Koko's clay campaign 2010: serve-and-volley

Koko is faster than she looks. She is as tall as she looks. She has long arms. Why does she stand at the baseline, trading groundstrokes? She doesn't. Now she serve-and-volleys. She smart gorilla. She thinky-thinky.

Over the past few months I've developed my ground game, especially on the backhand side, where I can slice aggressive approach shots down the line or crosscourt, hit defensive slices out wide and recover to position, or blast a topspin winner to or from anywhere on the court. My forehand continues to break down, but when I hit it well, it's a powerful weapon.

However, my serve has been and always will be my strongest stroke. Opponents fear my flat first serve, and my kick second serve has improved from a reliable but modest point-starter to an offensive tactic that can and does win points. Mostly I tap the corner I want, and when I aim into the body, I jam my opponent. Either way, the return, when in, is usually weak, high, and short, an ideal ball to be volleyed. So, accepting that I will never display the forehand consistency needed to rally top players into low-percentage positions, I decided to abandon my counterpunching style in favor of the retrograde serve-and-volley.

Tonight, for the first time in a singles match, I put theory into practice, coming in behind every effective serve and rushing the net whenever I caught my opponent out of position. It worked, and I came away with a 6-4 7-6(0) victory, despite feeling exhausted and fuzzy from a tedious, trying week of moving apartments. Predictably, I began the match in poor form. I had trouble watching the ball; my balance and timing felt forced and unnatural; my forehand, as I feared, smacked errors. I lost serve at love. But trailing 2-4 in the first set, I went on a four game winning-streak, in which I played some of my very best tennis, clipping lines on my first serve, using heavy slice to draw my opponent wide, and rushing the net to volley into the open court. I won the set 6-4.

In the second set, I broke out to an early 3-0 lead, but the effects of a difficult weekend, unintentional weight and muscle loss, and crappy focus eroded my advantage, and the set ended in a tiebreak, which I swept, once again dominating with smart service, calm but aggressive net-play, and deliberate movement.

As I continue to prepare for my debut on the red clay this August, I'll restructure my match-strategy around the serve-and-volley. I've been training in the heat, in the mid-afternoon, running suicides and drilling to increase my margin over the net by using more topspin in rallies. By the time I step on court, I should be fit enough to outlast any of my opponents. If I serve well and force play, though, I may not need to. Who says you can't serve-and-volley on clay? McEnroe nearly beat Lendl in the French Open final in 1984. If he can punish the Slavic machine, I can out-hustle a bunch of Texas hillbillies. And you don't lob a six-foot, two-inch Norwegian with a good overhead.

I also hit, like, ten dropshots tonight. That's not related. I just usually don't do that.