How to beat a consistent pusher who hits deep looping groundstrokes

[seanlieb]

Hi Craig. I'm a 4.0-4.5 player and I play well against people who hit with medium to strong pace with either baseline or all court styles of play. Against them I can hit with pace myself, vary my spins and angles, maintain advantageous cross court diagonals, and attack short balls to come to the net.

But, I have a really tough time against consistent pushers who pin me behind the baseline with deep and accurate looping shots. I have an easier time with guys who hit loopers with heavy top spin because I can just take a step back and hit equally hard and angled waiting for the short reply to capitalize on. So, my question is, "How can I attack the pusher?"

In addition, is there a difference between the strategy on hard courts versus clay?

Thanks.

Sean

[CraigC]

Things to try

Sean-

I have been in the desert watching Indian Wells this weekend and a little too busy to check the posts. Sorry to be so late with this.
To beat the looper I’d suggest some of the following tactics:
First you can get off the baseline early in the point by serving and volleying or chipping and charging. Even if you are not adept at this tactic, employing it once in a while is something that might stop your opponent from simply throwing the first ball up in the air and pushing you back from the beginning of the point. If you cannot succeed with it, use it when you are up by 2 or 3 points in a game so you show your opponent that you are thinking of tactical changes. It might cause him to think twice about his high percentage return.
Second, I watched a great match several years ago where Kuznetsova played Schiavone. The game plan was so simple and Kuznetsova stuck to it perfectly and dominated. She got into her favorable diagonal and rallied until her opponent hit a ball slightly closer to the center of the court than the outside part of the court. She then struck this ball down the line aggressively but with good margin for error. The goal was not to hit a winner, but rather to make her opponent hit a shot on the run. If the opponent hit the ball back crosscourt deep, Kuznetsova simply hit it back down the line to restart the favorable diagonal again. If Schiavone hit it short, Kuznetsova hit it down the line and attacked the net. Normally hitting down the line leaves a player vulnerable to the angles, but since Schiavone was just looping crosscourt and deep all day, there was no risk in hitting down the line as long as Kuznetsova played with good margin over the net. Sometimes this pattern went on for 20 shots but since Kuznetsova was dictating, she never really got tired watching Schiavone scramble.
At your level, you are probably somewhat adept with the swing volley. Some club players feel the swing volley is a shot that can only be hit inside the service line. You may consider using it as an approach shot and make contact just inside the baseline. Here is the play. Take your opponent’s loop and hit it back with high topspin. As the ball hits the ground on the opposite side of the court (this is when your opponent loses you in his peripheral vision and focuses on the ball) take a couple of steps in side the baseline and hit your swinging volley out of the air to the opponent's weaker passing side. Then follow your ball to the net and finish with an overhead or a volley.
Finally, you might try hitting a short slice up the middle of the court or angled off to the backhand side the way Federer does when pushed on the run. This will pull your opponent up into the court and may compromise his ability to throw up the loop. If your opponent follows this ball to the net, you’ll have to execute the passing shot. If he does come in, you’ll be using the angled slice to make him attack from the outer parts of the court. If he moves up to the slice and retreats, you’ll be using the short slice down the middle more often, and immediately attack his reply by approaching to one side or the other.
As for serving, you’d be wise to use body serves and look to strike the first ball offensively before your opponent can throw up the loop. If he is deep in the return position, you’ll use more wide serves because the angle will be open.
I hope that gives you some options on how to beat the looper. Without seeing your game live, I can only offer suggestions and not concrete advice.

CC

[mdhubert]

Superb advice Craig, you're a master !
I try to serve and volley as much as possible against these guys and I agree it is quite efficient. I would advise to serve on the backhand side most of the time, if you have a decent serve the return is usually weak or average.
How do you call in English the tactic you describe where you go to the net from the baseline on a deep aproach shot when the guy loses you in peripheral vision. In French it is called "montée à contre-temps", literally "afterbeat approach". I try to develop it as well, it is very surprising and efficient against these guys.

[seanlieb]

Your suggestions worked well

Hi Craig. Thanks for your suggestions. By coincidence, I played a guy last night with this style of play and the three tactics you recommended really helped.

1) Inside Out Diagonal: This worked really well for me. I worked my way into the point in order to hit deep or angled inside out forehands. He usually looped it back crosscourt on his backhand and I progressively pushed him farther out of the court. After pinning him in the corner with 2-4 shots, he stopped coming back to the middle of the baseline and as soon as he camped out on that side, I hit a strong inside in and came to the net. The other variation was if he hit a short ball angled, I pretended I was going to hit a deep backhand approach shot, but hit a slice drop shot instead. He was usually behind the baseline with no way to get to it. Finally, his down the line backhand was not that good, so I was able to track it down without a problem and hit a deep top spin down the line forehand to keep him on that side of the court and try to restart the diagonal.

2) Swinging Volley: Every time he got into trouble he sent up a lob. Taking it early with a swinging volley allowed me to attack him and I was able to win a lot of points this way. He suddenly had to think about actually hit a decent shot on these defensive positions.

3) Serve and Volley: I didn't use this very much because I'm more comfortable coming to the net off approach shots than the serve. But, it did get me points the few times I did it.

4) Coaxing Hiim to the Net: I hit a variety of short slices and angled top spin to bring him to the net and I passed him the majority of the time. Even when I didn't, he made errors because he didn't want to be up there.

Patience: Finally, the key to playing against this type of "frustrating" player is to have patience, unless you're serving and volleying all the time. But, even then you get into the long rallies on the other guy's serve. Reduce the unforced errors and wait for your chance to finish. Consistency.

Thanks again.