Strategy revisited –
The short-statured player presents challenges in shot selection. A good low pass can be cut off by this player and because of their low center of gravity, the ball is then rolled out.
So the traditional shots have to be dead on if you are shooting from the back court. A good down the line gets re-killed by these players but if you hit that same shot higher, they will have difficulty with it! If you hit wide angle passes and v passes the short player has to take more steps to get to the ball; so the cross court game is a lot safer than it would be vs a tall player. Even if a short player tracks down cross court shots early in the match, they will wear out unless they are in great shape so stay patient with shot selection.
Floating cross court passes at half speed are sometimes more effective than the screaming line drive shots! Jamming the short player is not as efficient as they have inside leverage due to shorter arms.
How about this thought? The ceiling game gives a taller player a huge advantage vs a shorter player because of the reach differential. A good ceiling game with an overhead or two when employed by a tall player really do the trick vs the short athlete.
Okay-now go get’em tigers!