Games are not decided by how many good shots you hit. They are decided by two or three points. And those points turn up at the same scores, in almost every game you will ever play.
30–30. 30–40. 40–30. Deuce. Advantage, either way.
These are the big points. From any one of them, a single point decides the game, or decides who is serving to win it.
So your job on a big point is to play BORING tennis.
Not careful. Boring. Those are different, and careful loses too — a careful ball lands short, and a short ball gets attacked.
Boring means your best ordinary shot. The deep crosscourt one you have hit ten thousand times. Hit that one, properly, again.
Then wait for one of two things. Either they miss, or they give you a short ball.
And if it is the short ball, stop being boring. That is what the patience was for. Step in, approach it, and follow it to the net.
Boring until it is not.
The points that are not big
Knowing which points are not big is most of this. There are three kinds, and you can tell them apart in a second.
NEARLY DECIDED. 40–0, 0–40, 40–15, 15–40. The game is nearly over one way or the other, so a bold shot risks almost nothing. This is where you try the thing you have been practising.
ORDINARY. 0–0, 15–0, 15–15, 15–30, 30–15. Nothing special is happening. Play your normal tennis.
BIG. The five on the left. Boring tennis, and take the short ball when it comes.
Most players have this exactly backwards. They go for the line at 30–30 and push the ball back at 40–0.
That is one game with both mistakes in it, and it is the commonest way a better player loses to a worse one.
Check it in your own matches. Note the score each time a game turns. It is nearly always one of the five.
This is one page of the reference section.
The rest of Crosscourt IQ is 538 situations — a court diagram, the score, and one question: what would you do here, and why? Your player answers first, then the reasoning opens.
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