Pro Patterns:
Playing the Angles

Craig Cignarelli

The beauty of tennis lies in its attack and counterattack possibilities. It is often compared to chess and boxing. The first four articles dealt in this series dealt with basic patterns from the baseline, and also on serve and return. These articles showed you how to establish your most favorable diagonals, and how to respond when your opponent tries to change them and impose his own. (Click Here.)

This article completes the picture by adding angle shots. It gives examples of several strategies related to the angle shots, and also how to decipher and outsmart certain opponents.

Angle Geometry

Assume that I hit an angle shot that bounces around the service line, or shorter. I now have my opponent moving off the court and into the doubles alley to retrieve the shot. What happens next? What are the possibilities? How will my opponent respond to my angle? Depending on what he does, what are my counter responses?

The situation can turn in several ways. By hitting the angle, I have opened the court and created a potential offensive opportunity. But my opponent also has the ability to hit a shot that changes his position from defense to offense if he chooses wisely.

Creating offense from defense should be a basic strategic goal of all tennis players, as it is in high-level tennis. The possibilities are more complex than you might initially assume. When I hit an angle shot, my opponent actually has six valid shot choices. So we will analyze the possible responses to an angle shot first, and then the responses to those responses.

Crosscourt Response

Assume your opponent responds crosscourt. You now have two choices. The first is to hit down the line and attack. Since your opponent will be running diagonally back across the court, the court is open down the line for a forcing shot or an approach. If you hit either one well, your opponent has a long way to go to try to cover the court. You may be able to hit an outright winner. Or your opponent may get there but still make a forced error.

The second option here is to hit a deep crosscourt reply. You might do this for two reasons. If the forehand rally is favorable for you and your angle was not especially sharp, you may want to restart the rally and wait for a better angle. Or if you are not comfortable at the net, you may feel that you need to create more pressure to go in.

Angle Response

If your opponent replies with an angle of his own, you now have three choices. You can respond with a crosscourt yourself, as discussed above. You can also hit down the line. Or you can angle back.

The choice depends on your the speed and court position of your opponent. Again the safest play will be crosscourt if you feel you cannot take charge of the point. But the other two options are more aggressive.

Hitting down the line you may produce a winner or a dominating approach. But hitting down the line off an angle means your ball will tail towards the sideline, and the net is also higher. So this is a riskier shot. But if your footwork is good, often you can hit a winner or force a weak pass attempt.

The third option is an angle. Returning an angle with angle can catch your opponent moving in the wrong direction. This can produce an outright winner or set up a weak reply. But if you do not get the ball past your opponent or force an error, your court is wide open for his down the line.

Down the Line

If your opponent replies to your angle by going down the line, then you have two choices. You can hit an angle yourself. Or you can hit a deep crosscourt. The decision depends on your balance. If you are balanced and can control the ball, hit an angle but never miss wide. An angle forces your opponent to run the maximum distance across the court. If you hit it well, it will generally result in a winner or very weak reply. The crosscourt response will drive your opponent backwards and send the ball away from him. This can result in a weak reply and allow you to attack the next ball with a strong groundstroke, an approach or a volley.

Drop Shot

If your opponent replies with a drop shot down the line, he is hitting a low percentage shot, and giving you the angle reply for the winner. Hit your response crosscourt angle and close the net for the finishing volley.

Deep Drive Down the Middle

Your opponent may also respond to your angle by driving the ball deep down the middle. This is a safe response and leaves you with a small angle to hurt them and a directional change of the ball. In this case you can choose to drive the ball to the side that favors your crosscourt rally and look to initiate with another angle at the next opportunity. But one more aggressive play is to run around the ball and hit an inside in forehand for a forcing shot or a winner.

Finally, many players have been trained to loop well above the net from this position to give themselves more time to recover. The response is to try to take this looping shot in the air and hit a swinging volley to the open court.

Only the Beginning

Now, understanding these choices are just the beginning. I use the analogy of a chess game to explain that these shot choices are the same as understanding how the chessmen move on the board. The true art of the game is not only being able to hit all the shots, but to understand the patterns being played at any give time.

Most players have programmed responses to certain shots and these responses are their patterns during play. Here is just one example. If you roll an angle and your opponent loops it crosscourt, and you then roll another angle and your opponent again loops crosscourt, you have learned something very valuable about your adversary.

Later in the match, on a big point, roll an angle again. Now look for the loop and respond with a swinging volley for a winner. Watching players over the course of a career can tell you how they will respond in certain situations. Andre Agassi loves to serve out wide on the deuce side so he can set up his crosscourt backhand, inside out forehand, or open court drive with the forehand.

Similarly, during your own matches, you should search for any patterns, which will illuminate opportunities later in the match. The top players in the world will mix up their responses so the opponent will not be able to decipher their game plan but they will still commit to their favorite response on big points. At lower levels, the patterns are much more predictable, as is your opportunity to exploit them in order to succeed in competitive match play.