Tennis is a game of angles. The court might be a rectangle, the lines are either vertical or horizantal but the game is built on utilizing the angles to your advantage.
First, the most important angle is that of proximity to the net. The closer you play the net the greater the angle of possible returns. It just makes sense that if you play tennis from 5 feet behind the baseline, your at a disadvantage. To use this utilize this strategy, you would want to move up inside the baseline to attack or create more angle. Likewise a return that lands short in the opponents court, gives your opponent an advantage. This was covered in my last tip about hitting deep.
The second important angle used is the cross court or wide ball. The further the ball lands away from the center service mark laterally, the more angle is created for the return. Hitting balls out towards the singles sidelines moves your opponent but it also gives your opponent greater angle of returns. This strategy plays out when a player hits a ball out wide to pull their opponent off the court. The hope is that the hit is strong enough or far enough away from the opponent to solicit an error. The error in this case could be a weak return that lands short or in the middle of the court for you to hit the opposite direction to win the point.
Many times baseline players will hit the ball cross court, pull their opponent out wide and then not take advantage of the strategy by looking for the short or middle ball to put away. Instead they stay back and hit the return to keep the rally alive. This utilized both angle strategies listed. The player uses angle to pull their opponent wide and then they should move forward to create a better angle to hit the next shot.
I only wanted to cover two angles in tennis that can be used by everyone at all levels. Shots hit closer to the net have a great probability of going in. Shots hit wide or away from center give the chance to use the first angle by closing and putting the ball away.
Doug Hofer, USPTA September 22, 2005
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