4 of the Most Common Weaknesses in Your Tennis Opponent

A little known secret about winning tennis matches is that you should always take notice of what your opponent does from the moment you walk on the court.

Too many people are only bothered about themselves and what they are going to do that they miss vital pieces of information that will be vital in the upcoming match.

Before we move on and I get people yelling at me that they have heard so called "experts" say that you should only be concerned with what you are doing, let me say this:

Yes, of course you have to get yourself "right" and ready to play but tennis is not a sport like say.....golf! Yes both sports do involve opponents, but their influence on the "contest" is totally different.

Golf is a sport that demands that you play as well as you can on every shot, every hole and every round, with the indirect interference and influence of your opponent.

Tennis is a sport that demands that you do react to what your opponent does but there is a direct interaction between you.

Let me explain what I mean.

When you play tennis, you have to play shots according to the shots that your opponent hits over the net to you!

You have to react to the situations that they put you in as a consequence of those shots, because at the end of the day you are both playing with the same tennis ball on the same tennis court - hence the direct interaction!

So, I will say it again - Golf is different!

There maybe situations that arise that force you to re-think your shots or strategy because of something an opponent has done but that is only mental adjustment. You are both playing with different balls and possibly on completely different holes, which is why the interaction is indirect.

In tennis, you have both a physical and a mental interaction with your opponent, so to ignore them is a bit like a lawyer going into a case with only her legal case notes and no idea about what the other party is "bringing to the table".

It just wouldn't happen!

So, with that in mind let's focus on your opponent.

THE OPPONENT

Every player out there has shots and situations that they favor as well as shots and situations that cause them "pain". Here are 4 of the most common "PAIN SPOTS" I have seen in the club player and how YOU should exploit them.

These are tennis facts!

1. Backhand. Most club players have a weaker and/or less powerful backhand. So aim your attack there (DON'T forget your serves).

Jim Courier, was the "man" when it came to this tactic.

He was the first guy on the tour to take this tactic and make a career out of it (World No1 & 4 Grand Slams!!).

He would bludgeon the ball into opponents' backhands with his forehand over and over until you either made a mistake or he got you out of position and he hit a winner into the open court.

If you can employ this simple tactic you will draw errors as well as getting balls that you can dominate the points from.

The other point that is often overlooked is that they will have less chance of attacking you if they are forced to use this "weaker" shot, and that can only be good.

2. Weak second serve. You must ALWAYS be aggressive when returning weak second serves. You need to be going for attacking shots and winners by hitting into space and even coming to the net.

Don't be put off if you are missing some of your attempts. Look at it as practice of a skill that you can improve on during the course of a match.

More importantly, doing this will have a devastating effect on your opponent who will be petrified to miss a first serve with the thought of you "getting after" their second serve. They will either take pace off their first serve to avoid hitting a second (good news!) or try to hit an ace on every first serve (good news as well!) This always leads to an upturn in double faults and therefore FREE points for you.

3. Poor conditioning. Many club players have poor fitness levels - that is a fact!!

Andre Agassi was brilliant at this tactic especially later on in his brilliant career.

He would command points from the centre of the baseline and move his opponent from side to side, often prolonging the points just to get the maximum "physical" effect. He knew this would build up over the course of the set and match so that his opponents were there for the taking whenever he wanted to finish them off.

You need to take advantage of this fact by making them move as much as you can with lots of changes of direction. This will bring about a state of fatigue pretty quickly and we all know what fatigue leads to - don't we??

Remember - FATIGUE = ERRORS

To make sure you don't fall into the same fitness trap, check out these reports -
Tennis Footwork - http://www.footwork4tennis.com
Tennis Strength - http://www.tennis-strength.com
Tennis Speed - http://www.tennis-speed.com
Tennis Fitness Program - http://www.tennisfitnessprogramme.com

4. Inability to cope with certain shots and/or situations.
Many players show frustration over certain shots or tactics that their opponent employs.

So, what should you do?

Find it!

And.........

Keep playing it & let them beat themselves!!

It sounds cruel I know, but worry about it when you are in the next round (believe me they will survive!)

CASE STUDY: I was playing in a tournament and turned up to find out that I was drawn to play my friend and doubles partner in the singles. Obviously we both would have preferred to have played someone else but we had to get on with it!

Anyway, I served first and pretty quickly fell into the routine that had helped me win our last few practice matches, which was serving out wide on both sides and coming in to volley into the open court. I figured this would be a great strategy especially as we were playing indoors (faster court conditions - good for serve and volley), but more than that I knew he hated struggling to get the return back only for me to be waiting at the net to volley).

Now, normally he lost his cool when I pressured him with this tactic, but today with a bit more on the match because it was in a tournament, he really lost it!

I kept serving wide and coming in, he lost his composure and concentration and the match was over pretty quickly with me winning 6-0, 6-0.

It was a long journey home though as we had travelled to the venue together and he refused to talk to me for the whole journey.

I lived to fight another day in the singles and we went on to win the doubles - so a happy ending! ☺

CONCLUSION

These are just four of the common areas that you should be hitting on when playing matches.

Hopefully you can see now that if I never paid attention to my opponent, I would never know which one of these tactics would work and I could be missing out on some golden opportunities to take advantage of.

I outline more "Pain Spots" as well as player specific strategies (how to play against different types of opponents) in my Special Report "Beat All The Tennis Players You Want" which is at www.beatallthetennisplayersyouwant.com which outlines my simple to execute 4 step Tennis Matchplay system.

And for a full no-holds barred look at how to improve your tennis game to its best level possible, check out the Perfect 10 Tennis Academy www.perfecttennisskills.com