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

by Brad Gilbert

For your own scouting reports just stick to the basics. Strengths. Weaknesses. Patterns. Unforced errors. Favorite shots in certain situations. You can do it while watching a match. You can do it while playing a match. You can do it after a match. But do it. By knowing “who’s doing what to whom” you can capitalize on a tremendous advantage. Here’s a great example of how I used that advantage to beat a good friend.

The Retriever The Player With Speed The Attack to Your Backhand The Serve The Return of Serve The Serve-Volley Player The Weak Serve The Lefty’s Serve The Heater

Just so we get our terms straight let’s agree on what a Retriever is. The basic garden variety Retriever (also known as a Pusher, a Rabbit, or a Golden Retriever) stays on the baseline and gets everything back. They don’t use pace. They don’t use depth. They don’t use spin. They don’t use angles. They don’t use touch. But they do drive you nuts! Everything comes back. They chase everything down and they do it relentlessly. They’re married to the baseline and will stay there all day. As Retrievers perfect their game they may start developing spin, depth, and/or pace. But their basic game plan stays exactly the same: get everything back.

1. PATIENCE IS YOUR GREATEST ALLY

Your primary goal when playing against a Retriever is to make them hit some real tennis shots. Instead of their usual “push it back” or “keep it in play” stuff you want to force them to try something specific. You want to get them out of their comfort zone. The first way to do it is by coming to the net. Even if that isn’t your normal game you must get to the net. That means when you get a short ball (even a medium short ball) get to the net. Go on the offense, but do it the right way. Not by trying to hit winners from the baseline or other low-percentage shots, but by coming to the net when the opportunity presents itself. And even sometimes when it doesn’t present itself.

3. BRING THE RETRIEVER TO THE NET

have to hit some short shots. If you don’t think you can hit that kind of shot, practice it. Remember, you’ve done it accidentally plenty of times. Now try doing it on purpose. Because once you’ve done that you’ve effectively set your trap. The Retriever hates the net.

SOFTER IS HARDER In most cases a Retriever feeds off your pace. They love to take what you’ve supplied (energy in the form of a hard hit ball) and turn it right back on you. The harder you hit the ball the harder they hit the ball! Only they aren’t hitting harder, you are. And the harder you swing the more likely it is you’ll make a mistake. They just stick their racket out (and with the new wide bodies that’s all they have to do) and like magic the ball comes back harder.

The middle-level player who faces a Retriever falls into the trap of trying to hit the ball harder and harder to win the point. The Pusher sits on the baseline blocking back hard-hit shot after hard-hit shot. They love it because they know eventually you’ll overhit and make an error.

5. HIT YOUR SECOND SERVE FIRST

The Player With Speed

Don’t let them use their speed. Take away their asset. How? Hit deep down the middle. Make them play more in the wheelhouse. Suddenly instead of running to the ball (which they love) you’re forcing them to run away from the ball, to get out of its way. You’re crowding them and not letting them exploit their speed. Think of wherever they are standing as a target and them as the bull’s-eye.

Quit trying just to hit shots out of their range. Part of their success comes from mistakes you make trying to hit a shot they can’t get to. Don’t try to make it harder for them to get to your shot. Make it easier! Hit it at them and see what happens. They’ll overrun shots. They’ll start to hit shots off balance. They’ll start to hit weak returns more frequently.

The Attack to Your Backhand

The Serve Ask the experts what the most important shot in tennis is and they’ll say the serve. Is it? Maybe on tour. For recreational tennis players that answer is doubtful. How often do you or your opponents hit aces or service winners? How many times does your serve force a return that puts you in a plus position you can take advantage of? And, most important, how often do you hold serve? Probably not as often as you should.

that you can work on that will help your cause, it’s the serve. I can say that because I’ve seen lots of players at clubs and public parks around the world for twenty years. If you can develop a penetrating, varied, and reliable serve you’ll be looking for new opponents soon. Your buddies will get tired of losing to you. But good luck. Jimmy Connors went through his whole career and couldn’t develop a threatening serve.

The Return of Serve I want to tell you what can become the most important shot for you with a minimum amount of work. It’s your return of serve. It’s a lot easier to improve this than it is trying to learn a big serve. With a strong return of serve you are constantly putting pressure on your opponent, capitalizing on weak servers and neutralizing better servers. The return of serve is an opportunity to attack your opponent where it hurts most, by taking the offense away from them and by constantly threatening to break their service.

A player who’s always struggling to hold is like a fighter on the ropes. They worry about just surviving. It’s mentally and physically very damaging to know your serve is going to be neutralized or taken advantage of over and over, that you’re constantly struggling to avoid being broken.

What I want to do is show you how you can capitalize on your opponent’s serve by knowing what to do with your service return tactically. Whether it’s a big serve and volley, a weak first or second serve, or anything else, you’ll be able to minimize their serve and maximize your service return. You’ll love the results.

The Serve-Volley Player

1. WATCH THE CORRECT MOVING OBJECT, CALMLY When someone starts attacking you at the net it’s human nature to watch them and not the tennis ball. At all levels of play—A, B, and C—there is an automatic urge to watch the player attacking you. But the player isn’t attacking you, the ball is. The player doesn’t come over the net, the ball does. Watch the ball. Concentrate totally on the ball.

Good contact is almost impossible when you’re watching the attacking player with one eye and the ball with the other. It’s why so many of your returns go wide, long, or short.

2. HIT A SOFT RETURN

When getting served and volleyed, return it softly, not fast.

Returning with less pace can help you accomplish something that can be even more important. By the time your opponent gets to the ball it will be dropping below the net (or at least dropping). The net rusher will have to hit up on it. Hitting a ball that’s fallen below the net is a lot harder than hitting one that’s above the net. Maybe John McEnroe can angle it off for a winner, but let your opponent try it. I can guarantee that the player across the net from you won’t like a low, soft return that’s dropping. Their volley (if they can make it) won’t be penetrating, won’t be low, and won’t be a problem. Obviously, you can also get that ball dipping below the net with topspin. The “dipper” is more difficult to execute, but just as effective. Either way works. Best of all, mix ’em up. Hit with less pace occasionally. By varying your shots you keep ’em guessing.

3. BUST A RETURN RIGHT AT YOUR OPPONENT

Try aiming for the other player if they rush into the net after a serve.

4. RETURN SERVE CROSSCOURT

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.

5. LEARN TO LOVE THE LOB

Always try to lob to their backhand side. You’ll see good results.

The Weak Serve The player who can take their opponent’s weak serve and use it to their own advantage has a tremendous asset.

The laziness first shows up in your footwork. I see big lunging steps or no steps at all. A player will stand there waiting for the ball to arrive or wait until the last second and lurch at the ball. Instead, you should keep your feet moving with short peppery steps. Watch Connors’s feet, or Lendl’s when he’s getting ready for the weak serve. Light, quick, and on their toes. They can get to and set up for the ball with much more consistency, much better balance, and much better timing. Start the feet moving before the toss. Stay light and loose on the balls of your feet when you smell the weak serve coming.

When getting a weak second serve, start moving forward as the serve comes to you. Don’t try to kill the ball.

3. SHORTEN YOUR GRIP AND YOUR

Weak second serve, choke up to prevent over hitting

HIT WITH YOUR RACKET, NOT YOUR EGO

Power is usually less important than placement.

The Lefty’s Serve The left-handed player has two advantages over you if you’re right-handed. One is in your head and the other is on the court. Let’s look at

The Heater

MOVE BACK THREE STEPS When someone is beating you with a particular shot or style of play it’s important to change what you’re doing. Give the player who’s cruising along on the other side of the net a different look.

2. MOVE IN THREE STEPS Then move in closer. Get inside the service line closer than you’d normally position yourself. You’ll try to block the ball back. Grip down on the racket and make contact in front of your body. The idea, of course, is to start disrupting your opponent’s smooth ride. You’re making him think. You’re trying to get him to change what he’s doing. And believe me,

Messing With Their Mind If you can diminish the effectiveness of your opponent’s best serve you’ve really given yourself a big boost toward winning the match. If it’s a Lefty with a good can-opener serve, cheat to the alley and force them to try to beat you up the middle. If you’re playing a righty who can pound it down the middle on the deuce court move to your left and give them just a sliver of the pie to hit to on your backhand side. And mix it up. If someone’s beating you consistently with their serve, you’ve got to work on their mind. Move to your new position when they can see you (but before they settle into their pre-serve motion). Then later move after they toss and can’t see you. Exaggerate the move so that you force them away from their preferred shot. It’s poor sportsmanship to be hopping back and forth simply to distract your opponent. It’s legitimate to move with the purpose of taking a new position.

The Seven Hidden Ad Points 1. The Set-up Point 2. The Set-up Game 3. The Dictate Games 4. Stretching a Lead 5. Stopping the Match From Slipping Away 6. Tiebreaker Tactics 7. Closing Out a Match

RULE 1: GET IT IN OR GET IT BACK! When a Set-up Point arrives (either for me or the other player) I pay attention. The primary goal I have in mind is this: Get it in or get it back! That means if I’m serving I want to get the ball in. If I’m receiving I want to get the ball back, and preferably to a spot that forces my opponent to hit a weaker shot. And it’s even more important at 30–30 or deuce. These points require more caution. Or, to put it another way, they require less casualness or carelessness.

This doesn’t mean you should play pattycake tennis. It means you should manage your shots, avoiding low-percentage shots that carry unnecessary risk at inappropriate times. And that’s the strategy you should apply to all of the Hidden Ad Points.

2. The Set-up Game Any game that can move a player to within one game of the set is a Set-up Game. It’s similar to the Set-up Point in that it’s generally not viewed as anything special, just another game. But it is special.

When a Set-up Game arrives (especially at 4–all or 5–all) a flashing red light should go off in your head and signal: “Pay attention. The stakes have been raised. Don’t be casual. Stay alert. Opportunity beckons.” Your concentration level should notch up considerably. Every point here is a big point. Every point helps or hurts a lot more.

say you should win the match. (Remember: that happens almost 90 percent of the time for the top pros). Lose the first set and you’ve got problems. However, there’s a reason the contest continues after the first set. Winning it doesn’t guarantee victory. Losing doesn’t necessarily mean defeat. But, win or lose, those first games of set two can significantly affect the dynamics of what follows.

Get ’Em Down and Keep ’Em Down I’ve seen, in the course of hundreds of tournament matches, that the beginning of the second set is often when a big psychological shift can occur. It’s a new beginning for your opponent who’s just lost the first set. You can smash that new beginning with a strong start. Even a quitter can get their hopes up if they get going early in set two.

The time you’re most likely to lose your serve is right after you’ve broken serve. It has nothing to do with mechanics and everything to do with attitudes. A player who breaks serve tends to let down or get careless. The player who’s been broken plays harder.

Beginning a set where both players know they can win the match by winning that set usually alerts and motivates both players. If one of them gets broken early they understand they only have to recover that break, not a break and a set. Psychologically there’s a big difference.

Here’s what I do: I lie to myself. I’ll think, “Brad, pick it up now. You’re down a break (even though I’m not). Don’t fall behind. Work harder. You’ve got to break him back. This isn’t going to be easy.” It works. I feel like I’m fighting to catch up instead of sitting on and relaxing with a lead.

Lie to yourself that your behind, even when your ahead

My approach is different and I believe better for the average club player’s game. Most players make mistakes when they start getting aggressive and hitting harder. My goal is to continue doing exactly what I did to get ahead, only better. I don’t work on increasing my power. I work on increasing my awareness and concentration. I don’t want to change my game (after all, it got me ahead). I want to work on my mind so that I stay on track. You should do the same. Players at all levels start feeling a great urge to experiment with new tactics and shots when they get ahead. It’s strange thinking. They get a lead doing one thing and then want to hold or increase that lead by doing something else, usually something they’re not as good at or they’d have done it originally! When you’re ahead, keep doing exactly what worked to get you ahead. I go even further than that. I don’t change anything when I’m leading. I usually keep the same shirt (even if it’s soaked), the same racket, the same towel to wipe off sweat, and I want to keep the same ball in play after I win a point. Change nothing.

Hard to do but the right thing is to continue playing the same game that got you the lead.