Situational and Scenario AnalysisPart 1
Craig Cignarelli
Young players on tour talk about "learning to win." Learning to win starts with exposure to the various game styles in the pro world, a big change from the much more limited exposure to high level tennis that is possible as a junior competitor.
On tour, players are pitted against all grips variations, spins, and patterns of play on all surfaces. In the face of these bewildering new combinations, they must learn do situational analysis during and after matches in order to improve. The scenario is not completely different for adult players entering league or NTRP tournaments for the first time.
While this series (Click Here) has discussed many styles of play, this article and the second one that will follow go a step further by presenting various scenarios that can occur in matches, and how to adapt to them.
Specifically we will discuss the strategic problems and challenges that must be answered and overcome in order to win. The situations apply in pro tennis, and we'll use pro players as examples. But if you play competitive tennis, you'll recognize many of the scenarios from your own experience.
We'll assume the scenarios all occur on a medium paced hardcourt, with an average ball bounce height. They are far from exhaustive and the goal should not be to memorize the "answers." The goal is to learn techniques for assessing situations and creating solutions for the myriad of interesting problems you will encounter in your playing career.
You should think of your ability to do situational analysis as a creative art. It should be fun matching wits with a variety of tough new opponents. You will find that thinking on your feet and creating new scenarios that lead to victories is tremendously satisfying.
Scenario 1: Your opponent is more powerful than you and is your equal in consistency. Pro example: Marat Safin.
Many players try to answer power with power, without assessing whether this is a winning strategy. If your opponent really has more power and is also consistent, you do not want a baseline war. Unfortunately that is an insight many players are unwilling accept.
The first step is to use your brain rather than your ego to judge your match up strengths and weaknesses. Very, very few players have so much game that they can just disregard how their opponents play.
Against a powerful yet consistent player, you need to vary your game to keep the ball out of his hitting zone at least part of the time. You have to mix your shots, and also the rhythm and the pace of the exchanges to keep your opponent from getting into a groove and breaking your game apart with power. You must create ways of getting to the net using slices, angles and dropshots. Mix in serve and volley and chip and charge off the return, even if it is not totally successfully in terms of the number of points it yields.
Your serves should take your opponent off the court in order to keep him from setting up on the next ball. You should limit the pace of your shots in rallies, and work for accuracy, as this will force your opponent to expend additional energy creating his own power.
But you have to combine this with ruthlessly taking chances when you are truly in position to hit a winning groundstroke or volley. The combination of constant variety, reduced pace and occasional sudden winners will often frustrate a more powerful opponent and can lead to a stream of errors that swing a close match in your favor.
Scenario 2: Your opponent is pinning you in the backhand corner and you are stuck hitting inside out forehands to her backhand and are losing the battle. Pro Example: Venus Williams.
If you are pinned in an unfavorable exchange, you have to change the diagonal of the rally. If your forehand is your strength, hitting a heavy, deep topspin inside in forehand will probably force your opponent to go crosscourt creating the forehand to forehand rally you desire. The height and spin will also prevent your opponent from creating an angle, since you are giving her a ball above the hitting zone. You should attempt to make this switch when the ball is closer to the middle than the sideline, so you have more room for your shot and so your recovery distance is shorter.
You may also try an inside out forehand angle with a little less pace, to try to get the ball low and make the opponent contact the ball below the level of the net. The opponent will have to use less pace, and hit up, generally hitting this ball crosscourt. This can take the pressure off the exchange. It may give you an opening to hit an inside in winner. Another option is to hit a down the line slice approach shot off the same ball, while your opponent attempts to recover all the way back across their baseline to pass you.
You can also try to hit a drive down the middle to see if your opponent will choose the crosscourt forehand, giving you the advantageous rally. If the opponent is also taking her stronger backhand up the line, then you must burn her at least occasionally with the running crosscourt angle or suffer being out-of-position the whole match.
Another play is to take the ball out of her hitting zone with high bouncing, heavy spin, and then look to see whether your opponent retreats or try to take the ball on the rise. If she back ups, look for a shorter, looping ball and move forward and cut it off with a swinging volley.
If she tries to take the ball on the rise play, you should try to make her play more balls because, unless she can generate a winner immediately, she will probably make errors. A player like Andre Agassi who can win with on the rise shots consistently is a rare exception.
Scenario 3: You are a serve and volleyer who is getting passed left and right by a great returner. Or your opponent is hitting balls at your feet and you are always hitting defensive first volleys. Pro Example: Andre Agassi.
If your opponent is handling your serve and making you hit tough first volleys, you should begin to hit more into the body serves to take away his power and angles. Since your opponent is driving low to the feet, you may choose to "stop and pop." By this I mean wait for the return to bounce and take it as an approach shot since it will be a short ball. Close and finish from there.
You should also be mixing up your pace, depth, and spins on serves to take away the returner's rhythm. Another option to test is hitting higher kick serves with more spin and less pace to allow yourself time to get in tighter to the net. The returner will be taking the ball from a higher position and have more trouble getting it down quickly.
Scenario 4: You are playing a very fast and consistent opponent and you are making mistakes on short balls and regular groundstrokes. Pro Example: Guillermo Coria.
If your opponent is consistent and covers the court so that he forces you into errors, you should try to adjust by going higher over the net with less pace and more spin. Then you should commit to one of two plays. Either you are going to run your opponent side to side until they wear out, in which case you will be in a very long match, or you can look to hit approach shots as often as possible and get to the net to finish with volleys. Take fewer risks in going for winning placements and look to finish at the net on short balls rather than hitting grounstroke winners. Your plan is to make the opponent hit four passing shot before you can hit four volley or overhead winners.
Scenario 5:Your opponent can hit great backhand angles and you can't get around the ball to hit your big forehand. Pro Example: Martina Hingis.
When you opponent uses sharp angles to keep you from hitting your forehand, you need to create more space on the backhand side of the court. Try hitting deep to the middle in order to take away her angle and force her to hit a forehand. If you can switch the rally to the forehand cross court, you can then hit short forehand angles to open up the backhand side. Your opponent will have a much tougher time recovering and still hitting the angle that keeps you from getting around the ball.
A second good play is to try a short slice down the line with your backhand and then attack her backhand side after she moves into the court to retrieve the slice. A third choice: hit high and deep to the backhand as the angle is more difficult to hit off a high ball than one in the hitting zone.
Scenario 6: Your opponent is bombing serves and you just can't seem to hit the ball deep enough on returns to neutralize the point. Pro Example: Andy Roddick.
Against a player with a huge serve, you must begin to recognize the patterns that your opponent favors on his serve and adjust your return position accordingly. If he favors the T serve, you should back up a bit and move towards the middle. If he favors the wide serve, then force him to go down the T by moving out a little wider. If both serves are strong, then try floating some high deep balls to the backhand side. More floating returns may pressure the server into making some errors. These players count on winning free points on their serves and frustration will set in quickly as they are forced to play every point.
Scenario 7: You are both aggressive from the baseline but your opponent seems to be getting in a little more often than you and she is winning a close match. Pro Example: Amelie Mauresmo.
If your opponent is winning the race to the net, attempt to create more angles and make him or her approach from outside the singles lines. Depth is your best weapon for keeping a favorable rally. Use a few deep loops to keep the opponent off balance. Then look to make a surprise approach yourself and be ready to hit some swinging volleys. If he or she is wining by getting to the net first it may pay to get there anyway you can. Be ready. Take the opportunities to chip and charge whenever you can, including some approaches on tougher balls to keep the pressure on even if your results are mixed. See how your opponent handles this variety. In the extreme case, you can become a temporary serve and volley player even if you are normally a committed baseliner.
In all these scenarios, you are trying to assess--and implement--your best chance to win a particular match against a particular opponent. That's the underlying theme. It's learning to think about your match play from a broader, more flexible and creative perspective than most players ever develop in the juniors. Stay tuned for more situational play examples in Part 2!
