Tactics: How to start a match correctly

No matter on which level you play tennis: The first games in a match are essential for the further development of the game.

Many players go on the court without a plan. They have no idea what they want to do on the course at all. Then they stand on the baseline, return to the ground, serve and wait and see what happens. You let the match approach you and see how you can react to the different situations. This passive behaviour usually leads to the fact that you don’t get into the match properly and “The match passed me completely” is a sentence describing this passivity after a, mostly lost, match. With this passive attitude you are the player who reacts – and does not act. If you are always the one who only reacts, then you are not actively involved in shaping the match. You become a game ball for your opponent. Not only in the mental, but above all in the playful area. Both ways lead in this way to your defeat.

Prepare an idea before each match. Do you want to play aggressively and hardly let your opponent breathe? Do you want to act variably so that your opponent has no access to your game? Do you want to play without many mistakes and focus your game more on long rallies? You always have the possibility to make a plan, even if you don’t know your opponent and his way of playing. This is an active approach to a match that is much better for you. In the first serve games you have time to gather information about your opponent. Once you’ve gathered some information, you can customize and optimize the game idea you’ve created. But before you can optimize, you need this one basic idea. Let’s think about how such an idea, a match plan, can look like.

To develop an effective match idea, you need to know yourself well. What are your strengths? Where are your weaknesses? Let’s take an example: Your strengths: – high safety in the ground strokes- good footwork, quick on your feet- strong forehand from the half-fieldYour weaknesses: – no high speed in the first serve- weaknesses on the backhand, partly insecure and too short – quick mistakes when the opponent makes a lot of pressure.

In order to find your way into the match, you need to quickly find security in your strengths. If you just go to the court and play, you will be looking for your safety longer than if you have an idea that you can put into practice.

In the professional sector, the greatest sensational successes are only ever achieved if the supposed underdog pursues a plan and a specific goal from the outset. Your idea for tactically wise start into a match could be as follows, based on your strengths and weaknesses:”I won’t play a flat ball at the beginning of the match to avoid netting errors. Instead, the plan is to play the ball half-high, mostly cross. So I get a good rhythm for the match, can hit a lot of balls and use my fast feet. If my opponent plays one or two grand winners, it’s like that – then he played hard. But I won’t be impressed by these strong blows of the opponent. My plan still stands. I focus on a good length in the strokes and try to orientate myself a little bit in my backhand during the rallies to be able to act more with my forehand. Once I have integrated these ideas into my game, I see how the opponent reacts to my way of playing, what he does, what he doesn’t like – and what suits him best. I will then include this information in my match plan and adjust it accordingly, so now it’s your turn. What’s your idea for your next match?