Main article: Tennis
In tennis, a player uses different strategies that both enhance his own strengths and exploit his opponent's weaknesses in order to gain the advantage and win more points. Players commonly specialize in a certain style of play, focusing on what they do best as a means of beating their opponents. Based on their style, players generally fit into one of three types: baseliners , volleyers and all-court players . A baseliner plays from the back of the tennis court, around the baseline , preferring to trade groundstrokes rather than to come up to the net (except in certain situations). A volleyer tries to approach the net and hit volleys, putting pressure on the opponent. All-court players fall somewhere in between. A tennis player usually determines his/her strategies based on his/her weaknesses. For example, most players have a stronger forehand, therefore they will hit forehands inside out to their opponents.
Offensive or aggressive baseliner
An offensive or aggressive baseliner tries to win the point by hitting winners from the back of the court, attacking with fast balls that the opponent cannot reach or return properly. Being an offensive baseliner player requires a deadly array of shots and shot-types. The tennis player may not try to win the point outright with one shot, but instead may hit the ball from side to side until he/she spots an opening. Offensive baseliners normally have at least one great groundstroke, forehand or backhand. The best offensive baseliners have a huge serve to go with a great groundstroke or can hit huge groundstrokes off both wings. Usually offensive baseliners have the ability to read the game very well and also their opponents' styles and tendencies so that they can spot a weakness and use one of their aggressive shots to act upon it.
An offensive baseliner can overpower and overwhelm most opposition. However, when going for winners, he/she can also produce many errors since an offensive baseliner has to repeatedly and correctly execute the most difficult strokes and shots in tennis. Errors can be due to physical and/or mental reasons such as fatigue and/or hesitation. Two great old-time players, R. Norris Williams and Ellsworth Vines, were famous for being unbeatable when their strokes were "on"; they played with such little margin for error in making their strokes, however, that when they were not 100 percent "on" they could be beaten by inferior players. Another advantage in being an offensive baseliner is since the shots they do are usually very ambitious or "high risk" and difficult to achieve, the offensive baseliner executing these sometimes truly amazing shots can shock and stun the opposition which increases confidence to the offensive baseliner and lowers the opponent's confidence.
Hard courts are generally considered to be the best surface for an offensive baseliner who often employ a high risk strategy. However, offensive baseliners can often excel on both grass and clay courts as well. On grass, they can execute their "winners" and due to the quick and low bounce, makes it harder for opponents to retrieve; whereas on clay courts, some offensive baseliners might like the slow and high bounce because it gives them a longer time to change their grip and foot-positions in order to set up for a "winner". Offensive baseliners with height especially have an advantage on clay courts because the high bounces land in their hitting zones, allowing them to strike the ball cleanly and more powerfully. Some all-time great offensive baseliners are Ivan Lendl, Jim Courier, Andre Agassi and Monica Seles. Most players today are offensive baseliners; a few notable ones are Fernando Gonzalez, Juan Martín del Potro, Fernando Verdasco, Andy Roddick, James Blake, Nikolay Davydenko, Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanović, Lindsay Davenport
Defensive Baseliner
A defensive baseliner, or counter-puncher or retriever, returns every ball and relies on the opponent making mistakes. He/She has consistent shots, makes few errors of his own while making it difficult for opponents to hit winners . The game of the defensive counter-puncher has more to do with physical endurance and determination to retrieve un-retrievable balls as well as mental stamina. They tend to make relatively few errors because they don't attempt the complicated and ambitious shots of the aggressive baseliner. But that doesn't mean they don't ever attempt aggressive shots. A counter-puncher must have speed and agility to cover the court. He/She is a fighter, and has to have willingness to chase down every ball to frustrate opponents. Especially offensive baseliners who naturally have a fiery attitude and flair, returning every aggressive shot which they do will just encourage their aggressiveness and thus encouraging errors and mistakes. Usually, the defensive counter-puncher frustrates their opponent so much that their opponent might actually try to change their game by either coming to the net in which case they can just execute "Passing Shots" down the lines or cross-court (depending on the situation), or by attempting to also be a defensive counter-puncher.
Counter-punchers often excel on slow courts, such as clay courts. The court gives them extra time to chase down shots and it is harder for opponents to create winners. Counter-punchers are often particularly strong players at low-level play, where opponents cannot make winners with regularity.
On very rare occasions players have been known to use a style that has not yet been named. It is mainly used by players that do not have strong backhands so they switch hands the racket is in to make their non-dominate hand their forehand. This allows for a longer reach on balls that would normally be unattainable from a normal backhand and it frustrates their opponent due to the change up of styles.
Great counter-punchers of all time include Mats Wilander, Björn Borg, Guillermo Vilas, Michael Chang, Miloslav Mecir, Chris Evert, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario and Guillermo Coria. Active players who employ this strategy are Lleyton Hewitt, Rafael Nadal, Gilles Simon, Andy Murray, Gaël Monfils, Jelena Janković, Dominika Cibulkova, Kim Clijsters, Shahar Peer, and Anastasia Myskina.
Serve-and-Volleyer
Main article: Serve-and-volleyA serve-and-volleyer has a great net game, is quick around the net, and has fine touch for volleys. Serve-and-volleyers come up to the net at every opportunity when serving. They are almost always attackers and can hit many winners with varieties of volleys and drop volleys. When not serving, they often employ the "chip-and-charge", chipping back the serve without attempting to hit a winner and rushing the net. The serve-and-volleyers' strategy is to pressure the opponent to try to hit difficult passing shots.
Serve-and-volleyers benefit from playing on fast courts, such as grass or fast concrete. The quick bounce and faster pace of play give them an advantage because opponents have less time to set up for a passing shot. The number of serve-and-volley players is decreasing in today's professional tennis, however, because this strategy requires more experience to master and to defeat other playing styles (As well as changes in racquet technology that have improved players' passing shots). In addition to this, there has been a trend toward the slowing down of tennis surfaces over the past few years. Tim Henman and Lleyton Hewitt have each lamented that the surfaces of their respective home Grand Slams (Wimbledon and the Australian Open) play very slowly. The serve-and-volley technique works better on faster surfaces because the volleyer is able to put more balls away without the baseliner being able to chase them down.
Some of the great ones in history are Jack Kramer, Frank Sedgman, Pancho Gonzales, Roy Emerson, Lew Hoad, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Goran Ivanisevic, Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg, Patrick Rafter, Richard Krajicek, Tim Henman, Jana Novotná and Martina Navratilova. Players who apply this technique include Taylor Dent, Michael Llodra, Radek Stepanek, Ivo Karlovic, Feliciano Lopez, Samantha Stosur and Amelie Mauresmo.
Bill Tilden, the dominant player of the 1920s, preferred to play from the backcourt and liked nothing better than to face an opponent who rushed the net — one way or another Tilden would find a way to hit the ball past him. In his book Match Play and the Spin of the Ball, Tilden propounds the theory that by definition a great baseline player will always beat a great serve-and-volleyer. Some of the best matches of all time have pitted great baseliners such as Björn Borg or Andre Agassi against great serve-and-volleyers such as John McEnroe or Pete Sampras.
All-court player
All-court players have aspects of every tennis style, whether that be offensive baseliner, defensive counter-puncher or serve-and-volleyer. All-court players use the best bits from each style and mix it together to create a truly formidable tennis style to play against. In game situations, they have the ability to select an action usually executed by one tennis style. They usually have an attacking game, mixing some groundstrokes and volleys to keep the opponent guessing. Most all-court players won't rush the net immediately after a serve like a typical serve and volley player would. However, their game often revolves around "constructing" a point to where they will be able to approach the net and put away an easy volley or pulling their opponent into the net and hitting a passing shot. They are very versatile; when an all-court player
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