Movement remark One: it is god to know what yournmovement capabilites are so yu afdjust yhour running around to that level and not over do it since otherwise there can injuries. ( it is only a game and is not woth geting injured over). I will class the players in 2 categories, the slow footed and the quickfooted. Try to learn in what category youre amd so prepare for the game accordingly. Maria Sharapova does this verynicely. she knows she is not qujick footed and cannot move like others, so she plays afirst strikle game to kill the ball as soon as possible since chances are she will lose most long rallies. Lindsay Dasvenport had ashort Tennis career since she knew she could not move well. In general tall players are going to have awkward movemnet and must know this and adjust accordingly, witness the game of Jon isner and hisnmovement and the movement of Del Pottro. the y are almost lumbering over the court as opposed to Federer simply flitting about the court. Federer his limits and does not attempt to get every ball and hence stays injury free most of the time. He does notmcare about the score. It is ok for him to beat somebody 7-5, 6-4 as opposed to 6-1, 6-0. He typically does not attempt to break somenody's serve. He just waits for his opprtunities wheas Nadal is tryimng to gert ervery point and plasys a grinding game and it si now catching up with him.

Movement remark Two. the movemnet should be natural with you. If yu have to get extensive coaching tolearn your movement you probably will not get to be atop player.

Motion remark one: This simply says as to hnow much deflection and redirectionyou can impose on the return you are getign since if yu do not you are going to tput ist in tjhe net or ouut or wide. agin this woll come as you play more and more but yu can sor tcircuit tjhe learnig cureve by these simple rules.

Rule 1. If yhuare gtting sadoenthe line shot on your forhand you can easily dirct it cross court but it si a lot harder to send it back down the line. Your p;osition and foot work are not going to on\bey readuly unless yu have the time to assume the correct hnitting postion for a down limne shot and you most probably will not. Make asfe return and wait for the kill. But since yu are going cross court tjhe ball has to cover a longer distance and hence sufficeint force is necessary to goover the net into cross court. I see alot of times the cross court shot is not struck with sufficient fordce and accordingly the ball lands in teh net or tragically hits the net cord. Hit the ball low but flat so it does not sail out and if your PNL is any good it will be devastating shot. It shouldgo just over the net and not10 feet or so over the net, for if it does your opponent or any tenacious opponent willl get to to it (Like any Murray and he does that a lot!) and will bea bel to hit it down the line o your back hand court and inone instant yur winner will become yourloser.

Rule 2. Ingeneral if yu are battlkling the opponent from the center of the court to center of the court and your PNL is not that good do nto take the first cahnce to angle out your t\return since the ball will sail out or wide easily unless you are djokovic or fedrer. (Federee is pretty good with that sort of stuff and com,es up with pretty streange corner shot and hits them with great speed and direction.) So wait for teh oponents to do something and then deliver your killer on the first chance.

Rule 3. If the opponent is hitting stron shots in the corners then try not to retuern the ball inthe corners. It is physically easy to sned the abll down the line since yu hae more control that way and you can do this ion the run. But make sure it is a winner since otherwise you will be out of court and not much you can with the return even if it is week. Again andy murray hits a runing shot down the line very nicely on teh opponents back hand. He can aslso hit a running shot cross court. Younmay want toinvest time and effort into learnig runing shots. But do hit them low and flat and hard so they do ot come back!

I could give you manyn more rules but these shoulkd be sufficeient for our purposes whick is the analyse teh players game.

Now taht we are domne with the movemnt and laws of motionissues let s; look at the pace of retuen and it splacement.

T\he Pace of return. You can see from themovement of the opponents'racket as to what kind of pace to expect. Normally each player will have theri ownpace taht most of their shots are going to be coming at. Yu should have some knowledge of this pace if you have played them before. But if yu see an unusual movement of racket yu can tell the pace of teh ball and be prepared for it. Basically if the return is strong do not attempot to cahnge its dioirection or place it. Simply return it and see if yu can get another cahnce at it. Hoever if itshas pace but is short, do punce on it and move fore\ward and pound it with the direction yu see fit. But if there is any stres on it at all for you simply return it and wait for your chances. If this is ahppening a lot then yu need to look at your prior shot which allowed them to hit the ball weith pace. But basically you must recognise the ball that can take a pounding from the one that cannot. If the oponent is is hitting evryball with pace just return the balls. thney will miss in due course. this techniques will work agtainst most players that play aggressive or think they play aggressive and with no technique. ammn exam,ple will be James balke. He hits every ball so hard tha he literally has no controlor placement or technique at all. He puts the ball wide ot out indure course. Just abnout everybody can beat hnim pretyy easy. anothe example is Bethany_matteck Sands. She thinks playing aggressive is the key to winning and jhits everyball as hard as she can. Such players seem to think they are playing baseball and not tennis. also playinmg agrerssive gives them the impreseion (false) that they are trying really jard and doignthe best they can. This may be psychologically satisfying ( remeber I do n otm read books and never read any book on psychology) but is hardly a winning strategy as you can see form the various math results for the bnot the palyers mentioned.

Also if yur opponent is usimng a lot of top spin your work is easier. simply flatten out your return and get up on the return and pounfing since it will not ahve much pace on it and that way you willnotmallow it to rise much. IN that case play insife the base line and pound the short balls on the rise and attacj the nnet, witness the 2011 US open final between djokovic and Nsdal.

If ther opponent is hitting flat and long shots then play bel;ow the base line and reduce your pace but use more control and placing. In this case you will have to ahve smaller miss rate in order to beat you opponent, see supra.

If the opponent is chopping a lot and using a lot of slice specilly on the back hand side you need to focus since the balls are goin to tbe low. You will need to use a litttle bit of top spin tp preventthne ball from going into the net. If the opponet is doing thsi a lot you may have to use slice also since otherwise yhu will ebsen ding the into the net and if yu use more force thartn the ball is going to wide ot out specillay if it is a shoprt abll. If yuare not careful and do nto watch your game and pace you will easily lose since this kind of paly will throw you off your normal swing at the ball. commentators call this "not giving you rythm". I do not tjhin this is the proper use of the term since the point is that yu adjsut your game to the opponte returns and has nolthignto do with any bnody 's rythm or expectation. Any way do not expect the opponents to give you any rythm. Yu make your own rythm out of the game they youare experiencing.

But remember that if yu ar chopping a lot the opponen ts can figure out quickly and a slice ball has hardly any pace and a player can easily destroy your return. Indeed a cjhopped abll is a vry god target if it has any height at all. also ther are plyers that can hit a low ball with theri own pace and make go over the net low and har and long. Fedrer does that a lot and you hardly expect it. My recommendation. do otm ujse slice opr chop very much. Yu are playimng worklld calass players and they allknow what todo witha slice. Use it as a ruse and to disturb the oppone nt and to prepare for a weinner. Federee does that with his slice and does it really well. that doews not work too well against hisarch rivals Nadfa l and djokovic but works great agains others.

anothe thing is realated here. teh coaches will oftern tell you to cahrge the net a lot since this psychologically suppose tto over whelm the opponents. this is ofcourse absurd. the players yu are going to play agaisnt are workd calss aplauers and not beginers. Infact your chipping and chargfeing might amuse them. Refrain from it. If yu are goin gto cahrge the net then yu need to make a stoerng ground stroke on the left or right before yu eveh approach the net since tyou may not even met the ball. If yu do that again and agin the opponentknows taht alreasdy and will us\e the corners to cut you off. Andy Muray does that a lot amnd really well. see my separate article on net play. also remeber if you cxahrge the net iot will be psychologically satisfying that you did a lot and struggled and gave yourn best shot and in fact yu did nothing oof the kind, see supra. It is pathetic when the players make a weak shot or chip the ball and run up top the net in sujicisdal fahion. I almost cringe when I see this.

Another item on the pace ofd the ball. If yu are goping to have cahnces on somebdofus serve, uyu are not going to ahve tjhem if yu chip teh their serve. I cannot undrstand why would you chip ehen returning aserve. that will tyopically be and arc and slow anad on the bounce it will have ennough rise for teh opponents to kill it or to put youon the defensive. why is that the players do ot block teh serve if within control. Mardy Fiosh does tjhis chopping a lot among others. My advice block the erve whenever you can or even put pace on it when you can. Federre blocks a serve real well. Dop n ot chop it. If you do notmstop it yu will n ot get to the op of many tornaments. I can guarantee this an dyu will probably be stopped at the 3rd or 4th round in most majors if that.

Again ther are many more items to adres as far as the pace of return is concerned but these should be sufficent for the anlysis to follow.

the placement of the return. this is wher you have to decide wha tyur return shot is going to be. this is what they call the "shot selection". But a lot of times thers is really no selection if yu are building a setup. In that case you have ro folow what yur plan is. also ther ar times when yu willbe forced and tjher is no shot selection. Ther are other times you willhave some shjot selectioncapabnilites and what is that going to be? the coaches will tell yuu put the ball the opponent is not or the open court that is. That is flat wrong. Your selection should be the oppopnents weekest element, and that the backhand. Yu place the ball when yu have capability only to the opponents backhand and yu select an other position only when that placement has clear advangtagfe and an element opf surprise. You must press the opponents back hand if you want a point. Watch the USX open 2011 to see what ai mean.

that is all yu need top know about shot selection nad placement see supra.

We could also say alot more abot the 2 undersatndings above but we will be saatisfied with nature and significance of the 3 fundamental elements of tennis. this shoulkd be sufficient for our analyses of the players game at the top of this business.