Some important principles for strategy and tactics of the singles play
- Keep the ball in play.
- Have a game plan:
- the basic strategy and the various tactics that the player plans to use.
- an alternative strategy(plan B) and tactics that the player can use if things go wrong.
- Use your best weapon(s) whenever possible.
- To Prevent the opponent’s attack, use more weaknesses of the opponent by hitting deep,taking the pace off,etc.
- Analyse the situation.
- Play within your possibilities and capabilities.
- Be positive (controlled aggression).
- Once you decide, commit yourself to the shot. Do not change a decision!
- Play the ball, not your opponent.
- Try to adapt a gamestyle that suits your strengths, and during the game, adapt your style to use the weaknesses of the opponent.
- Learn to combine power and control during the match. Power reduces the time for the opponent’s response and is necessary for playing winners.
- Use Combination of shots to open courts (for example, a deep forehand down the line followed by an angled forehand crosscourt).
- Try to move your opponents and make them run by changing direction, depth, hitting into the open court, wrong footing by hitting behind,etc.
- Try to gain and maintain the momentum in the match, in order to dominate the match flow and tempo .
- Try to analyse the match during the changeovers to decide when to change your tactics.
- Try to dominate the point at every opportunity.
