Learning Grass-Court Skills In Junior Tennis
I grew up in Mumbai which is synonymous to growing up in California and being surrounded by predominantly hard courts. However, I did play a fair amount of doubles at my club with the adult members and at junior tournaments, which helped me to improve my serves and returns, net game, and court positioning. These are all important lessons for good grass court tennis. During my junior career, I surprised myself by winning the National Singles Title on grass courts in the under-16 and under-18 age group in the same year. As an interesting tennis memory, I remember the under-18 final match versus Amod Walkalkar (a solid serve and volleyer) in Patna being paused for over 20 minutes in the middle of the 1st set as Bihar’s Chief Guest, Laloo Prasad Yadav and his security entourage entered the tennis complex.
Gaining From Davis Cup Grass-Court Experience
In thinking back to my early success on grass, it stemmed from the fact that I had an accurate serve (it was not big, but well-placed and stayed low), penetrating groundstrokes (particularly the backhand cross-court) that enabled me to effectively transition from the baseline to the net, and solid returns, which created opportunities for me to break serve. Later, as I made the Indian Davis Cup team, I found myself surrounded by a group of excellent grass court players in Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna. We played all of our home Davis Cup ties on grass and therefore, I got an extra 2–3 weeks of practice and match time each year on the surface (Indian grass courts have an unpredictable bounce and playing from the baseline is much more of a challenge compared to doing so on British grass courts tailored for ATP events).
Winning On Grass At The ATP Level
As a result of practicing on grass with a clear focus to make key improvements (detailed below), I was able to win my first ATP Challenger singles title on grass in Manchester in 2006 (a pre-Wimbledon event and picture below) and qualify for the main draw in singles at the ATP Nottingham Open (grass event) where I lost to big serving Dane, Kenneth Carlson is a tight 1st round match. Due to an ensuing knee injury and one-year layoff, I was unable to return to singles play at the top ATP level. However, several years later, with my partner Ilia Bozoljac from Serbia, we qualified for the main draw in doubles at Wimbledon in 2010. We lost to Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela and Eduardo Schwank in the 1st round and I retired from tennis a few months later having experienced the great honor of playing on the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon!
My Key Learnings For High Level Grass-Court Play
Below are a few important grass-court fundamentals that I learned during my career that helped me to develop my game on the surface:
- In the modern game, serving speed is important, however, on grass focus on accuracy and the type of serve you hit. Flat and slice serves hit accurately to stretch the opponent out or jam them on the return will yield free points and attackable 1st shots or volleys off the serve. Kick serves on the 2nd serve are good as a change-up, but keeping the ball low on grass is key and therefore, hitting the slice on the 2nd serve is a good play. Key takeaway: accurate serving on grass is vital to draw missed or attackable returns.
- On grass, look to play 1st strike tennis. The ball goes through the court and stays low and therefore, attacking tennis will be rewarded. I’ve been watching several matches this grass season and am seeing players (at the Top-100 level) playing 4 feet behind the baseline and grinding it out as if they are on a hard or clay court. That’s not a recipe for success on grass. Rather, learn to play tight at the baseline and look to move in to the net off a solid groundstroke (hit flatter than you would on a hard or clay court) that puts the opponent on defense. Key takeaway: you want to be the one dictating play and moving in to the net to put away volleys, not the other way around where you are playing defense against an attacking opponent.
- Work with a coach who is fundamentally sound on teaching volleys and net play. I was fortunate to have several coaches throughout my career who helped me to improve my volleys. I remember spending dedicated time (over several months) at each practice on volley drills and as a result, I made big improvements in this area (in my early 20s, I had a two-handed backhand volley and several years later, I had developed much better technique). It is not uncommon to see players at all levels with poor volley and net game technique and feel. This is because this area of the game is either under-practiced or done so with low quality. Key takeaway: players who spend dedicated time on improving their net game, will be at a big advantage during the grass-court season and will set themselves up for excellent results.
Summary
While developing an accurate serve, learning to play 1st strike tennis, and improving at the net are key fundamentals to playing well on grass, players who put in additional efforts to improve their returns, backhand slice, and movement on grass, will further differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Remember that focused and consistent practices aligned to your plan will lead to improvement. This is how I developed my game on grass and I’m confident that you can too.
Best of luck!
Harsh