If your opponent can just tee off on one shot after another, you'll never get off defense, but if you give him a lot of different spins, you might disrupt his timing enough to draw errors, and once he starts missing, his confidence in dictating play will drop.
Generally, if you put more topspin on your shot than your opponent expects, it's likely to make him meet the ball late and either hit the net or, if he overtilts his racquet in trying to compensate for lateness, hit long. Backspin will tend to make the ball land deeper than he expects, which can also make him late, or, because the ball slows more on the bounce, early. When a hard hitters meets the ball too early, his racquet usually tilts enough to send the ball long. Exactly which timing error your opponent will make is unpredictable, but as long as your changing spins encourage him to make one, you should keep mixing it up. There's very little downside. Just remember that you'll need to hit flat on some shots where clean contact with spin would be difficult and that you should save for key points the spins that bother your opponent most.
- Do a split-step each time your opponent starts to swing. Time your split-step so that you'll be on your way down just as you see the ball leaving your opponent's racquet. In mid-air, you'll start to lean in the correct direction, and when you land, you'll be on your way.
- Don't try to stop before hitting very short balls. The key to getting more short balls back is to keep running forward as you hit the shortest ones. Trying to stop will only keep you from getting to the ball in time or put you so off-balance you won't hit with any control.
- When you get a ball that's way off court, hit a high lob to buy time to recover your position for the next ball.
