How to use someone's pace against him

[Rickson]

I usually block back hard serves and groundstrokes, but I'd like to know how I can use my opponent's pace against him the way Agassi and Safin often do.

Compact swings

[nyu]

Leaning into the ball and staying down through the ball using a shorter swing.

[Tim Tiger Henman]

The way Agassi uses people's pace against them is by taking the ball early (i.e. on the rise). Great tactic against hard-hitters.

[Rickson]

Originally Posted by gorth97

Compact swings

Definitely a good idea.

[Power Game]

Agree with previous posts,
take the ball early with compact swings to get the ball back on his as soon as possible and catch him out of position

[Rickson]

Does the compact swing go for both the backswing and followthrough or just the backswing?

[Power Game]

For the backswing only, if you jab at the ball with no follow through your shots will lack pace and depth. A good way to determine how far back to take the backswing is (open stance) to hold the racquet by your side and from there swing like it is any other shot. Doing this lets me rip service returns against big servers when most people would just block them. This is also why we see pros ripping back huge serves.