Why Should You Advance Up the Court in Tennis?

Photo Credit: Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

Whether you’re a baseline specialist who can endure grueling rallies and outlast your opponent like Djokovic, Nadal, and Medvedev - or a player that prefers to approach the net to finish off points like McEnroe, Edberg, or Federer, your court positioning relative to the baseline and relative to the net is vital. Why is that? Let’s take a look.

The typical tennis court dimensions that I used in my calculations are 8.23 meters in court width (not including the doubles alleys) and 23.77 meters in court length. That makes your half of the court 8.23 meters in width and 11.885 meters in length for a total of 97.53 square meters of court to cover.

To ascertain the feasible spray angle a tennis player can use to ensure his or her shot lands in on the opponent's side of the court, my initial step involves estimating the minimum distance from the net, on the opponent’s side, that that shot can land, considering your positioning relative to the baseline. For this entire analysis, I operate under the assumption that you are positioned centrally across the court's width.

Figure 1 depicts the linear relationship between court positioning and minimum shot depth for a sideline shot to land in.

Figure 1: Linear relationship between court positioning (x-axis in meters) and minimum shot depth for a sideline shot to land in (y-axis in meters). Positive court positioning is ahead of the baseline and negative is behind.

The linear relationship between court positioning and the minimum shot depth needed to land a sideline shot on the line indicates that for every meter you advance toward the net, you require 0.239 meters less shot depth to clear the net and land the sideline shot in. How does this reduced shot depth requirement, along with your court positioning, influence the spray angle achievable for your shot? Figure 2 illustrates the available spray angle (in degrees) based on court positioning relative to the baseline.

Figure 2: Available spray angle (degrees) based on court positioning relative to the baseline (in meters)

Following a trigonometric calculation, the impact becomes evident. A player positioned at the baseline experiences a reduction of approximately 2.3 degrees in available spray angle for every meter retreated. Conversely, advancing forward grants the same player an increase of 2.7 degrees in available spray angle for every meter progressed. This 5-degree difference between adopting an aggressive stance and moving forward versus adopting a passive approach and retreating in the court equates to a 16% difference in available spray angle. Given that a higher available spray angle enhances shot-making and risk-taking capabilities, while also widening the margin for error on wide shots, a 16% disparity in spray angle often proves decisive in closely contested baseline matches.

What Do These Results Imply for Volleying?

The difference in available spray angle during volleying is even more significant. As depicted in Figure 2 above, the curve's slope steepens as you near the net. Closing the final 0.385 meters to the net affords the volleyer an extra 13 degrees of spray angle to utilize. The volleyer's final push to reach as close to the net as possible for the volley certainly pays off.