What's the best next move after you've hit a sharp angle?

[HunterST]

I am pretty good at hitting sharp angles on my forehand that run the player way off the court. It can often force an error or be an outright winner, but I'm not quite sure of the best next step when my opponent is very fast or I don't hit it quite out of their reach.

The problem, of course, is that angles beget angles. If you stay back at the baseline, the opponent could hit an extreme angle of his own, or hit a lesser angle that would go right up the line.

Of course, I could approach the net, but that would mean approaching off of a cross court shot, which is of course problematic geometrically.

What do you think is the best move after a sharp angle?

 

[Morch Us]

Watch carefully and delay your move. You "have to" take a bet on where he is going to hit. There is now way you can cover it all (you traded your recovery/position for hopefully stretching and unbalancing the opponent). So take a careful and timely (not too early, not too late) decision to either move more towards DTL or towards Short angle cross court, if you did good enough of a job, you may get the next shot somewhere in between for an open court winner. Other factors into consideration is what is the opponents preferred shot, what is the way/direction the opponent is running in, etc.

Obviously a short angle at wrong time, you deserve to lose the point. Understand the mistake and move on.

What do you think is the best move after a sharp angle?

 

[StringSnapper]

I am pretty good at hitting sharp angles on my forehand that run the player way off the court. It can often force an error or be an outright winner, but I'm not quite sure of the best next step when my opponent is very fast or I don't hit it quite out of their reach.

The problem, of course, is that angles beget angles. If you stay back at the baseline, the opponent could hit an extreme angle of his own, or hit a lesser angle that would go right up the line.

Of course, I could approach the net, but that would mean approaching off of a cross court shot, which is of course problematic geometrically.

What do you think is the best move after a sharp angle?

I think just stand in the middle of the potentiality of his returns, which is now more angled. He may hit a blazing winner you cant get too, but its low percentage. If he does do this, and keeps doing this. Why? Is he super fast? Is your angled shot not good enough (wrong time, lack of pace etc)?

 

[Steady Eddy]

Heck, man. Come to the net. If it's almost a winner, that should be a pretty weak return, and you have the whole court to volley it into.

Do you have trouble with volleys? Many do nowadays, when even top pros are afraid of the net, and let high balls drop to forehand level, instead of taking it as an overhead. But I digress. Follow a forcing shot like that to the net, and in a short time, you'll be putting those away.

Never let an opponent get back into the point after you hit a shot that good.

 

[HunterST]

Yeeah, the net is not my strength, but I can see how it might be the best play here. Like you said, they’re often almost winners, so it shouldn’t be that hard to finish off.

I think the comment above had a good point about staying in between the two best potential shots.

Maybe I’ll plan to come in if I can it’s really going to pressure them and stay back if it’s not quite as good?

 

[Topspin Shot]

Yeeah, the net is not my strength, but I can see how it might be the best play here. Like you said, they’re often almost winners, so it shouldn’t be that hard to finish off.

I think the comment above had a good point about staying in between the two best potential shots.

Maybe I’ll plan to come in if I can it’s really going to pressure them and stay back if it’s not quite as good?

Come in if you can. If you do cover the line, if you stay back cover crosscourt. And if you get a weak reply, which hopefully you will, hit your next shot into the open court.

 

[Lukhas]

Yeeah, the net is not my strength, but I can see how it might be the best play here. Like you said, they’re often almost winners, so it shouldn’t be that hard to finish off.

I think the comment above had a good point about staying in between the two best potential shots.

Maybe I’ll plan to come in if I can it’s really going to pressure them and stay back if it’s not quite as good?

Most sharp angles tend to shift the point very heavily and bring it into the closing stages. Why? Because very sharp angles aren't shots you can pull from anywhere on the court; generally you have worked your way until you've had an opportunity to really force your opponent off the court with such a shot. It's a shot you use to open the court for yourself, your opponent should be in a tough position with limited options. Of course, that doesn't mean "bomb the net regardless of your positioning", but you should think about finishing the point from there on.

I mean that a sharp angle is a really good shot, so you shouldn't be thinking "what if it's not that good"?

 

[mad dog1]

Yup. Come into the net behind that shot.

 

[S&V-not_dead_yet]

@HunterST

If I stay on the BL, I'll give up more line and wait for the CC so I can attack it. If it turns out he has a good DTL shot from out wide, then I'll have to modify my tactics.

If I went to the net, I'd delay my approach just a bit to make him think I was staying home. This might cause him to be comfortable with just blocking it back rather than trying to hit a more aggressive shot. If so, you can get an easy volley

In general, if you can hit that shot well, you should be thinking how to capitalize on it, not how defend against the reply [unless your opponent is really good at hitting on the run], as mentioned by @Lukhas.

 

[bitcoinoperated]

Decide if the shot is good enough to come in

Be ready for something short to put away

 

[HuusHould]

This one gets me a bit, I hit fairly heavy top on my single handed bh and accidently (sometimes on purpose) hit short angles a bit. I play a guy who has a Bjorn Borg right hand dominant double hander which he will put on a dime dtl from the doubles alley 9 times out of 10, he can also pull it cross court if he gets there in time and is pretty accurate with that one, he also has a great angled slice bh, but if I know he's stretched I'll come in to the net, but you have to get in there super quick. The problem with a sharp angle is that the dtl pass response can come into court after its gone past you and the potential cross court angle is fairly sharp if they get there in time. In the situation you mentioned you'd generally be hitting to the righty forehand, so youd have to be careful, but if you think they are streched and going to slice I'd come in. If they might get a decent hit on it I'd at least move forward just inside the baseline so you can take their recovery time away. (You might have to hit a diving Tsonga like volley from no mans land) Even if you lose the point it can put them in two minds when pushed wide, knowing they have to pull the trigger rather than buying time with a loopy or heavy slice.

 

[HuusHould]

Come in if you can. If you do cover the line, if you stay back cover crosscourt. And if you get a weak reply, which hopefully you will, hit your next shot into the open court.

I agree with this, if you get in close enough they have to be pretty good to angle a cross court pass past you. I often get stung dtl staying back, but at least you've asked them to flirt with the sideline.... I do get stung at times (partly due to not being quick enough) venturing to the net, generally dtl. It is demoralising not getting your racquet on the next shot after seemingly having the ascendancy, but in the matchup where this happens most letting my opponent reset the rally if he chooses to is not a part of the gameplan, so when in doubt I have to take a punt and go in if Im to be any chance of winning the match. So it does depend on your opponent.

 

[FiReFTW]

If you hit a good sharp angle and you see he will be in trouble you should attack the net, no way is he going to pass u from such a difficult position, most likely ul get an easy ball that u can volley away in the open court for an easy point.

Best he can do in such a difficult situation then is to try to lob you, but if its not a good lob u can finish with an overhead.

Now if the sharp angle is just good but you see it wont get him in trouble its best to stay back and position urself optimaly on the court and wait for him to hit the ball back and then depending on his shot decide ur next move, if its to the middle or more parallel hit to the open court, if its hit back CC or at an angle maybe try going for an even sharper angle.

 

[r2473]

What's the best next move after you've hit a sharp angle?

Yeeah, the net is not my strength

You're my favorite guy to play because I know that even if you hit a good, sharp angle, all I have to do is "roll" the ball back high and deep to just restart the point. So you get no benefit from the risk you took to hit the shot.

If you do come to net, I know that you aren't very comfortable, so I'll probably loft up a lob / really high roller. This will give me some time to recover and put pressure on your overhead. And I'm also assuming that you aren't very good at executing the shot anyway.

You will start to get frustrated and I can get an easy win.

 

[HunterST]

You're my favorite guy to play because I know that even if you hit a good, sharp angle, all I have to do is "roll" the ball back high and deep to just restart the point. So you get no benefit from the risk you took to hit the shot.

If you do come to net, I know that you aren't very comfortable, so I'll probably loft up a lob / really high roller. This will give me some time to recover and put pressure on your overhead. And I'm also assuming that you aren't very good at executing the shot anyway.

You will start to get frustrated and I can get an easy win.

Don’t get too excited. You’ll only get a racquet on it about 1/4th of the time ;-).

I do think you raise a good point about the type of game most players are developing. There are a lot of good aggressive baseliners without many all-court skills. That’s what I’m trying to work on developing right now.

 

[r2473]

Don’t get too excited. You’ll only get a racquet on it about 1/4th of the time ;-).

Just the mindset I want you to have. You are trying to make your shots so good as to be outright winners. That means you will make more errors. And because I know you are depending on this shot, I'll shade over a bit once I see your pattern and squeeze your margin just a bit more. I think this pattern will play to my favor over the course of the match.

IMO, you should work on hitting those angles just enough to get me out of position. Get me off balance. Then move in and cut off the passing angle (cover the line as @Topspin Shot says). This will put the pressure on me. And even if you suck at net, just your presence will force a lot of guys to panic and go for the outright passing shot winner, which will result in them hitting a lot of errors. This is really the pattern you want. Angle winners are nice an showy, but having your opponent hit errors is where you'll win the match. Make him take the risk.

Just play the percentages to win. Don't play "hero ball".

 

[Dou]

come to the net.... or, simply move up to the baseline and get ready to cut the angle off it he hits a sharp angle back... you can cut it off and hit a half ass DTL shot to win the point.

 

[Deleted member 23235]

I am pretty good at hitting sharp angles on my forehand that run the player way off the court. It can often force an error or be an outright winner, but I'm not quite sure of the best next step when my opponent is very fast or I don't hit it quite out of their reach.

The problem, of course, is that angles beget angles. If you stay back at the baseline, the opponent could hit an extreme angle of his own, or hit a lesser angle that would go right up the line.

Of course, I could approach the net, but that would mean approaching off of a cross court shot, which is of course problematic geometrically.

What do you think is the best move after a sharp angle?

where did you hit the sharp angle from?
if you're in the middle of the court, move in..
if you're wide, and hit a wider angle, i'd stay on the baseline, until i can get a ball i can attack from the middle of the court.