Learning from the Pros: Four killer shots for different surfaces
If you play away matches for your tennis club, you’ll find you need to adapt your game for different surfaces, from fast hard-courts to very slow clay. Here coach and tennis analyst Jack Edward reveals four key shots used by professionals that you can add to your game and boost your chances of success away from home…
Have you ever defeated a team at your home club only to get battered later in the season playing them away?
We often make the mistake of chalking this down to “tennis being tennis” when in reality players often fail to consider a very crucial factor in tennis. Court surfaces have a massive influence on how our sport is played. The best shots on a slow clay-court will vary to those on an indoor carpet-court; a slice on artificial grass will play very differently to one on a hard-court; a serve on a fast-court vs a serve on a slow-court… You get the idea.
In this first edition of ‘Learning From The Pros’, we’re going to look at a few different tactics and shots professional tennis players have used to excel on different surfaces. From these examples, you may start to understand what you need to add to your own game to excel on different surfaces yourself!
Fast hard-courts: Return from deep
The classic serve-and-forehand combo of American tennis players is no surprise when you consider what they’re playing on. US hard-courts are generally fast, giving the tallest and flattest hitters a huge advantage.
Enter Daniil Medvedev, the bane of American tennis over the past five years. Since losing his first match against an American to Ernesto Escobedo at the Australian Open in 2017, Daniil has gone 29-1 against US players on a hard-court (losing only to Opelka in St. Petersburg in 2020).
His secret US antidote? Medvedev is the best player in the world at neutralising the serve on a hard-court… better even than Novak Djokovic.
You see, Medvedev returns from incredibly deep in the court. We’re talking six or seven metres behind the baseline. Ordinarily, the technique for the return of serve is taught with an abbreviated swing… Not from where Medvedev stands. He gives himself the time for a full take-back, essentially not hitting a return but an unaltered groundstroke. He is so precise at getting the ball back deep from where he stands - it’s frankly unreal.
What can we learn from Daniil?
If you’re playing against a big-server on a fast-court, don’t be afraid to adjust your return stance to a deeper position on the court.
You’ll give yourself more time on the ball — which is even more crucial if you’ve got a particularly big wind-up on your groundstrokes.
Fast hard-courts: Serve and volley against a player returning from deep
Okay, so you’re the Reilly Opelka in this situation. The guy with a great serve and booming forehand that’s been tearing up US hard-courts only to come up against a Daniil-Medvedev-like wall…
As you can see from the GIF above, Reilly did the right thing varying his tactic s (he just had to say ‘too good’ on the passing shot). Just like Novak Djokovic at the Paris Masters last year and Nick Kyrgios at the Montreal Masters and the US Open this year, Reilly had the right idea to serve-and-volley against Medvedev.
What makes an effective serve-and-volley strategy against a deep returner?
If you’re intending on serve-volleying, direct most of your serves out wide to draw your opponent off the court to then open up the space for a volley.
Use drop-volleys as often as deep volleys. You should be looking to exploit your opponent’s deep return position as much as possible.
It didn’t work for Reilly above but it did for Novak and Nick:
Opponent returning from deep in the court? Wide-serve and drop-volleys into the open court are a great strategy.
Slow clay courts: The one-handed backhand
The one-handed backhand is often slated for its limitations on return. The stability you would otherwise get with two hands on the racket has long been recognised as the reason for many great players’ relative lack of success on return (see Denis Shapovalov, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Stan Wawrinka).
Well I’m here to tell you it’s not all doom and gloom for one-handed backhands on return. In fact, on a clay-court, it can be advantageous.
Flat serves are less effective on a clay-court - they don’t travel anywhere near as quickly as they would on a hard-court making it difficult to force an error outright. A heavy kick-serve is often far more beneficial. The kick-serve will act erratically on clay making it very difficult for the opponent to control the ball. It is easier to return a ball loaded with spin, i.e. a kick-serve, if you impart your own spin on the ball.
Enter the one-handed backhand.
The average spin-rate for one-handed backhands on the ATP Tour is far higher than the two-hander. The one-hander gives players greater potential to control a kick-serve with depth and weight given the higher rate of spin (one hand on the racket gives players a longer swing path which allows for greater racket-head speed).
Take Lorenzo Musetti’s win over Carlos Alcaraz in the final of Hamburg this August. Alcaraz has one of the best kick-serves in the game, one of the main reasons for his success on a clay-court. Musetti was incredible at neutralising those kick-serves deep to the baseline with his one-handed topspin backhand return, repeatedly staving off the threat of a massive plus one forehand from Alcaraz. Musetti went on to win the first ATP-title of his career.
Though Rafael Nadal has been dominant at the French Open, there’s a reason 25 of the last 35 men’s events have featured a finalist with a one-handed backhand. If you’re starting out and you can’t decide whether or not to play with one or two hands on your racket for a backhand, consider the surface you primarily play on. A one-handed backhand on clay can be lethal.
Grass or artificial grass courts: The slice serve
Though grass-courts are fairly uncommon internationally, artificial grass-courts are a staple of tennis in some countries (I grew up and still play on artificial grass!). They are similar to grass-courts but the bounce is a touch higher and there aren’t as many bothersome dead spots. In essence however, the best shots on grass are generally the best shots on artificial grass.
Let’s look at the current master of grass in the men’s game - Novak Djokovic. How has Novak been able to Wimbledon four times in a row? Over the last five years and under the helm of Goran Ivanisevic, his serve has become the sturdy foundation for his fantastic streak.
The most improved serve in Novak’s arsenal? His slice-serve.
The benefits of a good slice-serve cannot be understated, especially on an artificial grass-court.
Nailing your spot with a slice-serve from the deuce side will draw your opponent far off the court. On an artificial grass-court, the ball will skid off the surface giving the opponent less time and an awkward contact point.
If you can hit this spot enough times, your opponent may have to leave some space down the T making your flat serve even more effective.
On the ad side, having the ability to pull the serve away from your opponent’s forehand will make you far less vulnerable going into your opponent’s strength.
Novak Djokovic was able to defeat Nick Kyrgios in the Wimbledon final this year. In that match, he was able to force errors from Kyrgios’s forehand return with some impeccable slice-serves in important moments.
If you play on artificial grass (or real grass) a lot, it is imperative you add a slice-serve to your game. This will allow you to attack your opponent’s forehand, it will increase the effects of a flat-serve and it will repeatedly give your opponent a nightmare contact point. Get working on the slice-serve NOW!
To summarise
1. Fast hard court? Try returning from deep when playing a big server.
2. Fast hard court against a deep returner? Serve wide and drop-volley.
3. Clay court? Consider using a one-handed backhand.
4. Grass or artificial grass court? Add a slice-serve to your game.
See also:
Tennis tactics: 5 simple, effective doubles strategies for club players
Tips for playing smart tennis in bad weather and tricky conditions
About the author
Jack Edward is a tennis analyst and host of the On The Line podcast, which takes regular deep dives into ATP and WTA tour matches. He’s also a qualified LTA coach and on Talking Tennis he brings his unique analytical insights to help club and recreational players to be more effective on the court.
Image top: Novak Djokovic via Wikimedia Commons
