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They played a chiquita at your feet. What now?
Answer a chiquita with a chiquita. Low, slow, back at their feet, and do not surrender the net.
You are at the net and they play a slow, low ball that dies right at your feet. What is the right reply?
Answer a chiquita with a chiquita. Low, slow, back at their feet, and do not surrender the net.
Why
A chiquita is designed to make you do one of two bad things: lift the ball, or attack from below the net. The answer is neither. Take it early, absorb it, and drop it back low into the feet of whichever of them is moving forwards. Now they are hitting up from below the tape, and you still have the position that makes that a problem. These exchanges can last three or four balls; the pair that gets impatient first is the pair that loses the point.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Get low with your knees, not with your racket head. The face stays open and the racket head stays above your wrist.
Intermediate
Play it cross-court into the incoming player’s feet rather than down the middle. You keep the diagonal and avoid the free intercept.
Advanced
Watch which of them is committing forward. Blocking into the feet of the player already in motion beats a technically better block into the one standing still.
Common questions
You are at the net and they play a slow, low ball that dies right at your feet. What is the right reply?
Low block back into their feet, and hold. Answer a chiquita with a chiquita. Low, slow, back at their feet, and do not surrender the net. A chiquita is designed to make you do one of two bad things: lift the ball, or attack from below the net. The answer is neither. Take it early, absorb it, and drop it back low into the feet of whichever of them is moving forwards. Now they are hitting up from below the tape, and you still have the position that makes that a problem. These exchanges can last three or four balls; the pair that gets impatient first is the pair that loses the point.
Why not half volley it hard and flat past them?
Hitting hard from below net height on a dying ball is a coin flip, and the coin is weighted against you.
What should a beginner do here?
Get low with your knees, not with your racket head. The face stays open and the racket head stays above your wrist.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Watch which of them is committing forward. Blocking into the feet of the player already in motion beats a technically better block into the one standing still.
Puzzles like this one
They lobbed you deep. Smash it or play the bandeja?
Deep ball, high hands: bandeja. The shot exists to keep you at the net, not to win the point.
beginnerThe ball is at your feet at the net. What now?
A ball below the net cannot be attacked. Block it deep and wait for one above the tape.
advancedThey are camped at the net and you cannot lob. What now?
If you cannot lift it over them, make them lift it for you. The chiquita is a slow ball at their feet.