“Rhythm” in tennis means different things to different players, but here’s how I’ll define it:
You are “in rhythm” when your neurological pattern has calibrated itself in the near-term.
As you get “in rhythm”, small timing errors, perception errors, and calibration errors, that existed in, say, your Forehand Function, have now worked themselves out, and a more precise version of the function is running. Insofar as your brain continues to run this refined version of the Forehand Function, you hit better forehands and consider yourself in rhythm.
How Matches Destroy Rhythm
There exists a waiting period of about 30 seconds between tennis points, and during that time, you hit zero balls. There’s a changeover every 2 games, during which you rest for 90 seconds and hit zero balls. At every level, most points contain fewer than four shots, either because serve quality is high, return quality is low, or both.
Taken together, this means you hit only about 5 shots per minute while playing matches, if that (including the serve). Imagine practicing like that. Count to 12 seconds. Hit a shot. Count another 12 seconds. Hit a different shot.
You hit only about 5 shots per minute while playing matches.
When it comes to specific shots, like a forehand or a backhand, the prospect of rhythm is even bleaker. Your five shots might be a serve, a blocked return, a running forehand, an easy forehand, and a backhand slice. An entire minute passed, and you didn’t hit a single drive backhand. The shots you did play, you played only once.
Therefore, in order to win matches, your shots must succeed while neurologically-cold.
What Rhythmless Dominance Looks Like
Here is a 2-game stretch of brilliance from Jannik Sinner, from 2-1 to 4-1 against Ben Shelton in the 2026 Australian Open. It runs from 21:24 to 32:46, for a total of 11 minutes and 22 seconds.
In that time, Jannik hit the ball 38 times, for an average of one hit per 18.1 seconds, or just over 3 shots per minute. Below are the shots Jannik played multiple times during this stretch. Notice how even the most frequent shot – the forehand with the feet set, was played only 6 times in 11 minutes.
- Forehand Return – 5/5
- Backhand Return – 4/4
- Forehand (feet set) – 5/6
- Backhand (feet set) – 3/3
- Forehand (stretch+slide) – 2/2
- Backhand (stretch+slide) – 3/3
- First Serve – 2/4
- Second Serve – 2/2
- Forehand Drive Approach – 2/2
Even if we pool the forehands as a whole, which is a little ridiculous, because returning a 120 mph serve with the forehand has little in common with using it to attack a short approach – still the shot was hit only 16 times, or once every 43 seconds.
Below are 7 shots Jannik played only once in the entire 11 minute period.
- Backhand sprint forward slice passing shot – 1/1
- Forehand sprint forward slice passing shot – 1/1
- Forehand vs No-Pace Floater – 1/1
- Backhand slice lob – 1/1
- Forehand slice lob – 1/1
- Backhand pass – 1/1
- Backhand stretch slice return – 0/1
Of these, both sprint-slide-slice passing shots won him the point. The backhand topspin pass won him the point, and he successfully crushed the no-pace floater with his forehand, also winning the point. Four points during this 2-game stretch were won by Jannik Sinner because he successfully executed a high-degree-of-difficulty shot, despite only playing it once in 11 minutes.
Implications for Development
Our practice courts are broken. The skill of match tennis is being able to execute a sliding slice passing shot into the open court on demand, without getting to hit 5 practice ones beforehand. It’s being able to destroy a floating ball with your forehand, once every 10+ minutes, on command.
And what are we practicing? The same cross-court, on-balance contact over, and over, and over.
During practice, you have one goal – improve your skill of using the racket to make the ball do what you want. Improve your connection to the racket, your awareness of how to use it, how it moves, what it feels like. Improve your eyes and your brain, your ability to correctly anticipate and react to the balls in front of you. Improve your movement, your balance, your control over your trunk. Connect the pieces together. Connect your eyes to your feet, connect your contact to your trunk. Make your tennis-playing system more and more robust, resilient, and generally adaptable.
The skill of a tennis match isn’t being able to hit 20 balls cross-court. It’s being able to do things you’ve never done before, on command, under pressure, and with only one try.
Build your system accordingly.
