Winning Ugly: Mental Warfare in Tennis--Lessons from a Master

by Brad Gilbert

It’s a good idea to return serve crosscourt because of the logistics involved. When you try to return a serve down the line you have immediately brought the sidelines into play. You are flirting with hitting the ball wide. Being just a little off means that you lose a point without even making your opponent have to hit the ball. Also, as you know, the net is higher at the sides than in the middle. Finally, you have more court to hit to going diagonally, or crosscourt. Pretty solid reasons for going back crosscourt if possible, right? More court, less net, no sideline. But there’s another advantage to hitting crosscourt. By knocking your service return back diagonally you force your opponent who’s coming to the net to make a more difficult volley. If they want to hit to the open court (away from you) they have to hit down the line. Suddenly they have to make a shot that gives them less court, more net, and brings the side line into play (this applies on either the deuce or the ad court). Or they can make the other choice and hit the ball back to you. That’s okay—it saves you a lot of running.