Demonstrating the versatility of his tennis, Roger Federer decides to attack his opponent with an inside in topspin forehand and move in by surprise ("à contre-temps").  The result was an easy placement forehand volley. 

This ability to vary the type of attack and opportunism, makes Roger Federer an authentic predator who seems to be like a hawk watching his prey from above.

Even tough Roger was highly effective on this attack, against what many experts believe and say that Roger would much better if he attacked more, I think that Federer does not go enough to net for two reasons:

- First he is not fit enough and he does not want to put in the work necessary to sustain a game based on the attack.

- Second against what people believes about all that 'magic' from Federer, in fact he does have pretty mediocre volleys compared to true attackers such as Rod Laver, Lew Hoad even Pat Cash!

So he fears ridicule and stays back only foraging to the net when it really does not matter, in desperation or when it is a sure thing!

The reason his volleys are pretty mediocre is that he positions his head sideways which causes him to constantly meet the ball late behind him, instead of out in front, and this contributes to very ordinary mistakes.

On the baseline Roger gets away with that improper head position because he has time but when things get really quick as they do at the net, the mistakes creep up!

Savvy opponents are now exploiting this, I have been writing about this for over 5 years as well as the importance of the slice backhand, I guess it takes time for experts to close their jaws and open their eyes. :-)

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