Amazingly enough a great percentage of today's tennis matches are indeed won at the net. What does this mean to all players? No matter how much you do not like to go to the net, if you want to win, you need to develop your net game skills and that means:

The Volleys The Net Footwork The Serve and Volley The Approach Shots The Overhead Smash The Half-Volleys and other specialty shots Why does it have to end at the net? After exhausting long rallies and having exploited all baseline possibilities against an opponent and all things are still equal, tennis players are often faced with the question, how am I going to win this match?

The answer is simple, by attacking!

A blunt example of this is the end of the match with David Ferrer serving at 4/6, 4/6, 3/5 against Novak Djokovic at the US Open 2007. After running themselves to death on previous matches and now faced with the specter of a Roger Federer final, both players knew a 5 set event would sap the rest of their already meager reserves. So they still stuck to their old baseline routine, but with more frequent attacks to shorten up points, culminating with these last three:

David Ferrer serving score - 40 -30

Djokovic shows his versatility as well as the full grasp of the tactical sense needed to win big matches and become a true contender in major Grand Slam tournaments. He takes Ferrer's service early, drives it deep to the forehand side and moves in quickly to draw a mistake on Davids' forehand passing on a not so good volley from Djokovic.

David Ferrer serving score 40 - 40

Novack Djokovic does not want to serve out the match and senses his opponent is about ready to throw in the towel, so he decides to attack once more. This time he takes the first short cross court backhand from Ferrer and once more attacks deep down the line two draw a second error passing shot this time on what could have been a relatively easy shot for David.

David Ferrer serving score Match-point

Emboldened by the previous two points success and realizing that his opponent is under enormous pressure, from the baseline Djokovic slams a deep forehand downline and moves in to finish with a superb short angle backhand volley winner!

So if you want to shorten up points, save much needed energy for future rounds, put your opponent against the wall in a do or die situation and win big matches, develop your attack!

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About the Author

Sérgio Cruz is an ex # 1 National Champion, Davis Cup Player from Portugal and former Coach Jim Courier ATP World Ranking # 1 http://www.tenniscruz.com