Sometimes your opponent will enter the zone and play their best tennis which will be at much higher level than they usually play on.

The recent win of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga over Roger Federer in Wimbledon quarter-finals was a great example of that.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeats Roger Federer in Wimbledon 2011 QF (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Once Tsonga was 2 sets to love down, he felt he had nothing to lose. He started to go for shots and was not afraid to miss.

He simply entered the zone and Federer was unable to take him out of the zone.

Actually, in my opinion Federer never tried to break Tsonga’s zone and I am not sure he even knows that such an approach exists.

He stated once:

Federer said his career finally went golden when he learned not to panic on the court when he was down or under pressure – and that rather than giving up, he now “hangs in there and hopes for the best whenever things are down”.

It looked to me that Federer was thinking exactly this – I’ll play my tennis and Tsonga will sooner or later fall off that high plateau of play. That of course didn’t happen.

It is a good approach and it works sometimes but sometimes you need to listen to your gut and consider that your opponent will NOT drop back to normal levels of play.

Is there anything you can do?

Breaking Opponent’s Zone

Your opponent is now in the zone and that’s like a trance like state. There isn’t much thinking, he is just playing out of his mind.

In order to break his zone, you need to make him think. You need to activate his thinking and possibly even emotions.

Your opponent in the zone THRIVES on your normal play. The ball seems so slow to him and your normal good quality tennis is not good enough.

So you need to do something out of the ordinary:

1.    If you never (or rarely) serve & volleyed, do it now. Force your opponent into different tactical decisions.

2.    On the return, vary your returns. You can attack and hit with pace, chip & charge or play a drop shot. Anything that you usually do not do.

3.    From the baseline keep changing the rhythm – a moon ball, a flat drive, a slice and a drop shot here and there. (typically followed by a lob)

4.    A player in the zone loves to attack (especially Tsonga). You need to attack him before he attacks you now.

Of course these tactics feel risky and you might even lose some games doing this.

But you have a very good chance of breaking the opponent’s zone and bringing him back down to the levels of play that mere mortals usually play at.

Then you have a chance…