Rhythm & Flow Tennis

A Retriever stays on the baseline and gets everything back. They are usually in pretty good shape and they cover the court well. They don’t use much pace, spin, or depth but they’re able to recover everything you throw at them. A Retriever style can be very effective against an opponent who does not know how to break it down.  Here are five ways you can win against the Retriever.

Patience

The key to a Retriever’s game is patience. It is also the key to beating it. The Retriever’s success is based on the same principle as Chinese water torture – slow, dull and repetitious. The reason you lose to a Retriever is impatience. They are very consistent. They keep retrieving knowing you will eventually make a mistake. You go for more and more and you end up trying shots you never had.

Go to the net

Your primary goal against a Retriever is to make them hit some real shots. You want to get them out of their comfort zone. One way to do it is to go to the net. Suddenly the Retriever faces the problem of making a decision. Retrievers don’t like to make decisions! They just want to counter your decisions. Bring them in and now all of a sudden they have to decide: “Should I pass cross court or down the line? Should I lob?’ Hit it right at them?”. They like to hit into the big open court. You need to narrow their options by narrowing the target.

Bring the Retriever to the net

You can also get them out of their comfort zone by drawing them towards the net. Let them show some volleys, overheads, or maybe half volleys. To do this, you will have to hit some short balls. How do you do it? Well, you’ve done it numerous times unintentionally in practice, now try to do it on purpose.

Take the pace away

In most cases Retrievers feed off the opponent’s pace. Players make the mistake of hitting harder and harder against Retrievers. Eventually, they over hit. Take pace off the ball against Retrievers.

Hit your second serve first

Once again, by hitting the second serve first, it robs them of pace. It will make them have to take a swing at the ball, which is exactly what they want to avoid.