The WTA and ATP tours are well into the swing of the clay court season and its during this time of the year that the points get longer, tougher and more strategic.

Your position on court matters! And what matters most to court positioning is depth of stroke.



Depth is essential to success in tennis, especially clay court tennis. A deeper shot pushes your opponent behind the baseline, effectively taking away their offense, but more importantly allowing you to position yourself closer to the net, open up your angles and allowing you to attack the open court.



Court positioning on a clay court often illustrates who’s winning and who’s losing.

The further behind the baseline you are, the further you have to run and the less aggressively you can hit the ball. If you can keep good depth on your shots you can avoid playing defensively and dictate the points. Depth is more important than pace. In general a hard short ball is much easier to deal with than a soft deep ball. (*moonballers secret)



The easiest way to improve your depth of shot is to hit higher over the net with topspin. Depth and positioning isn’t an exclusively clay court tactic but this time of year it becomes more pronounced.

Think about court positioning when you watch clay court tennis this season and work on depth and positioning in your own game.

See you on the courts!

Joel Myers

USPTA Elite Professional

Tennis Director

Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego

Sheraton Hotel & Marina San Diego

(949) 485-8679

http://www.downtowntennis-sandiego.com

http://www.coronadotennislessons.com