Most of the points in a tennis match are over after only three or four hits. At every level, the majority of points are lost and not won. This means that most of the points are won due to errors rather than winners.
The best way to understand errors is to learn the four mistakes in tennis. They are:
- hitting the ball into the net
- hitting the ball over the baseline
- hitting the ball wide to the left
- hitting the ball wide to the right
Once you’ve made contact with the ball, these are the only four errors you can make playing the game. The object is to avoid making one of these four mistakes by learning to keep the ball in play.
The net is where the majority of the errors are made in tennis. The best tactic to use to avoid making this error is simply to aim two nets high when making shots. By swinging low-to-high, the ball will clear the net with a greater safety margin, allowing fewer errors to be made into the net. This “lifting” of the ball on your strokes will help to insure success over the net – often the number one obstacle in tennis.