John McEnroe: Learning from the Pros

with John Yandell

Still Photos by J Gregory Swendsen

Click photo to view video
People overlook the fact that my style was based on playing the percentages and forcing opponent’s to beat me with better shot making.

I think every tennis player including myself wants to learn something from the pros. When most players watch pro matches they tend to focus on the obvious things. Yeah, it’s fun to try to copy Andre Agassi’s forehand, or try to hit 125 mph serves like Pete Sampras. But to play winning tennis at any level, you’ve got to be realistic about your capabilities. There are other things to look for if you want to really learn from watching the best players.

Over the past few years as a commentator, I've watched hundreds of matches, far more than I ever did as a player. My conclusion? Almost any player can learn a lot by watching the strategy in pro matches, how the players set up their points, and more importantly, how they finish them off.

The point is, when you go into a match you need to have several specific ideas about how you’re going to beat a given opponent. This means knowing what your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses are and how they match up with yours. These match ups are the foundation of your game plan.

On the tour, this kind of information is common knowledge, but below that level too many players don’t even think about it. That’s crazy because at the club level strategy can probably do even more for you than it can on the tour. There isn’t always an answer to Pete Sampras’s serve. Usually at the club level players have glaring weaknesses that can be exploited by playing the right shots and/or patterns.

For Hewitt, court coverage is a weapon that wears down opponents.

Strategy and Percentages

Believe it or not, strategy and percentages were the foundation of my success.

Sometimes I think people should have spent a little more time observing that part of my game, as opposed to what I might have said on occasion to an official or two.

When people do talk about the way I played, they usually describe it as a high risk attacking style, but I never really saw it that way.

When I was coming up I tried to develop a game that didn’t have any obvious weaknesses, so players didn’t have a clear idea of what to do against me. My goal was to keep my errors to a minimum and make my opponents beat me by making better shots. That’s high percentage tennis and that’s what wins most matches.

Being left-handed, I developed the ability to serve wide, especially in the ad court, and this led to a lot of easy volleys and easy points on my serve. Other players have their own favorite patterns.

One reason Pete’s first serve has been so great: it goes in 60% of the time.

Agassi can work the backhand crosscourt until he gets ahead and goes down the line. Or he can run around his backhand and smack forehands inside out or inside in.

A player like Lleyton Hewitt wears you down with amazing court coverage. He can out rally you from the backcourt, but has the capability to attack the short ball as well.

Pete Sampras has a great serve, but he also has a very complete game. He can beat you from anywhere on the court, depending on the situation.

The point is, all these players play the percentages based on their capabilities. If you want to be successful, you have to find ways to use your own shots to win points on a consistent basis.

Basics of Winning Tennis

Here are some of the things that almost any player can pick up from watching the pros. They are about as basic as you can get, but when I watch club matches I’m stunned at how few players seem to understand them. If you follow just these simple points and are able to incorporate them, you’ll be way ahead of the game and will probably start to win a lot more matches.

If your forehand is your weapon, run around your backhand and attack short balls.

Serving a high percentage on your first serve: Watch Pete. Over his career he’s served around 60% on his first serve, and he always seems to get his first serve in at critical times. Compare this to the club player who tries to hit a huge flat serve that goes in a couple of times a set.

Keeping the ball deep in rallies: Watch Lleyton Hewitt. It’s virtually impossible to attack if you have to play the ball from way behind the baseline. Depth is a weapon, one that players at any level can develop. Given the choice it’s much more important to hit the ball deep than to hit it hard.

Using all angles of the court: Watch Martina Hingis. It’s a big court out there. Can you hit short crosscourts? Drop shots? Lobs? This kind of versatility is probably more important in club tennis, and likely to produce even better results. It’s also rarer, so it could be a big advantage.

Attacking short balls: Watch Agassi. Move into the court, or move around short balls on the backhand side and hit inside out and inside in. You don’t necessarily have to blast the ball. Most club players have much better forehands than backhands, but you rarely see them run around the ball.

You don’t have to blast return winners to take advantage of weak second serves.

Trying to pressure weak serves: Watch all the successful pros! Breaking serve is obviously critical in pro tennis. It could be even more important in club tennis, since fewer players hold serve routinely.

To return well at the club level, it’s generally a matter of just getting a high percentage of serves back in play. It doesn’t help to hit huge returns that hit the fence in the air. But you should definitely pressure weaker serves, especially the second. This is more a matter of getting ahead with a good placement, or chipping and going in, or even hitting a drop shot against a really soft serve.

Be Flexible - Change a Losing Strategy

These are some of the elements you need to consider in deciding how to play certain opponents. One general point: if your strategy isn’t working, you need to be flexible.

If you hang in matches when you’re behind, like Andre at the French, anything can happen!

At a time in my career when I was losing to Ivan Lendl, the great Don Budge gave me a suggestion. Come in down the middle to take away the angles on Ivan’s passing shots. The strategy worked and I was able to reverse his dominance of our rivalry. You can have the most brilliant strategy in the world but if it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t really matter how brilliant it was.

One final, intangible factor is what I call “tennis guts.” This can really be the difference. A lot of players, even at the pro level, tend to give up when they get behind or things aren’t going their way. In my career I won a lot of matches just on my intensity. You never know what’s going to happen in a tennis match.

Remember that Andre Agassi was down two sets to none and came back to win the French Open. I’m sure he’s glad now he didn’t decide it just wasn’t his day. If you have the guts to hang in and play tough when you’re behind, you may be surprised how many matches you can turn around and end up winning yourself.

Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about this article by emailing us here at TennisONE.

Want hear more from John McEnroe? Check out this other original article in the TennisONE Lesson Library. Also, check out his strokes in the TennisONE ProStrokes Gallery.

John McEnroe on the Mental Game

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