Smart tennis: why you should hit a lot more balls cross court
The vast majority of competitive club tennis players can win more points by hitting cross court much more often than they do. Here’s why...
Tennis is an easy game to over complicate. Too many times I’ve watched good club players lose points from not quite knowing what shot to hit, and not quite knowing where to hit it. It all seems a bit random, a tad confusing, as though there are a million different options they could possibly choose and they just went for the wrong one.
In fact there is only ever one option to choose - and that’s your high percentage shot. The one that offers you the most reward whilst outweighing the most risk. And to keep things extra simple: it’s your cross court.
Smart players play their groundstrokes cross court a lot, and they’re not afraid to stay patient and keep playing it there (think aggressive patience) in order to execute an extremely successful high percentage game. Anything other than that becomes increasingly more difficult to achieve and therefore less likely to succeed – not so smart.
So why the cross court? There are three main reasons…
1. You are hitting over the lowest part of the net.
At the post the height of the net is 3 ½ feet whereas in the middle it stands at just 3 feet. That’s a reasonable difference so to reduce your risk of error it makes sense to hit the ball more regularly over the lowest part. I know this sounds rather basic, but it’s something so many players rarely even think about.
2. You have much more room to hit into.
From corner to corner on a court, the straight length (i.e. down the line) is 78 feet, whereas the diagonal length (i.e. cross court) is 82 ½ feet for singles and 86 feet for doubles. That’s an extra distance of 4 ½ feet or 8 feet respectively – it’s huge!
Think about how many groundstrokes you miss by just a foot or two... If you were smart and aimed more often towards the largest part of the court, these mistakes would definitely be reduced.
3. You make your opponent work.
Think about the geometry of a rally. After hitting their shot your opponent will usually recover to somewhere near the middle of the court, at or behind the baseline, ready to receive your return. If you’re striking from one of the sides and go cross court, you create an angle. That means your opponent has to run further to get to the ball as it keeps travelling away from them, compared to a shot you’ve hit down the line. On a cross court shot they may have to run beyond the tramlines to get to the ball, whereas on a down-the-line shot you simply don’t have the angle to push them wide, and they can get to the ball more easily. So it makes sense to hit a ball that will work your opponent harder.
Not only this, but the angle also enables you to create more space on the court, making it easier for you to change the direction of the ball and finish the point down the line when the time is right.
Of course there are exceptions to every rule. If you’re playing a match and going down the line early is working like a dream, keep going.
But as a general rule, to help you use the angles of the court to your advantage and ultimately implement higher percentage tennis, ramp up your cross courts!
See also:
Aggressive Patience: the essential strategy for winning more tennis matches
Lizzie Flint is a writer and a practicing level 3 LTA professional tennis coach.
She has been in love with the game since picking up a racquet at the age of four – and she has seen it from every possible angle: playing, analysing and reporting on tennis all over the world. Read more about Lizzie here.