TennisOne Lessons

Strategy Lesson of the Week

Finishing the Point with the Angled Volley


By Brian Garrow
Written by Jim McLennan, TennisONE Senior Editor
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In tennis, there are two opponents: yourself and the other guy. This principle is a reminder that before you can ever attempt to beat your opponent, you must first learn not to beat yourself. This generally means you must be consistent, keep the ball in play, and hit one more shot than your opponent.

Now let's say you are in a match where your opponent is as consistent as you are. One tactic for beating him-- since he's not beating himself-- is to open the court and play the ball into the opening. On the professional level, you can see Agassi and Sampras exchanging 5 and 10 backhand crosscourt shots without forcing an error. Then one or other goes down the line. If the down the line shot is good enough, it is either a winner or forces an error. If it's not good enough, the player who has gone down the line exposes his court to a winning crosscourt reply. In critical moments in last year's US Open final, Sampras almost seemed to entice Agassi to go down the line first. Then Sampras was ready to pounce and hit a running forehand winner into Agassi's exposed forehand court. The idea here is not to imitate this tactic, but to develop your own favorite plays for opening up the court and hitting a decisive crosscourt winner.


In this lesson, we're focusing on hitting the angled volley for a winner, which is demonstrated by Brian Garrow, former NCAA doubles champion and semi-finalist in the US Open doubles championship. Brian has volleyed his initial backhand deep and down the line. This pulls his opponent to one side of the court while allowing him to close to the net and hit a winning angled volley into his opponent's exposed court.

But there is more here than meets the eye. In order to play a sharply angled crosscourt volley, the backswing must be extremely short and the hitting action must be across the body. In the first photo below, note how high Brian carries his racquet as he moves into second volley position. He carries his hands high and uses both hands to carefully adjust the racquet face in preparation for his angled volley. This is all in contrast with many club players who come racing into the net with the racquet dangling down in one hand (see Dan Leon's lesson on split-step). If that is the case, players don't have the time or control to play a successful angled volley. And when the ball is not properly angled, your opponent can easily reach it and play into your open court.

In the second photo, Brian demonstrates a good cross-over step on the volley. This provides him with the good shoulder turn and forward momentum to generate a sharply hit volley without taking a backswing. Taking a backswing will both make you late for the volley and rob you of the control you need to execute this shot consistently.



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