Pro Patterns:
Basic Diagonals
Craig CignarelliPage 2
Find the Right Pattern
Once it is established that you are stronger off either the forehand or the backhand than your opponent, your strategy becomes simplified immediately. Play the diagonal that favors you!!
Versus lefties these patterns are reversed:your forehand to their backhand, your backhand to their forehand, or even your inside out forehand to their forehand. Still the concept is simple.
Players attempt to develop the high percentage crosscourt rally which favors their own stronger shot to their opponent's weaker shot. Once a player has established this crosscourt rally, he can then move into the construction phase of the point.
There are two basic ways the crosscourt rally can work to win you points in actual play. The simplest is based on the concept of "shot tolerance." Once you have established a favorable crosscourt baseline rally, you begin to look for an opponent's mistakes.
If you are more consistent than your opponent, then simply wait for him to miss. You know that by simple attrition, he will eventually make more mistakes than you.
A Means to and End
But winning the diagonal exchanges is rarely if ever just a war of attrition. The higher the level, the more the crosscourt advantage becomes the means to an end. Having the diagonal advantage gives you opportunities to create, and to gain responses which you can attack.
Here is where you begin another game based on a hunter mentality. Because your shots are superior to his in your favorable crosscourt rally, you will be able to move your opponent into a position where, eventually, his ball lands short or is hit close to the middle of the court. You can achieve this using depth, angles, short slices, height, pace, or sheer patience.
It is up to the player to find the type of shot, which causes his opponent to produce
a short ball and once spotted, stay with the crosscourt rally until you can initiate that shot in
every rally. Once accomplished, the reward is what all, great tennis players
dream about---THE SHORT BALL.
The play is developed and finished in one or two shots. Either, the ball is so short that you can hit an outright winner, or you will strike an aggressive down the line approach and move in behind the ball to finish with an open court volley. This decision is most often made based on the height of the ball. If the ball is above the net, most pro players will go for a winner, and a ball below the net will necessitate an approach shot.
Approach shots most often go down the line so as to allow the net-rusher to assume the volley position more easily, and so the first volley can drive an opponent off the court with an angled volley beyond the singles line.
These are first strike patterns and seek to initiate offense before your opponent can change
the rally. There are several methods of creating the winning or attacking shot within these patterns.
So let's now progress to your options.
Beginning with the forehand crosscourt diagonal, a player is looking to create space on the backhand side of the court. Thus, the player may strike the ball deep and follow it with an angle, and then attack the opposite side of the court.
Generally owning the ability to strike the forehand deep and wide enough to prevent an opponent from changing direction will lead you to this type of play. Playing the forehand pattern, it is important to note that you are trying to set up a finishing shot or attacking shot down the line.
Backhand Crosscourt
From the backhand side we can see the same thing. Move the opponent deep and wide along the baseline in the backhand crosscourt diagonal until you can rip the backhand down the line winner, or get around the crosscourt and hit inside in. Players with one-handed backhands may also be susceptible to higher bouncing balls which take them out wide, as it is difficult to hit a deep slice off this ball. This may be another tactic used too set up the backhand down the line winner.
Inside Out
From the inside-out position, the concept is a bit more touchy. You will attempt to work the ball out wide with your inside-out forehand to the opponent's backhand, creating some angle to open up your opponent's forehand side. This is effective against a slow mover, a weak running forehand, a western grip forehand, or a player who cannot hit backhand angles.
The inside-out pattern finishing shot is INSIDE-IN, (down the line) to the opponent's forehand. The player is looking for a ball closer to the middle of the court and above the net in order to finish. When the response comes back below the net, the player should hit inside-out again, or he will leave himself exposed for his opponent to drive it crosscourt. Hitting Inside-In should be a winner rather than an approach, unless it is a very short ball near the middle, which a player can get around and get tight to the net.
A player should know the favorable diagonal, the finishing shots, how the opponent is likely to change the patterns, how one can keep control of the patterns when the opponent attempts to switch them, and what to do once in the patterns, prior to walking on the court.
As always, these patterns are rules not laws, and often can be broken to prey upon an opponent's glaring weaknesses. For example, it is said that Agassi has trouble driving his running forehand crosscourt, and often hits to the middle of the court. A player playing him from the baseline, is not going to win many rallies from either crosscourt diagonal.
To beat Andre from the back, you would attempt to drive deep down the middle into his backhand
and make him hit down the line. Pulling him out wide to the backhand will make him respond
with a better angle, and playing him forehand to forehand is very dangerous because he cuts
off the angles so well. Driving deep to Agassi's backhand can lead to the opportunity to
hit hard forehand angles.
So forcing him to hit from deep in the court, near the middle, down the line with his backhand, whereby you respond with a forehand hard angle, is the only way to get him moving, and to drive him off the court to his forehand side with any authority. It's a small vulnerability which may be why he is one of the most successful backcourt players in the history of the game.
