Finding and Exploiting Weaknesses

Creating The Worst Version of Your Opponent

Coach Dan McCain

When you walk off the court after a match, the worst thing you can hear is your opponent telling his friends or parents or whoever how great he just played against you. Maybe he just had a great day, maybe he had more sleep than usual, more compliments by pretty people that day, a favor or three done for him prior to the match, or maybe he just woke up on the right side of the bed that day. And then he took it out on you.

Or, perhaps (unfortunately) your opponent’s great day on the tennis court was your fault. Perhaps you made him into a better player than how he normally performs. Perhaps your choices, your shot selection, your body language, or even your game style fit perfectly into the strengths of your opponent.

What you must consider before the first point of a match begins, is the style of play your opponent plans to execute. Is he a counter-puncher? An aggressive baseliner? A serve and volley player? Does he hit flat most of the time? With heavy topspin? With slice?

By understanding the style of play your opponent chooses to impose, you will not only have fewer surprises during your match, but you can also begin to look for and find ways of taking your opponent out of his own game style.  You may then force him into different styles of play that he may be less comfortable with.

Second, it is imperative that you gain an immediate understanding, whether before the match, during the warm-up, or in the first couple of games in the match, which ground-stroke your opponent likes to hit more often (backhand or forehand). This may sound obvious, but I’ve coached (and scolded) pros on both the WTA and ATP Tour that have played entire matches without considering this relatively remedial concept. The last thing you want to do in a baseline rally is hit with regularity to places in the court where your opponent feels comfortable.

The same goes for your opponent’s net game - you should take a close look at which side of the net your opponent can or cannot hit with effectiveness (forehand or backhand). That way, if given an option when your opponent rushes the net, you can exploit a weaker volley as opposed to driving a passing shot to your opponent’s more reliable side.

There are some general rules to follow in finding and exploiting weaknesses. Let’s assume that we all actively understand that it is a given that, when you take court, you have the ability to understand whether your opponent’s forehand or backhand is better, and how they volley.

Outside of that, these principles can open up a wide range of possibility for you as you begin to find solutions to the problems players on the other side of the net present.

First, check your opponent’s grips. Players with Eastern grips have trouble with high bouncing shots, where they must strike the ball above their shoulders, as do all players who hit with one-handed backhands. On the flip side, players with Western grips have trouble with low balls near their ankles. Examples of this would be Pete Sampras struggling on the high bouncing red clay at Roland Garros, just as former ATP World #1 Juan Carlos Ferrero struggled on the quick, low-bouncing grass at Wimbledon.

If your opponent hits a lot of topspin, prefers the ball up slightly above waist level, and plays with a Western grip, then you should look to find ways of keeping as many of your shots as low as possible. Patrick Rafter, who hit relatively flat from the baseline, who also came to the net a great deal, and used his slice backhand with beautiful effectiveness, had a great deal of success against Jim Courier, who played with an extreme Western grip on both his topspin forehand and backhand. Rafter would slice his backhand early and often during baseline exchanges, and also come to the net as often as possible, sticking his volleys low in the court to take Courier out of his comfort zone.

Second, understand that you must be willing to adjust your shot selection to cater to your opponent’s weak spots. If you feel that just playing your game, hitting your shots the way you like to hit, in places you like to place, is good enough to win on a given day, then good for you. But you may be wrong, and even if you are correct, applying pressure to your opponent’s weaknesses will make your life much easier, your victories much more one-sided, and your losses far closer in score. The ideal method of setting up your points, no matter who you are playing, is to take your strength - your best shot - straight to your opponent’s weakest stroke.

This philosophy calls for your game to be well-rounded, if you constantly look for ways to win, ways of creating the worst version of your opponent, and ways of finding and exploiting weaknesses in your opponent’s game. One needs the ability to play defensive against an opponent who hates to play against counter-punchers. One needs the ability to play aggressive, forward-thinking tennis against those who cannot handle pressure well. One needs the ability to go to the net against players who don’t hit passing shots or lobs very well. One needs to be able to slice against those with extreme Western grips, hit heavy topspin against players with very Eastern grips, or hit flat and hard against those with poor preparation. And so on.

When I was in high school, my nickname at the Florida academies I played at was Gumby (after the cartoon character who could morph his flimsy body into whatever shape he wanted), because I could change the shape of my game style according to who I was playing against. Because I had the confidence in my game to hit every shot in the book, play any style necessary, I would cater my game style to my opponent’s weaknesses. It would be common for parents and coaches who used to scout my matches to see me serve and volley in my first round match and play clay court tennis in the second round, because I had found ways of exploiting different weaknesses in different opponents.

It’s essential to look for shots that you hit better than your opponent does, or find match-ups that give you a significant edge. For example, if your opponent has more developed strokes than you do in multiple facets of the game, but you feel strongly that your backhand is better than his, then you should feel confident that you can win the match if you turn every baseline rally into a backhand contest.

This line of thinking can lead to a range of options for you, against a range of opponents, but it must begin with the ideology of: “Winning means finding one thing your opponent cannot do.” Of course, most people have more than one weakness, and your life can get easier if you mix up which weakness you exploit from point to point.  This ideology starts and finishes with the simple notion that, “it is not how good of a shot you hit that matters - what matters is how much trouble your opponent has with your shot.”

Imagine yourself hitting the best shots, struck with excellent technique - they look great, feel great, and land just as deep or wide in the court as you aimed. And now imagine all of those shots struck in a way that your opponent loves to see the most, and located in areas of the court your opponent is most comfortable. All of those great shots you just hit will get you nowhere, and all that effort will be wasted if you are playing into your opponent’s strengths.
If your opponent loves to hit forehands from all areas of the court, and has a weaker backhand (e.g. Carlos Moya), then your job is find a range of ways of not allowing your opponent to hit forehands. The easiest way to do this is to serve to the backhand, return to the backhand, and then hit the first groundstroke or first volley to the backhand.

When you find your opponent camping out in the backhand corner, hitting inside-out forehands, you can purposely hit wide to their forehand corner which will open up the entire court for you to attack the backhand. Andy Murray used this strategy beautifully against Nadal in this year’s US Open. Murray repeatedly throughout nearly every baseline exchange pushed Nadal wide to his forehand side, and this tactic took away Nadal’s devastating inside-out forehand, and it also allowed Murray a better opportunity to attack Nadal’s backhand.

Likewise, if your opponent loves to come to the net, your job is to keep him on the baseline. This can be done by hitting your ground-strokes during baseline exchanges with slightly less pace, and more net clearance to ensure depth in your shots to pin your prospective net-rusher behind the baseline. You will also discourage your opponent from coming to the net, if, every time he comes in, you choose the following sequence of shots: hit your first passing shot to one side of the court with a conservative pace, with your only intention to dip your shot low at your net-rusher’s feet; then, once your opponent pops up that first volley from his shoelaces, you can hit your passing shot by him to the other, open side of the court. By always dipping the first passing shot low, you will also encourage your opponent to close into the net tighter and tighter, and this will give you an easier opportunity to lob over your opponent. After a few games of passing shots going by, and lobs going over his head, your serve and volleying opponent may grow weary of rushing the net, and choose to stay back on the baseline - and suddenly you have taken him out of his comfort zone.

On the other side of the coin, you must be willing to bring your opponent to the net if he is noticeably uncomfortable with his volleys and net coverage. Throwing in a purposely short slice that baits your reluctant opponent to come to the net can often accomplish a lot more than a perfectly-struck shot to your opponent’s strength. While drop shots can be riskier (if poorly hit - too high, too deep), the short slice stays low and can be a nightmare for a player that prefers baseline tennis above all else. 

One style to look out for - that takes patience and tactical proficiency to defeat - is the counter-puncher, who prefers to play defensive baseline tennis. (I distinguish the counter-puncher from the pusher, who also plays defensive tennis, lives off your errors, but doesn’t play or hit better when you give them more pace). Counter-punchers feed off of your unforced errors, and generally hit their shots with passive intent. The counter-puncher plays better when you give them pace. The harder you hit - the more they like it, and the better they play.

Lleyton Hewitt is a classic example of this. I remember watching Roger Federer beat Hewitt like a drum in consecutive Grand Slam Finals, by lulling Hewitt to sleep with slow, heavy slices, and a wide range of off speed shots before pouncing on a short ball.

Another thing to always look for is how your opponent moves. Does he move better to the right, or to the left? Does he move well or poorly? Hitting drop shots and angles against players with poor foot speed can be safe plays when used at the right times, just as moving a player wide to a side to where he moves slowly can be a smart play.

For example, we know, since we have a good understanding of proper footwork (wink), that when we are pulled wide in the court, we use the open stance on both forehand and two-handed backhands, because using the open stance allows a quicker recovery time. Because we know this, we can look to make sure our opponent does this too. If he does not, we know he will be slower upon recovery to the middle of the court, and we can take advantage of this. Maybe your opponent never took the time to learn an open stance backhand, for example, so you can look to push him wide to his backhand corner on a regular basis. Tendencies like the way your opponent moves are things you should take note of when competing.

Every player has patterns and preferences, and your goal is understand what they are. Your opponent probably likes to hit his serves more in some spots than others, and he probably likes to hit his return of serve a certain way, and so on. Your opponent has a collection of things he likes to do, and your job is take all of those things away from him. Your job is find at least one thing he cannot do - and then make him do it over and over again.

These rules of finding weaknesses start with analyzing your opponent’s technique, their style of play, and their strategic tendencies. As you gain a better knowledge of technique, you can pick up more and more flaws in your opponent’s strokes. If they don’t use enough of their top hand on a two-handed topspin backhand, if they open up their hips on a one-handed backhand, if they make mistakes in their footwork, or if they break their wrist on their volleys - you can exploit it.  And by knowing what they like to do, how they like to set up the point, and where they like to hit their shots, you can impose a strategy each and every point that disallows your opponent any chance of doing those things. You can create less effective version of who you are playing against.