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The Main Uses of the Drive - To Hit Clean Winners
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 Here you find the most prevalent use of the drive in modern tennis; at least that is the intention behind the wild swattings that go on in returning service and at every other possible chance.
There is such a desire to hit clean winners every time that many players, with basically sound drives, throw away most of what they have in their desire to win spectacularly outright. That is one of the greatest weaknesses of Richard Gonzales. He is supposed to have had bad ground strokes. I disagree with this diagnosis. I think the general method of stroke production of both his forehand and backhand drives, while not ideal, is far better than that of most of the present group, but he attempts to hit so many outright winners that he seldom cashes in on his potential stroke production soundness.
There are only three situations in which to go all out for clean winners with a drive:
(a) On any weak service, a weak mid-court shot opens your opponent's court so that speed plus fair direction will win. When that shot is offered you, then haul off and hit it flat with the full power of your swing. Be certain that it wins or loses right there. The shot is played to end the point. Off service in the number 1 or right court, the best clean winner is to wade in and paste it cross-court into your opponent's forehand corner. In this shot you can hit around the ball and gain more control with great speed than you would have hitting down the straight line. Also, you have more room and a lower net to cross. (The number 2 or left court offers no logical preference for a dean winner. You must make your own shot, since to hit your forehand from there you usually have to run around your backhand.)
(b) The second type of outright winner I have already discussed. It is the passing shot against the incoming net man.
(c) The third is the "neck or nothing" shot, when you are placed at a hopeless disadvantage, thrown far out of court with no hope of getting back in position. On such a shot, take every possible chance, since you have everything to win and nothing to lose. You are beaten anyway unless you pull off a winner, so hit it as hard as you can, and for the most daring place you can think of. Try for a line at a time like this and give it all you have.
You can see from these three situations that you always take a chance when you hit for clean winners. Obviously, your percentage of errors on such occasions will be far too high to stand up over a long period of time.
Therefore, when you do go for your winner, be very careful to pick a time when it will either pay you greatly if you pull it off or it can do you no harm if you fail, since you are already in trouble. When you are thinking about the thrill of going after winners, just calm yourself by remembering that tennis matches are always lost on errors and never won by placements. Do not be carried away by the present trend to go out for clean winners all the time. Play the percentage shot, which will pay off in the end. Far better than attempting to hit for winners continuously and piling up a tremendous number of errors is to use the drive intelligently.
1. To return service (both attack and defence).
2. To make passing shots against the net player (attack).
3. To advance to the net behind a forcing shot (attack).
4. To hit clean winners (attack).
5. To open your opponent's court and manoeuvre him out of position (subtle attack).
6. To get yourself out of trouble when you are forced into bad position (defence).
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