anticipate return vs cheat (helper) return thing

[oDEVLISHo]

Can someone please explain why I often get comments after a match "i don't appreciate you guessing" "guessing on return is no fun" ???

To me one of the key skills of good tennis play is anticipation, anticipation is fundamental to tennis especially on the return of serve. An ability to predict with high probability what your opponent will play is an advantage and part of tennis. Some people call it guessing its NOT! its anticipating opponent's shot, anticipating opponent's tactics and preparing for the right response. Its a skill!

So really what i am asking is why do some players have a problem with other players anticipating the return, and more importantly why is the cheat help return thing favored?? I must admit i can play with the slide in the right direction thing, with some success but it doesn't feel right to me, feels stupid and cheesy. Why do players frown on honest anticipation and favor the slide in the right direction cheat thing??

peace

[C4iLL]

It's because it's frustrating, a bit random (doesn't require high skill to remain on a side instead of another) and because the guys who critizes you are not the most intelligent people on earth

As you said tennis is about positioning and thus anticipation, so there's no reason to complain. Guessing is part of the game, it's a style, but not a successful style as no top10 player use it. For instance, the king of guessing Sorauze is not in top 10, he certainly lost matchs because of that technique. If it was a successful technique, top10 would use it constantly ; if it was unbeatable, Francky Sorauze would be the n°1

[oDEVLISHo]

well no matter what it is they dont seem to want to talk about it c4ill

[Robbin92]

Well c4 said it all. It can be annoying but it basically has a 50/50 success rate hence the top players dont use it as when they return normally/using the trick they have better odds to win the rally.

For me, I dont really use any of the two methods. I just have a certain sequence of my fingers (left+under+right while holding shot button to make my fingers warm or something like that ) that I use to press and mainly rely on my focus. That is why I get some more aces against me than most other top 10 players. I do re-arrange my water bottles after every point though.

[djarvik]

I think the success rate of guessing wildly depends on the server. It only becomes 50/50 success rate when the server decides to abandon his patterns and favorite serves, with the understanding that the opponent is guessing. Until that point, a good "guesser" is in a way better position. Ability to read patterns is definitely a skill.

What people (I think) are frustrated with is the fact that they need to drop the patterns, drop favorite serves. That disturbs their whole game. Another thing that maybe frustrating is the fact that when playing a "guesser" correctly, it becomes some sort of a bizarre lottery game instead of tennis. I can imagine people being not happy with the lack of structure in the match and the chaotic nature. But to each his own.

...at that point, this is no longer "anticipating", rather "guessing". Sure, it may appear to the returner that he is anticipating, but reality is that if the server serves "random" then the returner has nothing to anticipate....he is simply guessing under the false impression that there is some sort of pattern.

Another point from personal perspective: When I "anticipate" I will "cover" a certain side by taking a step right or left, a split second before the server makes contact with the ball. If I anticipated correctly - I will get a good return back - maybe a winner, but if I anticipated wrong - I will still be able to slice it back. Now, "guessing" to me is a totally different concept, it is basically when a returner starts ruining to one or the other direction before the server makes contact. That is a pure guess and will not allow you to cover in case of a mistake. Sure there is an element of "anticipation" in the "guess" because if the server does use patterns - there is something for "guesser" to spot, and therefore he becomes an "anticipator".

As far as correlation to reality - I don't think there is anyone on ATP who is guessing by running to one side or the other, but there are plenty who will cover the BH or FH by slightly moving to that direction before the serve.

So if you are frustrated by a "guesser" guessing your serves correctly - abandon the patterns and randomize your serves. This will get you the desired 50/50 success rate. Increase that success rate slightly by serving down the middle or body serves and you will be golden!

[inseedious]

To beat a guesser, you have to be the guesser instead, guessing his guesses. Sorry for the word game, but that explains all. Let's say you randomize your serving: there's still a 50% chance your opponent chooses the right direction, and since a guessed return is very likely a lost point, I'd say that you'll stick at 50% aces, 40% lost points and 10% points won despite the guess (ON THE FIRST SERVE!). That's not acceptable for a serving game, it will mean lots of breaks.

You have, instead, to understand guesser's pattern and randomize your serve only if you can't anticipate what the guesser will do. And believe me, if guessers were smarter, they wouldn't have chosen a similar (lecit but lame) gamestyle, so it will not be difficult to anticipate their guessing patterns if you use a bit of your brain Ofc, I won't tell you a "serve 2 times right, 1 time left" kind of solution, cause it would help guessers instead, but there are some, cause guessers are like a computer, so much predictable. That's the paradox

[Martan]

It can be annoying if the opponent do it all the game.

I don't mind if he's trying it like once, twice per 2 games but I have never seen in real tennis that player guessing side all the time.

Btw. the best thing to do when opponent guessing the side is to hit serve hard in the middle

[marko279]

Anticipating return is nothing bad. Look at some previous matches of Goran Ivanisevic.

I guess sometimes, depends. If the player is some big server, my only thing is trying to guess his way of serving. Players often have their rutine in serving, a im trying to guess that. It is the sam in real tennis.

[campa100anni]

I used to be a great guesser when I started playing on the tour. I always used to return from very close to the baseline and try to go for the winner basically at every first serve (I've never tried to guess on second serve because it's not worth risking to lose a point that you could lead into a rally pretty easily). After a couple of months, anyway, I realized that this is not a higly winner tactic because as soon as your opponent realizes that your return strategy is based only on guessing he will try to mix his serves and will raise his percentage to win the point (like djarvik said).

If in a normal situation a guesser has a 50% percentage to return opponent's serve (because the serve is probably going left or right), as soon as your opponent will realize that you are a guesser your chances will drop to 30% or maybe even lower because guessing the right direction may not be enough anymore. If he will serve a very high top spin ball even if you will go the right direction you are probably gonna shank the ball anyway so you'll have more possible spot to cover in order to return the ball in play (he will start to serve top spin balls, body serves, slice slow serves to cut you out of time and so on).

Guessing on return could be very usefull if its done from time to time (I still try to do it sometimes but only when I am in very good score situations [instance: if I am 0-40 with three break points I will probably try to guess on the firts point but then I'll try to return normally the other two as it's not worth to take the risk on too many points]) but if it becomes a habit I think that it is very easy for players (average good players at least) to un-mask opponent's strategy and turn it at their own advantage.