IF YOU’RE LOOKING to hit more winners and force more errors from your opponents without hitting the ball any harder, learn to open up the court with angles. By forcing your opponent out wide to defend, you will naturally find yourself with more open court. This will give you more chances to take control of rallies, and it will also increase your opponent’s fatigue factor.
Modern tennis, with its lighter racquets and softer, spin-enhancing strings, presents players with more opportunities to use angled shots with less risk. And with so many people embracing the concept of heavy topspin, the basic building blocks for hitting effective angles are already in place for many players.
1. Tools Needed To Hit Angle
The Shots: Crosscourt forehand, crosscourt backhand, inside out forehand.
Rolling vs. Ripping Topspin: You must be able to hit topspin to hit angles effectively, and there are two ways to do that: Rolling and ripping. In hitting an angle, a player has to reverse the spin of the ball so that the topspin provides trajectory and depth control. When I’m working with elite players I tell them to “rip it.” If I can see the seams on the ball, it’s not enough RPM’s on the ball. But 3.5-level players can “roll it” and still hit effective angles. That means you can still see the seams of the ball as it spins. As you become more advanced you will “rip” more than you “roll.”
No matter which you do, you must accelerate through contact and really focus on a full and complete, accelerated swing through the ball to a nice, long, complete follow-through, so you learn to spin the ball efficiently.
Trajectory Control: Don’t aim too high when attempt- ing angles. Even with a lot of topspin, if you hit the ball four or five feet over the net your ball will sail wide. Unless you’re Rafael Nadal, that is. He can hit the ball six feet over the net and still hit a very wide angle. Typically, about two racquet-head widths over the net will provide safe margin while ensuring balls come down in play.
Depth Control: The cross-court angle gives you far less length of court to hit to compared to aiming deep to a corner, so both racquet speed and control are required. The sharper the angle you attempt, the less court you have to work with. That’s where the RPMs come in. The more RPMs you generate hitting topspin, the faster your ball will drop. Elite level players rip the ball from the baseline area and land the angle inside the service box near the sideline and service line intersection.
2. Recognize When To Hit Angles
First, you must know where your opponent is located because the further back they play, the more effective the use of angles. Understanding your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses is also important. You must ask: do they move forward very well? A lot of players who are baseliners move well east to west, but they move poorly north to south. Also, how does your oppo- nent respond when you hit them an angle shot? Do they move to the ball well? Many good baseline play- ers do not move up to intercept the shorter ball well. If a player is a trench runner that doesn’t like to leave the deep baseline area, the angle can be very effective against those players.
Recognizing Angle Opportunities
Angle an angle – If someone hits a wide, shallow ball, respond with an angle, especially if your opponent is retreating quickly to cover the down the line.
Angle a slow slice – For most players, it’s difficult to create a lot of speed on the ball when someone slices it down low. Many players get suckered into over hit- ting on this shot. It does, however, present a great opportunity to hit the angle and be offensive without having to use risky power.
Angle an easy ball – When someone has hit you an easy ball, they are expecting you to go for a big drive or an approach and come in. Djokovic does this bril- liantly against Nadal. He’ll have Rafa backing up expecting a big forehand, and Djokovic will hit a heavy angle that catches him by surprise and pulls him further off the court.
Angle shorter balls only – it’s better if you’re inter- cepting the ball near the baseline or ahead of the baseline. Getting early position on the ball increases your chance to hit a successful angle. If you want to be a player that looks for the opportunity to hit angles, you have to be a player that, in a baseline point, is pre- pared to move forward to the ball. Don’t wait for the ball to come to you.
Angle balls near the sideline – For the intermediate player, first learn to be successful hitting an angled ball wide from near the sidelines because it gives you more court to work with. But as you get more advanced, learn to hit the angle from the middle of the court. You’ll see the better players can take a ball down the middle and angle it off the court. The pros are able to do this with ease, but mastering racquet head speed and control takes time.
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