G’day,
Several different game styles dominate our sport. Almost all of them are variations of baseline play. Power baseliner. Aggressive baseliner. Defensive baseliner. Counter-puncher. Grinder. Pusher. Playing heavy from the back of the court. You get the picture…
And then there is that rare breed of player that used to roam the Earth way back in the Jurassic period called the “All Court” player. They used to be the dominant breed in both men’s and women’s tennis.
Now, they are all but extinct. 🦖🦕
The “All Court” player has always been equally adept at the front and the back of the court. If the ball was a little short, they would naturally step into the court and attack the short ball with a closed stance – and keep moving forward to knock off a volley.
Not anymore.
What happened? Let’s start with decades of misinformation that the front of the court is too tough to play anymore. Wrong.
Also, younger players overdosed on baseline play at the expense of baseline and net play. It’s easy to see the lack of skill in today’s game when analyzing sound approach and volley technique.
The first thing to acknowledge is that tennis is primarily a baseline game. The server and returner both start back, and it makes sense that the initial battle will be waged from one baseline against the other.
But somewhere along the way, we have stone-cold forgot about the net.
This is your opportunity. While the rest of the herd thinks the baseline is tennis utopia, you can capitalize on their misjudgment.
Any conversation about any strategy in tennis rightfully starts with win percentages. Here’s data from the 2024 US Open.
US OPEN: BASELINE vs. NET
Okay, let’s fully absorb this data.
The first thing we know as a fact is that, statistically, the net offers a much higher win percentage than the baseline. The average baseline win percentages are consistently under 50%. At the net, you will win two out of three points. At the baseline, you have to outperform your peers to win half.
Statistically, there is no reason why you wouldn’t want to go to the net to pressure your opponent and to finish points. The numbers clearly tell you that’s a good idea.
Now, let’s examine five years of US Open data to see if players are comfortable coming to the front of the court.
In the men’s draw, only 17.6% of points (on average) ended with a player at the net. That’s hardly embracing the front of the court.
Eight out of 10 points (82.4%) ended with both players at the baseline.
Think of it this way…
If a player is only coming to the net twice out of 10 points, one of those is undoubtedly created by being pulled in by a short ball or a drop shot where they essentially have no option but to move forward to the front of the court. That leaves only one point out of 10 that a baseline player willingly went to the front of the court to finish the point. Ouch.
The table above is for US Open women. They are more allergic to going to the net than the men.
- Men = 17.6% at net
- Women = 12.7% at net
This data is screaming OPPORTUNITY for players at all levels worldwide.
Don’t follow the crowd. Don’t get glued to the back of the court. Don’t be a sheep. Be a wolf. Use data to fully understand that moving forward to finish points at the net is still a good thing. Go to your club pro and improve your approach and volley technique – that you should have had in place by the time you were 14 years old.
2024 US OPEN QUARTER-FINAL PLAYERS
Now, let’s look at the players who reached the quarter-finals and beyond at the 2024 US Open to identify their hunger to get to the net to finish points.
Percentage Points Finished At Net
- US Open 2020-24 = 17.6%
- 2024 US Open Qtr-Finalists = 18.8%
We see a slight uptick in points at net from the 2024 US Open quarter-finalists, but it is certainly not a significant improvement. Only Frances Tiafoe (22.8%), Jack Draper (20.8%), and Alexander Zverev (20.2%) finished at the net greater than 20% of the time. I could certainly argue that those numbers all need to be higher.
Surprisingly, Grigor Dimitrov came to finish points at the net the least out of these eight players. He is solid at the net but has generally avoided it this year to be the only player who came to the net in double digits (94 times) instead of triple digits like the other players.
And along came Karolina Muchova! 👏🏼👏🏼
Muchova finished at the net 27.0% of the time at the US Open this year. BRAVO!!!
Muchova led all men and women from the quarter-finals on with net play. She was the only women’s player to break the 20% threshold.
Webinar 55: All Court Player (Thursday, Sep 26) will feature match video of Muchova employing winning patterns of play that help her successfully transition from the back to the front of the court. There are so many nuances with court position, balance of the body, hitting at different speeds and spins, and correct movement at the front of the court.
You don’t want to be just another lemming running side to side from the back of the court digging a trench. Where are you going to find your advantage?
Every player on the planet should employ an “All Court” game. Everyone.
What’s the point of hitting a big forehand to receive a weak ball back and not moving forward to take the short ball at the top of the bounce and approach the net? It makes no sense at all.
Webinar 55: All Court Player will teach you how to feel comfortable from the back of the court AND the front of the court.
Muchova gets it. You will, too.