2. Technical Analysis

2.1 Case: You received a wide service. In this case if the ball is too far as to get you out of the court you certainly should not charge the net since you have very little defense capability. Let us see this. If the ball was out wide you can use the open court on the opponents backhand (for the moment I am assuming right handed players) if you have any control on the ball at all. Otherwise, you will be just sending it back, if at all. If the first, you cannot the charge the net since the opponent can easily send a strong backhand cross court or even a poorly placed cross court back hand and you will have lost the point since you are out of court already and cannot get to the court center for position. But if you did not charge the net you could possibly have a shot at the return or at least a running shot to get you out of your defensive position. But if on the other hand you charge the net after sending the ball in open court you have to get to the net to meet the ball and chances are that it will have crossed the net already! Your only hope is to put the ball in the open court on the backhand side of the opponent and make sure you have enough time to at least get back in court or your return has to be so aggressive as to gain you the time you are losing or not come back at all. Andy Murray is quite capable of such shots and understands this high probability of failure.

You do have another option. If the service ball is not too far out wide on your side ( How much is too far? You will have to decide, but basically if you have to take more than 3 steps out to get to the service ball it is too far out wide and your options are limited) you could use a chhota. A Chhota is defined as a cross court shot to cut the opponents off by hitting a cross court that is so short as to fall in the outside corners or above the corners of the add or duce courts on the opponent's side.  A chhota is not an easy shot. You simply swipe the racket over the ball with a top spin like swipe but without much of a swing on the racket. Otherwise, it is going to land in the outside galleries. Chhota in Urdu means "short" or "small". Federer uses this shot quite a bit and knows about it. I do not see many players exhibitting any knowledge of it.)

Conclusion for this Case:

If the service is really far out or even mildly out you are probably dead already since a simple back hand return from the opponent in the open court will be enough to take the point it. Charging the net is out of the question. But you could or may be able to keep the ball in play if you sprinted back to the court or used a chhota shot to gain position and time.

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