Clay is the slowest of tennis court surfaces: When a ball hits a clay court, its forward velocity is reduced more than on grass, hard courts, or indoor carpet. This allows more time to get each ball, thus reducing the effectiveness of a power game.

If you can't put a ball away as easily, you need to be more patient. Instead of trying to win points by hitting one big shot, look to win points with a combination of two or more shots. You need to get your opponent farther out of position on clay in order to keep him from getting your next shot. Here are a few tactics to try:

• Pull your opponent wide off the court with the "side pocket" shot, which lands near the outside corner of the cross-court service box. Follow up with a shot into the open court, or, if your opponent is racing back across the court, another side pocket shot to wrong-foot her on the slippery clay.

• Hit deep to your opponent's backhand with heavy topspin. Topspin bites into clay nicely and can produce a bounce well above the comfort zone of many players. This will often force your opponent to give you a weak, short ball that you can put away easily with a volley or aggressive groundstroke.

• Force your opponent to retrieve from well behind his baseline, using deep balls, 8-15 feet high, preferably with topspin, then follow up with a drop shot. Drop shots are much more effective on clay than on hard courts.

Additional Resources:

Is Your Court Positioning Worth a Million?

The 24(?) Types of Tennis Balls

How to Beat Four Major Player Types

Win With Consistency

Court Surfaces Quiz