Your personal level of playing tennis depends on a number of factors, including the age at which you start playing, quality of coaching received, availability of practice courts, availability of practice partners, and financial capability. This is not a complete list but includes most of the external factors involved in making one a better tennis player. Athletic ability, eyesight, coordination, height, strength, speed, and mind are the internal factors at the foundation on the basis of which you will build your tennis game. How good you become or want to be is a combination of both external and internal factors. Let us analyze different levels of play and gauge what is needed at that level to be successful. Let us assume that the external factors are the same for everyone.
Level 1 – Competent
To be competent or decent at tennis, you need to possess some basic skills to keep a rally going, keep the serve in play, occasionally hit a few volleys, and safely strike an overhead after the ball hits the ground. The most important shot at this level will be the forehand. A slice backhand will do at this level, and a safe topspin serve will let you start off the point. You will be relying on your forehand to create whatever little offense you can this level. No one at any level has been able to win with a poor forehand. Look for players to target your backhand to elicit a weak response, so use basic lobs or low slices to neutralize the opponent. At this level, you are looking to sharpen the tools in your shed rather than think about hitting a sliding backhand cross-court pass like Novak Djokovic or a running banana forehand like Rafael Nadal. In addition, you are developing more body coordination and feel for the racquet angle at this level.
Level 2- Good
At this level, you possess enough control to come over on a single-handed backhand or enough strength on your non-dominant arm to hit a two-hander. Your serve has enough bite to not put you on the back foot against most opponents. Volleys are now reliable and although you at times second guess the overhead while the ball is in the air, it is not something which keeps you awake at night. From now on the form of your strokes will more or less remain the same going forward. You have figured out your strengths and weaknesses and shape your game and develop patterns to exploit your opponent’s game. At this level, more advanced concepts of footwork are being learned and fitness is beginning to be more of a factor.
Level 3- Advanced
If you are at this stage it means you are working on strategy. You go to court not thinking about things such as ball toss, and small margins will determine the winner. You are entering tournaments. Factors like what kind of meal you had an hour before or how warmed up you are will affect your confidence and play during a match. You are thinking about tactics, such as coming to the net and finishing off points sooner. Within a few minutes of rallying with your opponent you know which is their stronger wing and have already made up your mind to target their backhand with an arcing kick or slide it out to their forehand for an open court down the line winner.
Level 4 – Open
Even those in the top 10 barely win more than 50% of all points, many top 50 lplayer ose more points than they win proving how fine the difference is between the winners and losers. At this advanced standard of tennis, factors such as experience, confidence, match-ups, and surface will determine who succeeds. A strategy needs to planned before entering most matches and sometimes even a plan B must be stocked in one’s arsenal. Most players are highly proficient on both wings and unlike at the beginner level where one can hide a weakness, at this juncture, any small weakness will be quickly exploited and there is nowhere to run. Open level players can slice, kick, and bomb the serve at will and the game is so athletic at this stage that an accurate serve will be one of the determining factors for a win.
Main Photo from Getty.
