Roger Federer Fundamentals: Attack the Forehand
One little tactical trick Roger Federer uses to great effect is to attack the forehand of his opponent.
Tennis strategic dogma dictates that a player will primarily attack an opponent's backhand, and many players stubbornly try to attack strictly to the backhand side.
If you wish to improve your attacking game, observe Roger Federer and how he chooses to attack an opponent's forehand instead.
Federer chooses often to attack an opponent's forehand for several reasons:
1. Most players will typically "camp" slightly to the ad court and are therefore vulnerable to having their time taken away to the forehand side.
2. The forehand cross-court can have side-spin imparted more easily than an inside-out forehand; a well-timed cross-court forehand can pull an opponent far off the court to the deuce court side.
3. An opponent stretched into the forehand corner typically has fewer options, as most forehands are hit topspin or, in a defensive position, without spin.
4. An opponent stretched to the forehand side must then be faced with the follow-up shot--a backhand passing shot on the dead run against a net-closing aggressor.
Federer's insight is this: he knows that players are conditioned to defend their backhands, and they are also inclined to attack with their forehands, even from disadvantageous positions on the court. The rationale then becomes to be able to hit a shot into the forehand corner so that the player attempts an offensive-minded shot from a compromised position, but cannot have enough weight of shot to truly hurt the attacker. From there, it is just a matter of cutting off the proper angle, taking the ball on the rise, and moving into the court, thereby exploiting the opponent's poor position and blowing open the point.
Observe the following video and note that while Federer will APPROACH to either wing, the shot that often precedes the approach is a Federer cross-court forehand INTO the opponent's forehand corner.
Roger Federer Fundamentals Lesson #2: selectively choose to attack the opponent's forehand.
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