As Alejandro Davidovich Fokina took to the court last month to face his fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos Viñolas at the Madrid Open, it soon became clear he had a slight problem.
Between the lines modern courts measure the same, but the distances beyond them vary dramatically. The outside courts in Madrid had very little room behind the baseline and were narrow, a problem for a player such as Davidovich Fokina who enjoys returning serve from deep on clay. His attempts to return serve left the linesmen diving out of the way and led to numerous near misses with the back fence.
Davidovich Fokina, the world No 34, shook his head and laughed as he acknowledged the challenge of playing on such small courts, particularly against big servers. “You have to change the plans a little bit. Or maybe you have to go the day before [to the referee] and say: ‘I want to play in stadium courts,’” he says, smiling.
Players retreating so far behind the baseline to return serve has been one of the most notable recent trends in men’s tennis, particularly on clay, as they attempt to effectively neutralise the opponent’s serve. “It’s a joke,” says Daria Kasatkina, the women’s No 9, of the Madrid courts. “I was watching a few men’s matches and it’s impossible; they’re touching the wall with the rackets on the return. It’s too small.”
Casper Ruud is one of the more prolific deep returners on clay. “You feel like you can’t hit your ball when you have the line umpire just half a metre behind you,” he says. “You feel like [you’re] in a cage. It’s sort of our own fault because we choose to stay that far back.”
During his fourth-round loss to Aslan Karatsev, Daniil Medvedev was so incensed by his placement on the smaller Arantxa Sánchez Vicario Stadium he called the supervisor to complain. “From one point of view I understand probably all the tournaments in the world cannot make all the match courts as big as I or some other players want. At the same time it’s a disadvantage. Playing Karatsev on the second court, I had a disadvantage,” Medvedev says.
This can often make for amusing viewing. There are the linespeople ducking and diving, and at certain camera angles a player on the near side will completely vanish from view while returning serve, obscured by the back wall.
“A few years ago, I was watching [Jaume] Munar v [Reilly] Opelka,” says Kasatkina, laughing. “Poor Jaume couldn’t return his freaking kick [serve]. Especially with the new balls. The bounce from the serve was going to the spectators; the ball was almost killing them. And [the linespeople] were jumping on the fence because they have no space.”
In the past, Rafael Nadal and Dominic Thiem were criticised for their defensive positioning, but the tables have turned and players’ intentions are multiple and varied. For some, the primary goal is to stand far back enough so the ball will have time to drop, allowing them to strike it at a comfortable height. At a time when players are increasingly tall and big serving is ubiquitous, it is also a tactic used to aid one of the most important aspects of the game: gaining more time on the ball.
“When you’re returning serve, I think you have to accept that you will be playing defence on the first ball or two, and then once you neutralise you can slowly start to take some steps in,” says men’s world No 9, Taylor Fritz.
Meanwhile, some are aiming to land a high percentage of returns and elongate rallies from the start of the point, especially on the slow, high-bouncing clay. Others may adjust mid-match or even to get inside the opponent’s head by offering a different look. It can also be a last act of desperation when struggling to win return points.
Regardless of their specific preferences, the common intention is clear: to win the next point. “To me, I feel like in general if I play 100 points returning from back, 100 points returning from in, I will win more returning from back. So that’s just sort of my mentality about it,” says Ruud.
It is not a tactic for everyone. Frances Tiafoe opts for a drastically different approach, utilising his slick hands by taking returns early, rushing opponents and sometimes moving to the net behind them. When he tried to adopt a deeper return position, he struggled badly. “I’ve tried, man,” he says. “I just find I get lost back there in the forest and I end up staying too far back.”
One of the interesting aspects of deep returning is that it comes at a cost. Despite players often employing the tactic to play more conservatively, it is a risk. By stepping back, the returner opens up the angles for the opponent. The best players, such as Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz, take advantage of the extra space by serve and volleying, swinging first serves out wide and mixing in copious drop shots.
“When a guy serves and volleys, you have to find a good angle, but that’s what I like to do also,” says Medvedev. “I think that’s the biggest challenge – that your opponent has a lot of time to prepare for his shot so you need to make a good return.”
The popularity of the tactic is a reflection of the modern baseline game but also arguably a failure of it. Many believe the only way players are able to get away with standing so far back is because so few can serve and volley effectively.
POV: Daniil's return.
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How many meters do you need @DaniilMedwed?#IBI23 | @atptour pic.twitter.com/tkcmL0fJ6x
“On clay, more people are doing it,” says Tiafoe. “Even on hard, more people are doing it. Just trying to get their racket on more returns and trying to make guys play. I think guys are getting away with it because in this generation, a lot don’t volley well. Serve-volley is not a play so guys know they can block the return and get to running.” He adds: “If I see a guy back there, I love to be up at the net so I’m going to serve and volley.”
Tiafoe and most others note Medvedev in particular has mastered the return tactic, and even when players do serve and volley he can produce outlandish angles from over five metres behind the baseline. Fritz cites the Russian as an influence in his own positioning.
“I think Medvedev, for me, opened my eyes to it, thinking that it could be an option because he has a similar body type to me, very tall,” says Fritz. “I always thought it’s better for guys that can be quicker with their feet, like Nadal, because you need to be able to react to the ball and take a couple of steps to the ball before the serve gets past you.”
There is an enormous focus on holding serve in men’s tennis, but not as much the return. Alcaraz, who leads the tour for return games won over the last year, says he trains his return “probably more than serving or other shots”.
But perspectives vary. A few years ago, Roger Federer said he did not specifically practise his return at all. Tiafoe is in agreement with the 20-time grand slam champion: “I actually worked on my returns though for a little bit, shorten up my backswings, but I’m not going to come out [to practise] and be like: ‘Let’s hit some returns.’”
