Appropriate depth of typical groundies

[callitout]

Watching FO i'm noticing lots of rally balls hit with topsin that land near the service line. I was always taught to go for more depth than that to aim for 2-3 feet inside baseline with typical rally balls. I'm wondering if these guys are hitting with so much topsin that their balls arent attackable even if they land short--whereas mine would be..or is there an element of surpirse in that they are varying the depth to keep opponent out of rhythm. Fed is a genius at hitting deep and then slicing low and short and then passing his out of position opponent, but i'm not referring to that sort of play. I'm seeing Nadal and Grosjean and lots of others who hit with heavy topsin consistently landing their shots around service line. Will this be an improvent for typical 4.0-4.5 player or are these just going to be giving a solid opponent more chance to attack.

[gifted_shotmaker]

It works on clay more than any surface. Guys like Nadal and Grosjean give that kind of stuff to a guy like Safin in his hitting zone on a fast surface like grass, that's easy picking, swing away Safin. A solid opponent would attack that. I know if you gave me something like that you are going to be on the defensive. My two cents...

[TwistServe]

If you hit the ball at the service line with lots of spin you can get away with it sometimes. But image hitting that same ball with lots of spin but deeper.. wouldn't that push the opponent way back or force them to take the ball on the rise.. ?!?

[Tennis Ball Hitter]

I notice the same thing ... in particular "that" rally between Federer and Hewitt. With the exception of one or two, all of Hewitts shots in the baseline rally land around the service line. And federer was content with just rallying with him and that was not clay

[THE ANIMAL]

Depth baby depth around 1 to 2 feet from the base line.

[framer]

Agassi's groundstrokes seem to land around the service line alot too.

[tom-selleck]

Depth baby depth around 1 to 2 feet from the base line.

that's easy to say, but actually watch the matches closely and it doesn't happen that often.

strange that i was noticing the same thing last night..... federer and his opponent (????esque) in the quarter-finals were putting 80% of their shots around the service line and i think it's pretty common... seems trying to hit the baseline is alot more risky...

off the top of my head, i'm thinking some of the women (like sharapova, serena, maybe justine) hit alot closer to the baseline, but nowhere near the pace or topspin.

[SC in MA]

Borg and Wilander won a lot of tournaments (mostly clay) by playing exactly this way. A lot of topspin hit to around the service line. The topspin made it difficult to attack. Hitting it to the service line allowed for a very large margin of error. Depth was basically irrelevant to these guys. They could consistently, match-after-match hit safely this way all day long, which challenged their opponents to either try to stay with them, or do something riskier to beat them. Wilander especially, would very rarely ever hit a ball long.

[Kaptain Karl]

There is a "School of Thought" among many of today's Western Grip Topspinners which promotes the high margin of error of hitting HARD topspin ground strokes that clear the net by several feet and still land at about the Service Line. In their minds the extreme kick of their hard topspins gives them an advantage with this strategy.

Since clay (at this altitude) is rare. We have a preponderance of S&V and players who play a very Attacking game. Players using the strategy in the above paragraph get CREAMED by these attackers.

Also, I use Eastern and SW grips. I don't generate the CRAZY spin of the extreme Western grip players. I win more matches when I'm hitting within six feet of the baseline ... and NOT allowing my attacking opponents to use my shorter ball for an approach shot.

One of the benefits of having an all-court game is I can adapt to the environment and the opponent. Otherwise, I'd have to be a whole lot better at whatever *single* strategy I settled on....
___________

Borg and Wilander won a lot of tournaments (mostly clay) by playing exactly this way. A lot of topspin hit to around the service line. The topspin made it difficult to attack. Hitting it to the service line allowed for a very large margin of error. Depth was basically irrelevant to these guys. They could consistently, match-after-match hit safely this way all day long, which challenged their opponents to either try to stay with them, or do something riskier to beat them.Maybe for Wilander. (I was AWOL from tennis during Mats' time....)

Borg changed to hitting deeper within a few years of breaking into prominence. Prior to Borg adjusting his strategy, Connors kept eating him up by driving those short balls and attacking.

(I remember when Forest Hills was on clay: Connors was meeting the winner of Vilas (If I recall correctly) and Borg. A reporter asked Connors why he wasn't scouting the competition during their match. Jimbo's light-hearted reply was something like, "It's okay. Either way I'm just playing another topspinner tommorrow....")

- KK

[SC in MA]

KK: Some number of years ago, I saw Borg play twice at an invitational hardcourt tournament during one of his later comeback attempts. His style of play was night-and-day different than his topspinning glory days. I would have never have guessed it was Borg based on the way he played. His serve was very big. It was by far his best stroke and weapon. Overwise, he showed very little patience. His forehand was probably the most noticeably different stroke. He hit it very hard, but it had really flattened out with very moderate topspin. He made a ton of unforced errors by consistently overhitting his forehand's long. On the backhand side, overall he seemed very tentative and unsure. It had sort of flattened out as well. However, there were a few times where he did hit the old recognizable backhand. The Borg I saw would be lucky to win one round of a qualifying tournament.