The Lefty Side of Things t’s at that moment you realize your opponent looks strange. The ball isn’t bouncing the right way. You say, “Oh, they’re a lefty.” Speaking from the lefty’s point of view, the most important tactic is to get off to a quick start. The lack of awareness from your opponent is an advantage you should be taking advantage of. Eventually, righties will make the necessary adjustment to get back in the match. Hopefully by that time, you have a comfortable lead.
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Righty spin, lefty spin Lefties hit the same spin a righty does. The difference is the side of the ball they hit from. For example, a righty’s slice serve is struck on the right side of the ball and bounces left to right of the returner. A lefty’s slice serve is hit on the left side of the ball and bounces right to left of the returner. A practical serving tactic is for the lefty server to jam the returners’ forehand on the deuce side and take them out of the court on the ad side. This is an easy way 62
to create a weak return or open up the court to take control of the point. For groundstrokes, a lefty forehand will tend to jump right to left of the opponent and left to right on the backhand side. There are usually some cheap points to win off of those shots since the righty may not be prepared for the awkward bounce. Lefties work on your weakness On the deuce side, work on serving out wide and up the service T. Now, when you are warming up your serve during your match warm up, serve to your strength. Do not show them you can hit the other spots. Once the match begins, after a few points, start mixing up location, like a dominant pitcher does in a baseball game. Once your opponent has made their adjustments, mixing up location becomes more important to keep them off balance and guessing. Do you like your backhand? What I have noticed, as a fellow
New York Tennis Magazine • March/April 2022 • NYTennisMag.com
By Michael Smookler
lefty and a teaching pro over the years, is that we tend to favor our backhand over the forehand. How many lefties do you know, if they swing a bat or golf club, swing from the right-hand side? This is more common than you think. Ask a lefty, because if that’s the case, their backhand should be stronger. That should be the first test in the warm up, check to see if the lefty is running around their forehand to hit a backhand. Federer and Nadal The cross-court lefty forehand is a natural shot and it is important to take advantage of your opponent’s backhand side. When you watch Rafael Nadal, you cannot help but notice how much topspin he uses. A strategy that works well for him against Roger Federer is he hits a high looping topspin forehand cross-court to Roger’s backhand. The ball jumps up quickly out of Federer’s comfort zone. This creates either a weak shot for Rafa to move in and take control of, or
