Drop shot magic

A risk many tennis pros aren’t willing to take, dropper carries a reputation for devastating opponents.

PARIS — There are only so many shots in tennis. And like tie widths and hemlines, they come in and out of fashion. But at the top ranks of the sport, the drop shot is having a moment, thanks in part to its deft deployment by two players who have vaulted into the top 10 in recent months — Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, who has been hailed as “the drop-shot queen,” and Spain’s 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, who’s regarded as tennis royalty-in-waiting.

When expertly executed, as Alcaraz has multiple times in his march to the French Open’s fourth round, it is a thing of heartless beauty — a chef ’s kiss on the red clay of Roland Garros.

Its resurgence on the pro tour is the result of a few trends.

Given the velocity with which the game’s biggest hitters are blasting their serves and groundstrokes, players are standing farther behind the baseline to counter the blows.

In doing so, essentially ceding so much of the court by backpedaling nearly to the back fence, players almost invite a drop shot.

Moreover, not many players are as confident charging the net as they are bludgeoning the ball from the baseline. So a well-executed drop shot can not only take a player by surprise; it can also exploit a shaky vulnerability.

“It’s not fun. It’s really not fun,” said 2019 U.S. Open winner Bianca Andreescu, 21, when asked about seeing more drop shots on the pro tour. “The loopy balls, super flat ... having that change of rhythm can really disrupt your opponent.”

The sixth-ranked Jabeur, 27, who led the women’s tour in clay court victories heading into this year’s French Open, uses the drop shot in a different way than Alcaraz.

Variety is the hallmark of her game, and she has always loved sprinkling in lots of drop shots to delight herself and bedevil her opponents, much to the consternation of her early coaches in Tunis.

“I have had a lot of not just coaches but people saying that what I’m doing is not right, and I should stop doing drop shots,” Jabeur recalled on the eve of the French Open, where she was upset in the first round. She complied for a few years, she said. But abandoning the shot made her unhappy, and it

didn’t improve her results, so she overruled the naysayers.

“Listen, it’s my career. I’m controlling this,” Jabeur recalled declaring. “I mean, I’ll listen to the coach, of course. But I had to have this.”

In the view of Brad Gilbert, a former touring pro and coach, it’s a smart play for the 5-foot-6 Jabeur, who lacks the power of many of the women she faces. So she finds other ways to conquer opponents.

“She’s a guile player, not a power player, with a game that’s based on having great touch,” said Gilbert, now an ESPN commentator.

No real way to prepare or beware

For Alcaraz, who positively pulverizes the ball, the drop shot plays a different role.

It is the “two” of his devastating one-two punch — a forehand blasted from his cannon of an arm, followed by a gently arcing ball that his strings barely brush.

Once dismissed by 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer as “a panic shot,” the drop shot can be a shrewd offensive tactic — a way to win a point and, over time, demoralize an opponent caught hopelessly out of position when a spinslathered ball, flicked in an instant, barely clears the net, plops to the court and dies.

As tennis shots go, the drop shot is more a chess move than a power play.

“When he’s winding up to crack a forehand with that devastating power, he gets you on your back heels,” Gilbert said. “You think he’s going to keep bludgeoning the forehand, then he’ll drop in a dropper. And he’ll do it on huge points, at five-all in a tiebreaker, when you just can’t believe it. And it won’t miss!”

In April, Alcaraz hit 50 drop shots, according to the ATP — winning the point 70% of the time (35 of 50) — en route to becoming the youngest victor of the Miami Open. He followed that with clay-court tournament titles in Barcelona and Madrid, where he toppled 13-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal, topranked Novak Djokovic and third-ranked Alexander Zverev in succession.

Though it requires no power to speak of, the perfect drop shot isn’t easy to pull off.

It requires expert technique and timing. That starts with disguising the shot by hiding the subtle change in grip

that’s required.

Most players hit it off the backhand for that reason, because it’s easier to mask the grip. Alcaraz, however, is more inclined to hit it off his forehand a split-second after a forehand blast.

“His groundstrokes are super heavy ... one of the heaviest on tour,” second-ranked Daniil Medvedev said of Alcaraz. “So when you’re waiting for his groundstroke, you are going to be on the back of your feet, so he can use a drop shot much better than some other guys.”

According to Gilbert, it’s far better to hit a drop shot from an offensive position than on a dead run in desperation.

“Guys like (Ivan Lendl) and ( Jim) Courier had monster forehands, then at the last minute they underspin it, and you’re frozen,” Gilbert said.

A shot with an awful lot of components

Winning drop shots also requires expert spin, achieved

by slashing under the ball or on either side to prevent it from bouncing in an opponent’s strike zone.

They also require quick thinking — the ability to compute in an instant an opponent’s position on court, closing speed and competence (or lack of it) at the net — as well as enough creativity and courage to envision the shot.

Hall of Fame inductee Chris Evert, who won 18 Grand Slam titles in the 1970s and 1980s, had an outstanding drop shot because she practiced it intently, while few others did, Gilbert said.

Federer also mastered it after overcoming his resistance and deciding it worthy of adding to his repertoire.

Two key things make Federer’s drop shot effective, according to his former coach Paul Annacone, now a Tennis Channel analyst who also coached Federer’s idol, Hall of Famer Pete Sampras.

“He is a master at taking your time away by taking the ball early,” Annacone explained of Federer.

“This keeps you on your heels, giving you less time to react, and it opens up the door to use the drop shot because of stealing your time.”

Moreover, Federer typically stands on or inside the baseline, Annacone noted, which is the ideal court position for hitting a drop shot.

“Combine that with his ability to soften the hands and deaden the contact,” Annacone wrote, “and you have terrific ingredients to execute that deft touch.”

But used too often, the drop shot becomes predictable, leaving even the most skilled practitioner looking foolish when an opponent wise to the tactic sprints forward in time to blast back a winner or, in cheeky fashion, outdrop-shot the drop-shotter.

CHRISTOPHE ENA/ASSOCIATED PRESS THIBAULT CAMUS/ASSOCIATED PRESS Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur said she yielded to pressure to leave her drop shot out of her repertoire, but not having it made her unhappy. So she went right back to it. TOP: Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz often leaves opponents bewildered after a string of brute forehands he seems content to keep smashing, when he suddenly goes with a dropper, even in high-stakes moments. In April’s Miami Open, he won 35 of 50 points — that’s 70% — when using his drop shot.