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<\/p>\nRIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The ball has been struck, and time is already running out. You have about a second to read its direction — and somehow get there to meet it.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s coming at you with the speed of a car on the highway, except it\u2019s smaller, spinning and bending through the air. Feet moving, mind calculating geometry, you stay balanced and maneuver your body into position without ever taking your eyes off it. Then comes the release: Uncoil at the perfect moment, find the sweet spot — a matter of centimeters — and swing through, adding pace and spin, sending it to the weakest patch of court on the other side.<\/p>\n
What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n
The searing serves, the fierce forehands and those blazing backhand winners down the line draw the oohs and ahhs, but they\u2019ll never happen if you don\u2019t get there on time. It\u2019s not a popular subject on social media, but players and coaches will tell you that sound footwork is mandatory for the elite players here at the WTA Finals.<\/p>\n
World No. 2 Iga Swiatek: \u201cCrucial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jean-Christophe Faurel\u00a0Coco Gauff\u2019s coach: \u201cI talk way more about footwork than technique.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eighteen-time major champion Chris Evert: \u201cVital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark Merklein, Jessica Pegula\u2019s co-coach: \u201cHuge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former No. 1 Simona Halep: \u201cFor me, I think it was the most important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anton Dubrov, Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s coach: \u201cIt\u2019s like 90 percent of tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former World No. 1 Angelique Kerber: \u201cIf you don\u2019t have good footwork, you can\u2019t have a good mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you play, say, 60 matches a year and they average 130 points each, factor in an average of two or three shots to defend per point — and you\u2019re looking at 20,000-plus scrambles to retrieve that elusive yellow ball each year. Side to side, forward and back, even diagonally, you have to go get it.<\/p>\n
The dimensions of the space you\u2019re defending: 39 feet by 27 feet and another 10 feet or so of airspace. That works out to more than 10,000 cubic feet that you\u2019re responsible for.<\/p>\n
Exhausting, but necessary. Putting yourself in position to succeed … It starts with the feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a moving game, you\u2019ve got to be able to move,\u201d said Bjorn Fratangelo, the coach and husband of No. 6 singles seed Madison Keys. \u201cGood footwork gives you the best scenario for your best outcome to hit the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
A question of balance<\/p>\n
Some players, often gifted with size and strength, rely on offensive power to take time away from the opponent. Others compensate with defense and speed.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I didn\u2019t have big height,\u201d said two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep, who is 5-foot-6. \u201cTo be able to move fast and actually to have anticipation \u2026 and also sometimes I was playing too far back, and it helped me to recover by being fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Jasmine Paolini, listed at 5-4, is called \u201cScooter\u201d by her doubles partner Sara Errani because she moves around the court like the iconic Italian Vespa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith people hitting so strong the ball, it\u2019s very important,\u201d Errani said. \u201cThe ball is coming back; you have to be ready physically. She\u2019s very fast. If you are smaller, it\u2019s more important — because you have to do more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The best players combine both offense and defense. Coco Gauff, who is already No. 3 in the PIF WTA Rankings at the age of 21, is one of those players.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s quick, but footwork and quickness are two different things,\u201d Faurel explained. \u201cIt\u2019s about coordination. You can be quick, but it doesn\u2019t mean you have good footwork. You can\u2019t have the best technique if your feet aren\u2019t in the right place. It doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery player can improve their technique, but footwork is the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with the best intentions — and flawless footwork — Faurel said the speed of the game often leaves players with no choice but to improvise.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the shots you play, you\u2019re off balance,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it\u2019s more than half.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting back to neutral<\/p>\n
Each of our feet have roughly 200,00 sensory receptors, which gather information on pressure, texture and other variables. They send that information to the brain, over some 1.5 meters through neural pathways, and informed with that data the brain commands the feet. The whole process takes about one-quarter of a second.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes if my footwork is wrong, I\u2019m very confused on my steps on the court,\u201d \u00a0three-time major finalist Ons Jabeur said. \u201cThe more I work on it, the more coordinated I am. I feel when players haven\u2019t played a lot of matches, their footwork is kind of weird.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Elena](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1762279091_633_GettyImages-2244354985.jpg\")
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Getty Images\n <\/p>\n
There\u2019s little time to react. It\u2019s a delicate, extremely complicated\u00a0operation, requiring keen vision, the ability to anticipate, creativity and flexibility. The general idea is to get back to the middle of the court after returning, giving you the best opportunity to go to either side for the next one.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Merklein said Pegula has worked hard to master this area.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way these girls are hitting with power to the corners, I mean you\u2019ve got to be able to play defense and stay alive in points and get to neutral,\u201d Merklein said.<\/p>\n
Footwork, of course, is connected to fitness. Players spend a lot of time in the gym working on increasing leg strength and explosiveness. That ability to accelerate a little more quickly can make all the difference. There\u2019s also a focus on building endurance so a player can keep making those defensive dashes over the course of a three-hour match.<\/p>\n
Creating the optimum space between body and ball isn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the things we\u2019re talking about a lot now with Maddy on her forehand side,\u201d Fratangelo said. \u201cIt\u2019s a weapon, and I think it can be even more if she had better spacing in certain situations. Sometimes, I think she\u2019s a little bit close. It doesn\u2019t allow herself to get a full swing, because her swing is so large.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adjusting the footwork is the answer.<\/p>\n
These days, Fratangelo said, players are covering the court with fewer steps.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you look at Carlos [Alcaraz] and Jannik [Sinner], the way they move — it\u2019s borderline perfect,\u201d Fratangelo said. \u201cJannik is even more efficient because of what he\u2019s able to do with the left leg moving to the backhand and the outside and sliding open.<\/p>\n
\u201cEfficiency and being able to cover ground without, running per se, being able to go from the middle to the outside of the singles line in two to three steps gives you a huge advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n
A sublime skill<\/p>\n
Swiatek bounds around like a big cat in the jungle, with a deceptive, seemingly effortless ease, leaning first with her upper body, already setting her body in motion before her feet spring to life.<\/p>\n
Two or three medium side-to-side lunges, followed by a series of small adjustment hops, give her the appearance of hovering. If the ball is particularly challenging, Swiatek can stop on a dime — screech! — and knock off a credible off-balance shot, turning defense into instant offense.<\/p>\n
No woman does it better than Swiatek. When she\u2019s in rhythm, in sync, it\u2019s almost like watching ballet. At the US Open, you know where she\u2019s practicing without even seeing her; the telltale squeaks can be heard several courts away.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything starts there,\u201d Swiatek said. \u201cIf you\u2019re not going to be in the right position before the shot, you can\u2019t play only with your hands. I don\u2019t know who first taught me this, but I always knew it\u2019s very important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Evert learned the game from her father, Jimmy. He was a two-time United States age-group champion — and as a coach, a stickler for fundamentals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn order to hit a perfect shot with explosive power, you really have to be set up and balanced as perfectly as possible,\u201d Evert said. \u201cIt\u2019s the little adjustments. That\u2019s where Iga\u2019s so good, those adjustment steps. Coco, too. When I look at Iga and I look at Coco, I look at their feet. They\u2019re the fastest with their fast-twitch muscles, with the first step and the way they make those adjustment steps to get around the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a tree; it starts with the roots. You\u2019ve got to have quick feet to be a top player these days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Halep: \u201cI like how Swiatek is moving. She stays very low and has a lot of power in the legs. I feel like she\u2019s complete — she has everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Movement may not have come completely naturally for Sabalenka but, according to her coaching team, she\u2019s worked hard to maximize this part of her game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re the one who\u2019s staying on the ball with the shot all the time, you\u2019re taking time away from the opponent,\u201d said Anton Dubrov. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing else they can do. You\u2019re putting the pressure on the opponent and saying, `OK, do something with it.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Aryna, it\u2019s much better than it was. It\u2019s just a flow, and you try to make it as smooth as possible. You can have far away from the best technique in the game, but if your footwork is on top, you\u2019re going to be on top because you can adapt to any shot. It\u2019s fundamental.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The ball has been struck, and time is already running out. You have about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,1602,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-243739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}