What can you do when your opponent hits a winner?

Does this situation sound familiar: you are playing a doubles match and express disappointment when your one of opponents launches a winner. Your partner, with all good intentions, attempts to assuage you by saying, “ well they hit a good shot, nothing you could do about it”.

While it is true that your opponent may have hit a shot that was well placed, possessed a tremendous amount of topspin, speed or backspin and was difficult to return, there probably is something you could have done about it. If your opponent continually is able to hit winners that whizz past you, chances are you are setting your opponent up for the winners. It is important to examine if you are constantly hitting to your opponents’ comfort zone. If you find that your opponent is hitting a string of winners, you should ask yourself the following questions. Are you feeding your opponent volleys that are at shoulder height right in front of them? Are you consistently hitting a ball that is perfectly placed into their strike zone on the baseline? Whenever you loose a point a result of a winner try to recall the prior shot that you hit to your opponent. Was that shot your only option? Were there other shots that you could have hit to your opponent or were you simply so much on the defensive that you didn’t have any other options? Was the shot that your opponent hit to you so difficult that you barely were able to return it and lucky to get your racquet onto the ball? If you had other options, start to use them. Always try to direct your mind to these other options when you are playing points.  Essentially, when your opponents keeps trouncing winners on you, stop making it easy for them to hit the winners.