The risk of hitting crosscourt short.

[Golden Retriever]

Sometimes it is tempting to hit crosscourt deliberately short. It is really fun to see your opponent rushing to the side fence trying to get to the ball. However if he can get to the ball then, despite being out of position, he woud have a lot of open space to hit to for a winner. So my question is where to position yourself in case your opponent gets to the ball?

[Andres]

Most of the time, the opponent hits crosscourt back.
Eventually, they'll hit DTL for the winner, but most of the time, the return is usually crosscourt.

[Golden Retriever]

I am not talking about a "normal" crosscourt, I am talking about a short crosscourt which really gets my opponent out of position. If he is out of postion and still hits it back crosscourt to me, he is practically giving me the point.

[dowjones]

If you hit me a short crosscourt that I get to and down the line is open, that's where I'm going. Then I'll cover the net cheating down the line because of your big run it will be difficult for you to hit cross court unless you're Fed. So you would want to cover that shot but be wary that if you are committing to that, I will hit crosscourt to wrong foot you. Depends on my mood :-D

[arnz]

To me a severe crosscourt shot is one that lands a foot or so near the sideline and service line, tailing away from your opponent. I've hit those on occasion myself, a lot of times unintentionally of course.

If you can hit it consistently, that is a great shot to have. I dont know about your opponents, but most people have a hard time dealing with that shot. A lot of times they are stretched if they get to it, then they have to change the direction of the ball to go down the line, and then if they try to hit a winner or strong shot they have to go thru the higher part of the net.

You are usually not too far to cover the down the line shot, since most people cant hit the down the line in the most extreme corner with lots of pace (its low percentage tennis). Then when you do get to that down the line shot, you usually have an open court to the other side to hit to since your opponent now has to cover the whole court coming from way out the sideline

[dylo]

its a great shot. if u want to solve that problem, then u should work on setting it up. only hit it if they are offbalance or on the other side of the court.

usually when i get a hard to reach short ball, i go for a dropshot.

[10sfreak]

I usually have no problem with those shots. I'm really quick, and can almost always get there in time to just bump the ball down the line...