If you watch a thousand professional points without a framework, you will see chaos. If you watch the same thousand points with the right framework, you will see a small number of repeated patterns playing out in different orders.
Table of Contents
- Pattern 1: Serve-Forehand-Wide-Forehand
- Pattern 2: Return-Deep-Neutral-Build
- Pattern 3: Cross-Court-Battle-Then-Open-Down-the-Line
- Pattern 4: Approach-and-Volley
- Pattern 5: The Inside-Out Forehand
- Pattern 6: Body-Serve-and-Jam
- Pattern 7: Defensive-Lob-and-Reset
- What the Pattern Frame Gives You
- What This Doesn't Mean
- One Thing to Do on Court Tomorrow
The patterns are not theoretical. They are empirical regularities — sequences of shots that recur often enough in modern tennis that any tactical analysis must account for them. Naming them gives a coach a vocabulary to teach with, a player a structure to think with, and a video analyst a taxonomy to count against.
What follows are the seven major patterns I work with in coaching. They are not exhaustive — there are sub-patterns, hybrids, and edge cases — but together they cover the substantial majority of points played at intermediate and higher levels.
Pattern 1: Serve-Forehand-Wide-Forehand
The dominant pattern in the modern men’s game. Serve to one corner, opponent returns the middle or slightly cross, server hits a forehand into the opposite corner. The point is often over in three shots.
This is the Serve+1 idea developed into a near-doctrine by the modern game. The server uses the serve to displace the returner from the center, then attacks the open space with the third ball. The forehand is usually the weapon because it’s the higher-pace shot for most players, and because the server’s body is naturally positioned to hit it after the serve motion.
For amateur coaches: this pattern is teachable from intermediate level upward. The serve doesn’t need to be 200 km/h. It needs to be placed well enough to push the returner off the center stripe. The third-ball forehand needs to be reliable enough to hit a corner under modest pressure. That combination wins points at every level.
Pattern 2: Return-Deep-Neutral-Build
The defensive opening — used by returners who can’t attack the serve, or who are facing big serves with no second-ball weakness to exploit.
Return goes deep into the middle of the court, slowing the rally and removing the server’s geometric advantage. The next 3–5 shots are a rally for position: deep, heavy cross-court ground strokes aiming for the opponent to break first. The pattern wins points by attrition rather than aggression.
Counter-punchers and clay-court specialists live in this pattern. It is unglamorous and effective. The skill is in the depth — a return that lands short gives the server back the third-ball advantage. A return that lands deep takes it away.
Pattern 3: Cross-Court-Battle-Then-Open-Down-the-Line
The classic baseline rally pattern. Both players hit cross-court forehands (or backhands) until one player gets a ball short enough or angled enough to open the line down the alley.
The geometry: cross-court hits a longer net (longer hypotenuse of the court rectangle), giving more margin. Down-the-line hits a shorter net with less margin. So the safe shot is cross-court, the higher-risk-higher-reward shot is down-the-line. The pattern is: build with the safe shot, attack with the risk shot when the opportunity arrives.
Reading the opportunity is the skill. A short cross-court ball opens the line. A ball hit late or weak invites the down-the-line shot. A ball hit deep and heavy continues the cross-court battle. Players who can’t read which is which either play it safe forever (and lose by attrition) or attack the wrong ball (and lose by error).
Pattern 4: Approach-and-Volley
Less common in modern singles than in the past, but still alive at every level. The player hits an approach shot — usually deep, often slice — into the opponent’s weaker side, then comes to the net to put away the passing attempt.
The geometry rewards the approacher: a player at the net cuts off the opponent’s available angles. The opponent must hit either a perfectly executed passing shot, a high-quality lob, or accept a weak ball that the volleyer dispatches.
This pattern requires three skills the modern game has somewhat under-trained: the slice approach (depth and low bounce), the split-step at the service line, and the volley itself. Players who develop these skills retain a tactical option that many opponents are uncomfortable defending.
Pattern 5: The Inside-Out Forehand
A specialty pattern that exploits one of the biggest asymmetries in modern tennis: most professionals have a stronger forehand than backhand. The inside-out forehand exploits this by repeatedly hitting forehands from the middle or backhand corner of the court, into the opponent’s backhand corner.
The setup is critical. The player must position themselves so that the ball is on their forehand side even when it lands near the center of the court. This means running around the backhand to hit a forehand — which leaves the deuce side temporarily open but trades that vulnerability for repeated attacks on the opponent’s weaker wing.
Inside-out forehand is the third-ball pattern for many of the modern game’s best forehand players. It is also a pattern with a specific counter: if the opponent reads it early, they can change direction and hit down the deuce line, exposing the running player.
Pattern 6: Body-Serve-and-Jam
The ugly cousin of the wide-serve pattern. Instead of hitting wide to open the court, the server aims directly at the returner’s body. The returner must move out of the way to hit a return, which constrains their swing and often produces a weak floater. The server then attacks the floater.
This pattern is under-used at amateur level because it doesn’t look impressive. Coaches teach wide serves and T serves; body serves often go untaught. But against players with limited footwork (most amateurs), the body serve is the single highest-percentage serve target. It doesn’t need to be fast. It needs to be on the body.
Pattern 7: Defensive-Lob-and-Reset
The escape pattern. When a player is pulled out of position and an opponent attacks the open court, a high defensive lob can reset the rally — buying time for the defender to recover position and turning the offensive moment into a neutral exchange.
The lob must be high enough — at least 8–10 meters at apex — and deep enough that the attacker can’t smash it. A short or low lob is worse than no lob; it offers the opponent a clean overhead.
This is the survival pattern. It doesn’t win the point on its own but it prevents the point from being lost. Players without a defensive lob lose half a point per match more than they need to, because they have no escape from disadvantageous positions.
What the Pattern Frame Gives You
Once a coach and player share this vocabulary, several training things become easier.
Diagnostic clarity. “You lose points in Pattern 1 too often” is a more useful coaching statement than “you need to work on your defense.” It points to a specific situation, a specific shot sequence, and a specific drill.
Drill design. Each pattern can be drilled as a unit. Set up a Pattern 1 drill where the server practices serving wide and hitting an open-court forehand, while the returner practices the cross-court neutralizing return. Both players work the same situation from opposite roles.
Scouting an opponent. Watching an opponent’s previous matches becomes a pattern audit: which patterns do they play offensively, which do they play defensively, what’s their win rate in each? This is how high-level coaches build game plans in 30 minutes.
Player self-coaching. A player who knows the patterns can analyze their own losses without a coach. “I lost too many Pattern 3 cross-court battles” is actionable. “I just played badly” is not.
What This Doesn’t Mean
Pattern-based thinking has limits worth noting.
Patterns are tendencies, not laws. A pro player executing a “Pattern 1” point may make a within-pattern decision (slice approach instead of forehand drive, for example) that doesn’t fit the canonical pattern. The framework is for analysis and instruction, not for predicting every shot.
Patterns mix. Many points start as one pattern and shift into another. A serve+forehand attempt that misses can transition into a cross-court rally pattern. The patterns are not rigid scripts.
Patterns aren’t a substitute for execution. Knowing Pattern 1 doesn’t mean you can win Pattern 1 points. The serve has to be placed, the forehand has to be reliable, the recovery has to be quick. Patterns name what to practice — the practice itself is still required.
One Thing to Do on Court Tomorrow
Pick one pattern from this list. For one practice session, drill only that pattern. Both you and your hitting partner take both roles — server and returner, attacker and defender. Run the pattern 30–50 times across the session, with feedback after each rep on what went wrong and what went right.
Most amateur players, doing this for the first time, find that one of the seven patterns is dramatically weaker than the others. That weakness is where the next month of training points. Patterns turn vague tactical advice into specific tactical work.
The game is patterns. The patterns are teachable. The teaching starts with naming them.
About the author: Emre Köse is a tennis coach at Beykoz Tenis Kulübü in Istanbul, with 12+ years on court. He holds a BSc in Coaching Education from Marmara University, Faculty of Sport Sciences.
Related in this series: Serve+1: why the third shot is where the modern game is decided · Cross-court vs down-the-line · The approach shot
Selected reading:
- O’Donoghue, P., & Ingram, B. (2001). A notational analysis of elite tennis strategy. Journal of Sports Sciences.
- Reid, M., Morgan, S., & Whiteside, D. (2016). Matchplay characteristics of Grand Slam tennis. Journal of Sports Sciences.
- Filipčič, A., Filipčič, T., & Berendijaš, T. (2008). Performance indicators in winning and losing tennis match play. Kinesiologia Slovenica.
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Pattern 1: Serve-Forehand-Wide-Forehand
The dominant pattern in the modern men's game. Serve to one corner, opponent returns the middle or slightly cross, server hits a forehand into the opposite corner. The point is often over in three shots.
Pattern 2: Return-Deep-Neutral-Build
The defensive opening — used by returners who can't attack the serve, or who are facing big serves with no second-ball weakness to exploit.
Pattern 3: Cross-Court-Battle-Then-Open-Down-the-Line
The classic baseline rally pattern. Both players hit cross-court forehands (or backhands) until one player gets a ball short enough or angled enough to open the line down the alley.
Pattern 4: Approach-and-Volley
Less common in modern singles than in the past, but still alive at every level. The player hits an approach shot — usually deep, often slice — into the opponent's weaker side, then comes to the net to put away the passing attempt.
Pattern 5: The Inside-Out Forehand
A specialty pattern that exploits one of the biggest asymmetries in modern tennis: most professionals have a stronger forehand than backhand. The inside-out forehand exploits this by repeatedly hitting forehands from the middle or backhand corner of the court, into the opponent's backhand corner.
