Idea to motivate more volleying

[madhavan]

Since volleying (both volume and expertise) is at a low and tennis is currently dominated by baseline bots who smack passing shots off both sides in their sleep, how about this simple idea to spur more players to take a chance and come to net - if a player hits the ball before it bounces at any stage of a point and eventually wins that point, they get 2 points. That would be a huge incentive to develop volley skills, put a premium on getting to net and add an entirely new dimension to tennis strategy. With the baseline gods currently spreading terror among foolhardy net-goers, this would quickly even the balance by putting a lot of pressure on baseliners to execute their returns and passing shots. Even players without great volley skills can benefit - for eg. instead of going for outright winners on serves/groundstrokes, they could try to hit them just well enough to elicit a weak reply and try to finish that at net. Interestingly, this really tilts the balance back toward the net player since baseliners who are out of position might not even want to try and get the ball back into play for fear of giving an easy volley/overhead (i.e. prefer to lose 1 point than 2).

Another advantage of this is that it wouldn't require any expensive infrastructure (court/equipment/etc) changes, it's just a rule change. The basic concept can surely be tweaked to improve it.

Would be interesting to see one tournament played this way sometime...maybe an exhibition

 

[ChrisRF]

Something like that will never happen and rightly so. It’s against the spirit of using different USEFUL tactics to win ONE point. Forcing to play a volley for getting 2 points is actually an insult to net play in a sense like: "We all know it’s not useful to volley, but maybe you should gamble it for getting 2 points."

It would be a totally different game. Everyone would rush the net and hope for the opponent making an error with the passing shot. Or if the volley actually has to be hit, then maybe an opponent pushed back to defense will make an error on purpose just to not allow the opponent two points.

 

[El_Yotamo]

The serve is hit before the bounce

 

[SonnyT]

In general, it takes more athletic and tennis skills to win a 15-shot rally, than a 3-shot volley (serve, return, volley). Tennis would be the laughing stock of the whole sports world if it reward more for the latter scenario.

Many ticket paying customers would rather watch the former, rather than the latter. You know, in a 15 shot rally between Djokovic and Nadal, they're not just exchanging the ball. If either slips up and makes a weak reply, the other will instantly pounce on it, and the point would end.

 

[Bubcay]

Since volleying (both volume and expertise) is at a low and tennis is currently dominated by baseline bots who smack passing shots off both sides in their sleep, how about this simple idea to spur more players to take a chance and come to net - if a player hits the ball before it bounces at any stage of a point and eventually wins that point, they get 2 points. That would be a huge incentive to develop volley skills, put a premium on getting to net and add an entirely new dimension to tennis strategy. With the baseline gods currently spreading terror among foolhardy net-goers, this would quickly even the balance by putting a lot of pressure on baseliners to execute their returns and passing shots. Even players without great volley skills can benefit - for eg. instead of going for outright winners on serves/groundstrokes, they could try to hit them just well enough to elicit a weak reply and try to finish that at net. Interestingly, this really tilts the balance back toward the net player since baseliners who are out of position might not even want to try and get the ball back into play for fear of giving an easy volley/overhead (i.e. prefer to lose 1 point than 2).

Another advantage of this is that it wouldn't require any expensive infrastructure (court/equipment/etc) changes, it's just a rule change. The basic concept can surely be tweaked to improve it.

Would be interesting to see one tournament played this way sometime...maybe an exhibition

There is nothing attractive or entertaining in serve-return-volley game. Quite boring to watch and breaks up a match in tiny bits. I would take a challenging baseline exchange over that any day.