5 Types of Tennis Players: Which one are You?

If you take a closer look at tennis matches, you will notice that most players always follow a certain pattern. In general, every tennis player has his or her own playing style, which reflects the individual strengths and weaknesses.

As an opponent, you want to find out his or her strategy to make the best use of the weaknesses. As soon as you recognize these, the match is already half won for you. Then you will have an answer for almost every one of his shots.

In total, tennis players can be divided into 5 different types, all of which differ according to certain characteristics. In this article you will learn what types of players there are. At the end you can evaluate for yourself into which category you fit as a player.

Nowadays, the aggressive baseline player is probably the best known player type. As the name suggests, this player dominates his opponents from the baseline. He prefers to enter the rallies offensively by hitting fast balls deep into the opponent’s court.

Basically, the main characteristic of the aggressive baseliner is a powerful forehand or backhand. With this, he wants to keep you moving from the beginning, so that you stay on the defensive the whole time.

If he gets the chance, he likes to use angles to push you out of the court. Then he tries to finish the rally with a winner. Here, among other things, his willingness to take risks on the tennis court shows. At the same time, however, his strokes are very prone to mistakes.

Since the baseline is his comfort zone, he is reluctant to move to the net. Should he ever come to the net, he wants to finish the rally as quickly as possible.

The counterpuncher is a more defensive type of player, who moves mostly on the baseline. For this reason he could also be called a defensive baseliner.

In principle, the counterpuncher does not try to dominate the rally. Instead, he simply reacts to his opponent’s shots by hitting the balls back into the other side of the court. Another characteristic of the counterpuncher is his good footwork. He can move very fast on the court, covering it almost entirely .

All in all, the counterpuncher is a rather patient player, because he is primarily waiting for your mistake. Although he is able to place balls purposefully, he rarely starts an attack. This is one of the reasons why he makes few mistakes himself.

While the other types of players specialize in a certain area, the all-court player combines all skills within himself. This allrounder has an incredible variety of shots. He also has very good stamina on the tennis court.

Basically, the all-court player is a fairly constant player, which is why you will not recognize any weak points at first glance. He feels comfortable at the baseline as well as at net and therefore keeps his game balanced.

It is difficult to develop a strategy against the all-court player because he is prepared for almost every situation. Practically he can adapt to your playing style very well. The only weakness of the all-court player is that he can’t show a really outstanding shot. Compared to the other types of players, his strokes are only average.

Due to the widespread baseline game, the serve-and-volley player has become an exception. He pursues an extremely offensive strategy, as he comes to the net at almost every rally. As a result, he plans to win the point with a volley or a smash.

An essential characteristic of the serve-and-volley player is his powerful serve. This serve is used as the preparation for the net appraoch, so to speak. Especially big tennis players tend to serve fast and then move to the net.

It is often seen that this type of player uses the “chip and charge” strategy on the return. More precisely, the player stands relatively close to the service line when his opponents serve, in order to hit the return as a half volley. He then runs forward to the net to build up pressure on his opponent.

In general, the aim of the serve-and-volley player is to keep the rallies as short as possible. For this reason, he tries to avoid the game at the baseline. Accordingly, the groundstrokes are the biggest weakness of the serve-and-volley player. On the other hand, his volleys and smashes are technically flawless.

The pusher is a type of player who plays exclusively on the defensive. He could also be considered as a more intense version of the counterpuncher. Overall, the pusher is an extremely passive player on the court, because he simply wants to hit the ball back.

Just like the counterpuncher, the pusher aims that you make a mistake first. Generally, he hits the balls in a high arch with relatively little speed. In this way, he tries to get you out of rhythm. Usually, he places his shots in the middle of your court, so that he hardly makes any mistake.

In most cases, this tennis player only has a simplified stroke technique. He mainly blocks the ball with his racket. Nevertheless, the pusher manages to reach almost every ball. In addition, he is mentally very strong and can hardly be brought out of his calm. Therefore long rallies against a pusher are not uncommon.