Basic Player Styles

Offensive or aggressive baseliner

An offensive or aggressive baseliner tries to win the point by hitting winners from the back of the court, attacking with fast balls that the opponent cannot reach or return properly. Being an offensive baseliner player requires a deadly array of shots and shot-types. The tennis player may not try to win the point outright with one shot, but instead may hit the ball from side to side until he/she spots an opening. Offensive baseliners normally have at least one great groundstroke, forehand or backhand. The best offensive baseliners have a huge serve to go with a great groundstroke or can hit huge groundstrokes off both wings. Usually offensive baseliners have the ability to read the game very well and also their opponents' styles and tendencies so that they can spot a weakness and use one of their aggressive shots to act upon it.

An offensive baseliner can overpower and overwhelm most opposition. However, when going for winners, he/she can also produce many errors since an offensive baseliner has to repeatedly and correctly execute the most difficult strokes and shots in tennis. Errors can be due to physical and/or mental reasons such as fatigue and/or hesitation. Two great old-time players, R. Norris Williams and Ellsworth Vines, were famous for being unbeatable when their strokes were "on"; they played with such little margin for error in making their strokes, however, that when they were not 100 percent "on" they could be beaten by inferior players. Another advantage in being an offensive baseliner is since the shots they do are usually very ambitious or "high risk" and difficult to achieve, the offensive baseliner executing these sometimes truly amazing shots can shock and stun the opposition which increases confidence to the offensive baseliner and lowers the opponent's confidence.

Hard courts are generally considered to be the best surface for an offensive baseliner who often employ a high risk strategy. However, offensive baseliners can often excel on both grass and clay courts as well. On grass, they can execute their "winners" and due to the quick and small bounce, makes it harder for opponents to retrieve; whereas on clay courts, some offensive baseliners might like the slow and high bounce because it gives them a longer time to change their grip and foot-positions in order to set up for a "winner". Offensive baseliners with height especially have an advantage on clay courts because the high bounces land in their hitting zones, allowing them to strike the ball cleanly and more powerfully. Some all-time great offensive baseliners are Jim Courier, Andre Agassi and Monica Seles. Most players today are offensive baseliners; a few notable ones are Fernando Gonzalez, Juan Martín del Potro, Fernando Verdasco, Andy Roddick, James Blake, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanović, Kim Clijsters, Lindsay Davenport, and Dinara Safina.

Defensive Baseliner

A defensive baseliner, or counter-puncher or retriever, returns every ball and relies on the opponent making mistakes. He/She has consistent shots, makes few errors of his own while making it difficult for opponents to hit winners. The game of the defensive counter-puncher has more to do with physical endurance and determination to retrieve un-retrievable balls as well as mental stamina. They tend to make relatively few errors because they don't attempt the complicated and ambitious shots of the aggressive baseliner. But that doesn't mean they don't ever attempt aggressive shots. A counter-puncher must have speed and agility to cover the court. He/She is a fighter, and has to have willingness to chase down every ball to frustrate opponents. Especially offensive baseliners who naturally have a fiery attitude and flair, returning every aggressive shot which they do will just encourage their aggressiveness and thus encouraging errors and mistakes. Usually, the defensive counter-puncher frustrates their opponent so much that their opponent might actually try to change their game by either coming to the net in which case they can just execute "Passing Shots" down the lines, or by attempting to also be a defensive counter-puncher.

Counter-punchers often excel on slow courts, such as clay courts. The court gives them extra time to chase down shots and it is harder for opponents to create winners. Counter-punchers are often particularly strong players at low-level play, where opponents cannot make winners with regularity.

On rare occasions players have been known to use a style that has not yet been named. It is mainly used by players that do not have strong backhands so they switch hands the racket is in to make their non-dominate hand their forehand. This allows for a longer reach on balls that would normaly be unattainable from a normal backhand and it frustrates their opponent due to the change up of styles.

Great counter-punchers of all time include Mats Wilander, Björn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Guillermo Vilas, Michael Chang, Miloslav Mecir, Chris Evert, and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario. Active players who employ this strategy are Lleyton Hewitt, Guillermo Coria, Rafael Nadal, Gilles Simon, Andy Murray, Jelena Janković, Gaël Monfils, Zheng Jie, and Anastasia Myskina.

Serve-and-Volleyer

A serve-and-volleyer has a great net game, is quick around the net, and has fine touch for volleys. Serve-and-volleyers come up to the net at every opportunity when serving. They are almost always attackers and can hit many winners with varieties of volleys and drop volleys. When not serving, they often employ the "chip-and-charge", chipping back the serve without attempting to hit a winner and rushing the net. The serve-and-volleyers' strategy is to pressure the opponent to try to hit difficult passing shots.

Serve-and-volleyers benefit from playing on fast courts, such as grass or fast concrete. The quick bounce and faster pace of play give them an advantage because opponents have less time to set up for a passing shot. The number of serve-and-volley players is decreasing in today's professional tennis, however, because this strategy requires more experience to master and to defeat other playing styles (As well as changes in racquet technology that have improved players' passing shots). In addition to this, there has been a trend toward the slowing down of tennis surfaces over the past few years. Tim Henman and Lleyton Hewitt have each lamented that the surfaces of their respective home Grand Slams (Wimbledon and the Australian Open) play very slowly. The serve-and-volley technique works better on faster surfaces because the volleyer is able to put more balls away without the baseliner being able to chase them down.

Some of the great ones in history are Jack Kramer, Frank Sedgman, Pancho Gonzales, Roy Emerson, Lew Hoad, John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Goran Ivanisevic, Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg, Patrick Rafter, Tim Henman, Jana Novotná and Martina Navratilova. Players who apply this technique include Michael Llodra, Radek Stepanek, Ivo Karlovic, Feliciano Lopez, Samantha Stosur and Amelie Mauresmo.

Bill Tilden, the dominant player of the 1920s, preferred to play from the backcourt and liked nothing better than to face an opponent who rushed the net — one way or another Tilden would find a way to hit the ball past him. Some of the best matches of all time have pitted great baseliners such as Björn Borg or Andre Agassi against great serve-and-volleyers such as John McEnroe or Pete Sampras.

All-court player

All-court players have aspects of every tennis style, whether that be offensive baseliner, defensive counter-puncher or serve-and-volleyer. All-court players use the best bits from each style and mix it together to create a truly formidable tennis style to play against. In game situations, they have the ability to select an action usually executed by one tennis style. They usually have an attacking game, mixing some groundstrokes and volleys to keep the opponent guessing. Most all-court players won't rush the net immediately after a serve like a typical serve and volley player would. However, their game often revolves around "constructing" a point to where they will be able to approach the net and put away an easy volley or pulling their opponent into the net and hitting a passing shot. They are very versatile; when an all-court player's baseline game is not working, he may switch to a net game, and vice versa. All-court players have the ability to adjust to different opponents that play different styles easier than pure baseliners or serve and volleyers. All-court players stereotypically have the speed, determination and fitness of a defensive counter-puncher, the confidence, skill and flair of offensive baseliners and have the touch, the agility around the net and tactical thinking of the serve-and-volleyer. But just because the all-court player has a combination of skills used by all tennis styles doesn't necessarily mean that they could beat an offensive baseliner or a defensive counter-puncher or even a serve-and-volleyer. It just means it would be more difficult to read the game of an all-court player.

Among the best all-court players of all time are: Bill Tilden, Ellsworth Vines, Don Budge, Ken Rosewall, Rod Laver, and Steffi Graf. Great all-court players today include Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Tommy Haas, David Nalbandian, Marat Safin, Venus Williams, Justine Henin, Martina Hingis, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Amélie Mauresmo and Francesca Schiavone.

from wikipedia