The shoulder-high ball is still the cheat code

Decades after the heavy topspin forehand arrived, tennis has produced no reliable answer to a ball that bounces above the chest.

Every so often a tactic gets solved. Serve-volley got solved by return technology and slower courts. The moon-ball got solved by players who could take it early. But the heavy cross-court forehand that bounces up around the opponent's shoulder on the backhand side has been beating people for thirty years and there is still no clean counter to it.

Think about why. To hit a backhand with any authority you want the ball somewhere between hip and chest, where your shoulders can rotate through it and your arms can extend. Above the shoulder, that geometry disappears. A two-hander up there becomes a blocked punch with no leverage, and the ball goes back slow and short. A one-hander up there is worse, because the shoulder is already at the top of its range and the only options are a defensive slice or a leaping, low-percentage swing.

So the returner has three replies and all of them are bad. Take it on the rise, which requires standing inside the baseline against a ball that is climbing and gives you a fraction of a second to judge it. Retreat three metres behind the baseline and take it after the peak, which means the ball is still high, you're miles out of court, and your reply has to travel further. Or slice it, which is fine defensively but hands over the point.

The interesting question is why more players don't build a game around producing that ball, given it's this effective. Part of the answer is that it takes an unusual amount of racket-head speed to get a ball that heavy over the net with enough dip to land deep. Part of it is that generating it repeatedly costs a great deal in the shoulder and lower back. And part of it is fashion: the tour's preferred aesthetic right now is flatter, earlier, first-strike tennis, so juniors are coached toward taking time away rather than building height.

There is one genuine counter and it involves geography rather than technique. Stand closer, get the ball before it climbs, and accept that you will shank some. That's the only place the shot is beatable, and it's uncomfortable enough that most players won't do it in a tight set.

Which means the cheat code is still live. If you have a big forehand and an opponent with a one-hander, aim high and cross-court and just keep doing it. Unfashionable, ugly, and it works.