Tips on beating flat hitters

[Jonboy]

Im in a competition and am facing a very flat hitter who always drives for the corners. His main weapon is his forehand and often steps around his BH to attempt a winner. He is very fast but has poor net play. Playing on carpet accelerates the ball as it doesnt really bounce very much.

Any tips on taking this guy out.

 

[swizzy]

drop and lob... and a dose of sidespin

 

[BlueB]

Low and short slices.
Also, is he comfy taking the ball early or high? If not, lots of deep top spins or moonballs.

 

[Enga]

Sounds like drawing him to the net would be nice. Short backhand slice if you have one. Or work the angles with short topspin shots.

Keeping the ball deep might help. Its harder to hit flat when the opponent lands their shots on or near the baseline. You can force errors from him that way.

 

[Ft.S]

I have relatively flay strokes both FH and BH, and if the ball is at my 3/4 height, I can generate pretty heavy balls. This means that I do have difficulty generating pace if the ball height is not there, so I rely more on top spin and placement when I receive such balls. If your opponent is similar to me, I'd suggest low balls with slices particularly to the BH.

I hope this helps.

 

[Jonboy]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I do tend to hit the ball very deep myself. Problem is, this guy is a notorious Hooker and anything near the lines is usually out. My intention is to vary gameplay, disturb his rhythm and hit out of his wheel house. I will try and bring him in with some slice, whilst hitting wide to his forehand to open up his BH. I have tried attacking his serve and the net to take time way from him, which seems to work.

 

[blip]

Attack his backhand at first chance and get to net for the put away or to take time from him. How about loopy shots to BH?

 

[dgold44]

jonboy, a longer rally should favor the topspin hitter over the flat hitter because flat shots make more errors.
You must go at his forehand to open up his backhand. Try to serve and return serve to his backhand side. Just keep it deep to his forehand and as soon as you get a shorter ball then attack the backhand.
What level play is this. Do not be afraid to bring him to the net

 

[Jonboy]

jonboy, a longer rally should favor the topspin hitter over the flat hitter because flat shots make more errors.
You must go at his forehand to open up his backhand. Try to serve and return serve to his backhand side. Just keep it deep to his forehand and as soon as you get a shorter ball then attack the backhand.
What level play is this. Do not be afraid to bring him to the net

4.5/ 5.0 We are both fairly even and play for our club's team. This is an inter-club tournament and we are due to meet in the semis. I do serve to his BH but he stands wide and only gives you a slither. If it goes to his FH he will try and bury it.

 

[Minion]

Flat hitters typically like 2 things: 1) rhythm and 2) just above waist high balls. So you can disrupt his rhythm by throwing in some slices, flat shots, heavy topspin, moonballs. Try to either keep the ball low, or around shoulder hight - flat hitters hate high balls. Either way, variation will be your friend.

 

[g4driver]

Flat hitters typically like 2 things: 1) rhythm and 2) just above waist high balls. So you can disrupt his rhythm by throwing in some slices, flat shots, heavy topspin, moonballs. Try to either keep the ball low, or around shoulder hight - flat hitters hate high balls. Either way, variation will be your friend.

You forget to mention the third thing they love even more: short balls. Don't hit a flat hitter a short ball.

If the OP's is 4.5/5.0, he should know how to take the ball early on a heavy topspin ball and knock it down, or and hit an overhead off of a moonball, even from the baseline.

Low deep slices are the best shots you can hit to a flat hitter. The low deep slices force him to slice back, because those shots are difficult to attack. Flat hitters can attack a moonball like I mentioned above, and if flat hitter hits on the rise, a heavy topspin can be knocked down by a flat hitter.

As a flat hitter, moonballs and topspin aren't a problem. 90% of the players hit topspin, so you aren't hitting anything he doesn't see day in day out.

 

[Jonboy]

Agreed TS is common, especially with the APD/ PD crowd, so he deals with that all the time. Our indoor courts dont have alot of depth or width, so you really have no choice but to hit TS on the rise. This chap is not tall , so a high moonball very deep to his BH would work. He doesnt have a slice but a strange flat BH, quite unorthodox. So maybe bringing him in will make the net higher.

 

[Max G.]

Don't forget to play your game, don't get too caught up in responding to his.

I feel like what you've described isn't THAT unusual of a combination of shots. A guy with a weak net game, a big flat forehand and a not-so-great flat backhand? At the end of the day, that's not a gameplan with a glaring hole in it that you can beat by just finding the right strategy. Especially not at 4.5/5.0 level.

The strong forehand/weak backhand combo is common - deal with it as you usually would. Yeah, flat hitters will have a little more problem with slice, but not so big of an issue that you can just switch to hitting lots of slice shots and expect him to implode. Trying to bring him to net, or trying to give him a bunch of slices, or really heavy topspin to the backhand, are all good ideas, but don't get so caught up with them that you forget the bread and butter shots - whatever those are for your game. You've played guys with strong forheand/weak backhand/weak netgame combinations, trust your game and hit your shots.

 

[Jonboy]

Awesome advice. Very true , you can think of what's going on too much on the other side of the net and not give enough credit to your own weapons. Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

 

[TennisCJC]

Try high loopers with lots of top to the FH. Others had idea of low slice and that's good too. Some flat hitters don't like high balls but watch out because if he can step in and inject pace consistently, then abandon the high toppers to the FH strategy - that's why I said "try" it.

Also, get them running if at all possible. Big bangers are not as effective if forced to hit on the run. The tricky part is it is difficult to hit wide ball or to change the direction DTL to get them running. Best bet is to go CC aggressively (safer shot) and change to DTL with conservative margin (realize goal is to run them and you are not trying to hit a DTL winner instead hit high over net with topspin about 6 feet from sideline). But, try targeting the outer 1/3 of the court L and R and stay out of the middle 3rd. Leave it in the middle 3rd, and it will be long day for you.

 

[rh310]

Low and short slices.
Also, is he comfy taking the ball early or high? If not, lots of deep top spins or moonballs.

Moonballs always strike me as a ****** move. But then, I'm still sore from a recent 4.0 SF loss where my opponent beat the crap out of me with a mix of extremely good (i.e., heavy topspin, 1-2 feet inside baseline) moonballs, drop shots, and particularly great serving (he didn't face a single break point). The opponent was a friend of mine, and he never plays like that if we're practicing.

After the match, he said that he had to do it to win the match. I had a game plan too, based on our practice sessions, which was to beat him with consistency since if he doesn't win the point in 2-3 strokes he'll hit the next one long.

Yes, his was the smarter game plan. Yes, I should have adapted my plan when I saw his tactics. Yes, he was serving great and I couldn't get a break point. Yes, he absolutely was the better / smarter player and definitively won the match.

But I still couldn't help myself from calling him a ****ing ****** bag under my breath each time he hit a moonball.

 

[coloskier]

Moonballs always strike me as a ****** move. But then, I'm still sore from a recent 4.0 SF loss where my opponent beat the crap out of me with a mix of extremely good (i.e., heavy topspin, 1-2 feet inside baseline) moonballs, drop shots, and particularly great serving (he didn't face a single break point). The opponent was a friend of mine, and he never plays like that if we're practicing.

After the match, he said that he had to do it to win the match. I had a game plan too, based on our practice sessions, which was to beat him with consistency since if he doesn't win the point in 2-3 strokes he'll hit the next one long.

Yes, his was the smarter game plan. Yes, I should have adapted my plan when I saw his tactics. Yes, he was serving great and I couldn't get a break point. Yes, he absolutely was the better / smarter player and definitively won the match.

But I still couldn't help myself from calling him a ******* ****** bag under my breath each time he hit a moonball.

I always have the same issue, although I have learned to get past it by stepping in on the moonballs and driving them to a corner with a half volley.

 

[RetroSpin]

Try high loopers with lots of top to the FH. Others had idea of low slice and that's good too. Some flat hitters don't like high balls but watch out because if he can step in and inject pace consistently, then abandon the high toppers to the FH strategy - that's why I said "try" it.

Also, get them running if at all possible. Big bangers are not as effective if forced to hit on the run. The tricky part is it is difficult to hit wide ball or to change the direction DTL to get them running. Best bet is to go CC aggressively (safer shot) and change to DTL with conservative margin (realize goal is to run them and you are not trying to hit a DTL winner instead hit high over net with topspin about 6 feet from sideline). But, try targeting the outer 1/3 of the court L and R and stay out of the middle 3rd. Leave it in the middle 3rd, and it will be long day for you.

I like this. Guys with big flat FHs typically want to get set to hit it. Make him move.

 

[NTRPolice]

Slice him around the court and keep the ball low. In the long run flat balls are going to lose to topspin shots. Sure, he might hit some fabulous winners, but those winners are going to start turning into errors if you can manage to keep the ball low. The only thing you dont want to do is give him high bouncing balls that he can blast x-court with good consistency. You want him to start taking risks by hitting balls that are a foot off the ground by the time he gets to them, and in the best case scenario has to go DTL, which sets you up with an x-court forehand.

Slice. Avoid sending him high bouncing balls that he can get a x-court forehand on.

 

[NLBwell]

As a flat hitter, the thing that really bothers me is if the opponent is really fast. Since I want shorter points and want to put the ball away, it gives me much smaller targets to hit into - increasing my error rate. You can't increase your speed dramatically in the short term, but the more balls you can get back and court you can cover, the better. Remember, he will miss more often than you will (unless he is just a far better player). Generally, a flat hitter will be better at slicing than an topspin player, so I'm not sure that a slice war is in your favor. Keep it deep and maybe toward the middle - trying to make it a consistency war - and not give him short balls to put away.

 

[Deleted member 23235]

Used to think I had problems with flat hitters... then I realized I just had problems with people who consistently hit deep!

Flat hitters will tend to hit deeper than most.. or at least their short flat shots don't bother me.
Heavy topspinners that hit deeper are way worse... but I don't tend to run into them as often (at 4.5 and under) because heavy topspinners tend to hit short. I'll take a flat hitter over a heavy topspinner that consistently hits deep, any time.

Keeping the ball away from the other player's strike zone is generally good advice (regardless of hitting style)... rather than focus on how to handle a flat hitters shot, i focus on what type of shot do I need to give them to prevent their best (consistently deep shot).

 

[GN-001]

Reviving this thread.

This sounds exactly like who I'll be playing at a tournament. Hits hard and flat and just tries to blast into the corners but when you blast to corners he calls them out. I was told to beat him at his own game and blast him back because he likes to be the one dictating and hates defending.

How did you go OP? Did you figure out how to play him?