Simple game plans for singles #1 - Steve Landon
Have a plan
Game plans work! They help you focus and they take away doubt at important moments. Keep them simple and play to your own strengths.
Here’s the first simple plan to help you win matches:
Serve to the backhand and use your forehand as much as you can
Steffi Graf won 22 grand slam events by being able to serve well and hit a huge ratio of forehands to her opponent’s backhand.
This is also a classic club level game plan that works on the premise that both of the players have strong forehands and weaker backhands.
The plan
You need to set up a situation where you are dominating the middle section of the court with your forehand.
The yellow line shows the “inside out” forehand from your backhand side to your opponent’s backhand.
You are trying to hit as many mid-court forehands to the other person’s backhand as possible. You can do this by hitting first serves to your opponent’s backhand and looking for a weak, mid court ball.
You can also set this situation up with a powerful ground stoke to either side or by using consistently deep ground strokes and waiting for a short reply.
At this point you need to stay hitting your forehand deep into the backhand of the other player until you force an error. Often your opponent will become frustrated and fire their backhand down the line which is a risky shot, using their less favoured shot.
You can stay positioned towards your own backhand side because there is no angle to make you run beyond your own forehand singles line.
Don’t hit short
This plan relies on you hitting a deep forehand that will reduce your opponents angles and make the “down the line” backhand option very risky.
Be decisive
You need to be always looking to hit forehands when the ball is returned to the centre area of your court. Work on your movement in order to get around your backhand and be in position to hit strong forehands.
1 in 10
This is a percentage way to play tennis which requires you to accept that once in a while your opponent will smash an unreliable winner down the line. What you will get though is lots and lots of forced errors from their backhand due to pressure and a lack of angle.
Which hand?
Just check you aren’t playing a lefty before you tell me that this plan doesn’t work please.
Inside out forehands work great as long as you are playing a player who uses the same dominant hand as yourself. One thing that makes the Nadal/Federer or Graf/Navratilova matches so fun to go back and watch again is that players cannot settle into conventional patterns like this one and have to adapt.