The fast court game requires certain game characteristics from any tennis player that desires to see some good results. Here are some of the mental, physical, technical and tactical factors that’ll help you add that fast court flavor to your game.
The ball tends to stay relatively low on fast courts such as grass and carpets which has an important impact on the game pace.
Mentally
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Points are happening very quickly on fast courts and that’s why you have to be concentrated on handling the flashy balls very quickly by keeping your eyes on the contact point. A momentary loss of focus can cause you consecutive errors that you shouldn’t miss and as a result a game or a break to your opponent.
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Set your mind to be the dominator in the game by dictating your plan and tempo.
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Be prepared to tolerate your errors seeing that it’s normal to make more of them on fast courts than on slower ones, just make sure you make good errors.
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Stay confident in your service games that are very important to hold and take your time because points happen very quickly.
Physically
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The performance on fast court is in great need of reaction skills, so practice them.
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Practice focusing on the ball during practice and keeping your eyes on the contact point like roger does it.
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Practice your anticipation skills, if you know your opponent, then some of his shots are predictable to you, you must anticipate quickly and learn to position yourself inside the court or even expect a attacked ball and move in advance.
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Better your explosive movement, which going to improve the efficiency of your 1st serves and make you hit huge returns.
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Train on playing low balls with bent knees and good balance so that you don’t get stiff legs in the match.
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Warm up well before matches or training on fast courts, seeing that you’ll be making quick and jerky movements right away.
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Dynamic balance is indispensable since all the movements must be performed quickly and efficiently.
Technically
Master your serve
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Big servers often win over 80% of the points on first serve on fast courts, so make sure you practice the placement of your serves and add power with physical workout.
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Master your slice serve that is very effective on this low surface.
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Returns are a lot harder on fast courts, and with big servers they going to feed on many of them easily, so if you’re looking for service breaks, try to be as consistent as possible with your returns, keep them deep and especially don’t back down on attacking 2nd serves and turning around that backhand.
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Correct your return technique by making a shorter backswing to develop more compact hits.
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Practice your timing in returns to be able to get the ball at a proper height inside the court and dictate the rest of the rally.
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Limit your topspin on returns to make them more penetrating.
Master Your Slice Backhand
* Driving through the ball, sometimes with even a bit of sidespin, puts more pressure on the opponent than heavy topspin.
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Practice your defensive slices, especially when you’re a one handed player, it plays a huge impact on your game variation.
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Practice your attacking slices, like chip and charge or the approach slice that are very effective on fast courts.
Master Your Serve & Volley
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Improve your serve and volley game on fast courts by elevating your 1st serve percentage with good speed, learning to punish high volleys, mastering half volleys and knocking your overheads especially on the backhand side.
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Practice your anticipation on volleys, learning when to expect a lob and getting a step back or stepping in and closing the court angle when you see your opponent suffering on his passing shot, this ability of anticipation is very essential.
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Practice emergency volleys where you’re stretching or diving for the ball or handling a hard ball at the body.
Tactically
Slice serves will create you openings and prevent the opponent from attacking you.
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Use body serves and surprise your opponent to keep him off balance.
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Be aggressive on second serves.
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Prepare for emergency returns and try to keep the ball in play by any means necessary.
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Stick your position to the baseline for the return even against big servers.
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Priorities on the return of serve:
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Makes volleyers play their 1st volley.
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Attack down the line on weak serves.
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If your opponent doesn’t have an obvious weakness, return crosscourt.
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Mix your return tactics to keep them unpredictable.
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Priorities on the Baseline play:
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Stick to the baseline and try to dictate your balls and take more early balls to get quickly to the net.
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Do not retreat behind the baseline on high topspin balls, move inside the court and take them right after the bounce.
All court players without tremendous weapons can enjoy success because the surface will make more of their shots fairly effective. You can use your opponent’s power rather than generating your own.
