This page offers a checklist of the skills you need to be a good tennis player. This list is a good starting point. I am sure you can come up with other skills that could contribute to your success as a tennis player. Many players spend most of their time playing practice sets. Very little time is spent on practicing specific skills. The road to more efficient improvement is to identify the areas of the game that are challenging to you and devise ways to isolate and practice these skills until you have mastered them.
You might be comfortable standing at the middle of the baseline and rallying, but when moving forward to hit slow balls, your game might crumble.
Systematically work through each skill until you have gained proficiency. If you can successfully execute all the skills on this page, you are on your way to success.
This is a long list. One way to figure out exactly what to focus on is to video yourself playing and study the patterns in the video: where you excel, where you falter, and what positions in the court and which kinds shots from your opponent give you the most trouble.
Hitting from a Static Position
Hitting Gently (Short Court, Absorbing the Speed of the Ball)
Directional Hitting: Alternating Cross Court and Down-the-Line; Deep Shots and Tight Cross-Court Angles
Changing Direction: Cross to Line; Line to Cross.
Inside-Out Forehand
Inside-In Forehand
Moving Forward to Hit a High Ball.
Moving Forward to Hit a Low Ball
Recovery from wide balls, deep balls
12 Basic Footwork/Recovery Patterns
Hitting on the Run (Forward, backward, lateral)
Hitting on the Rise
Creating Space on Balls Coming Right at You
Deploying Stroke Variety: Spin, Speed, Height, Depth
Responding to Stroke Variety from your Opponent: Spin, Speed, Height, Depth
Passing Shots
Drop Shots
Approaching with Topspin
Approaching with Chip or Slice
Handling Moon Balls Off the Bounce
Handling Moon Balls in the Air
Defending from the Corners
Consistency/”Grinding”
Hitting from multiple positions
Return a drop shot with a drop shot
Return a drop shot with a deep shot
Returning Hard Serves
Returning (and Attacking) Easy/Second Serves
Returning Kick Serves
Returning Wide Serves
Lob off the Return of Serve
Deep Volleys
Low Volleys
Drop Volleys
Swinging Volleys
Closing Volleys
Volley on the Move
Midcourt Volleys
Half-Volleys
Serve and Volley
Serve with Power
Serve with Slice
Serve with Kick
Serve to All Locations (Wide, Tee, Body on Both Ad and Deuce Courts)
Static Overhead
Backhand Overhead
Jumping Overhead
Retrieving Lobs Over Your Head
Offensive Lobs
Defensive Lobs