could go either way. These scenarios are to some extent theoretical and ‘on paper’. The outcome of any of them is clearly uncertain in reality, but the theory should have some impact on your tactics. There is no point in playing just to lose so your tactics should be about giving yourself the best chance to win against this particular player on this particular day: history should have no part of your thinking!
You need to think about the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent in each of the five ‘games situations’ (For more information on this, have a look at the strategy and tactics guides in the tennis school). So, for example, in terms of the serve, does your opponent have a hard, first serve? If so, what are your tactics for returning it? Will you try to win the point immediately or get the ball back into play? When the opponent rallies from the baseline, does he/she stay well behind the line or on the baseline itself? What is the shot tolerance in this situation (meaning how many balls in a row does your opponent seem to prefer and how many is too many for his/ her consistency and accuracy? Can you then always try and play one more ball and make the opponent uncomfortable? Does the opponent move well across the baseline or struggle when you hit the ball directly at the body? In terms of coming to the net, can the opponent do so and then volley well? In which case do you need to keep the ball deep and make moving forwards more difficult. And what happens if you were to go to the net? Can your opponent play a variety of passing shots and successful lobs?
Finally, decide what the opponent’s likely answers are in a number of different situations in the match. For example, what sort of serve does he/she play on game point down? On set point up or when sent wide on the backhand side? Most players have some predictable behaviours in certain situations or in certain positions on the court. Often, their footwork patterns dictate what they can do and sometimes they just prefer particular shots in specific situations. How are you going to find all this out? The answer is to ‘scout’ opponents beforehand whenever possible and then base your tactics on what you see.
Clearly you have a great impact on your tactics! Have a match-plan: always! Of course, be ready to change it. The mantra is ‘never change a winning game’, but to that I would add, ‘but work out if the opponent is losing points or you are winning them’. There is a difference between forced and unforced errors. Forced errors can mean you are winning, but if the opponent is making unforced errors, in a sense you are not winning, you're just benefitting from their mistakes. So be careful and consider if your plan is working.
Your level of confidence leads to what you feel capable of doing: so knowing more about the surface and the opponent should make you more prepared and thus more confident. Know what your strengths and weaknesses are – increase the use of your strengths and try to prevent the opponent exploiting your weaknesses. Make sure you are fit and can last for a long match. Be well hydrated and eat appropriately before you start to play. Again, more information on this in the nutrition and hydration section of the tennis school.
In summary then:
To give yourself the best chance of winning singles matches:
- Do your homework on the opponent
- Know your own strengths and weaknesses
- Work out your tactics taking the environment, the opponent, and yourself into account
- Have a match plan - but be ready to change it
- Be fit and ready to play for as long as you have too
- Be positive!