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The Main Uses of the Drive - To Make Passing Shots
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 The drive is always the best passing shot in tennis. This is because it has a tendency to drop early because of its natural top spin. It is the shot that is capable of the widest range of speed and pace with the least sacrifice of control. Remember that when you hit for a passing shot, you hit for the point and, therefore, there must be complete decision and finality about the stroke. Passing shots should never be hit at the same average pace used in defence or in manoeuvring. They should definitely be hit harder, or much slower. The slow, angled passing shot, which in modern tennis has been badly overlooked during the past decade, is the most valuable of all passing shots because:
(a) It can be played into the widest reaches of your opponent's court.
(b) Its direction is far easier to disguise than a hard shot, since it takes much less obvious physical preparation.
(c) Even if it does not win outright, it is very difficult to volley. It forces the net player to put all the speed on the volley himself, a difficult thing to do.
The passing drive is hit off service or from deep in the court in the vast majority of cases. This means it must be a very hard hit shot, because of the distance it must travel before it can pass the net player, who has plenty of time to move to a slow shot.
If the fast passing shot is hit cross-court, it also requires a fairly sharp angle to win. It is better to attempt a slow deceptively dropping drive as your cross-court passing shot. This will force the net player to volley it if he reaches it, and give you another chance to pass him. Only by completely outguessing the net player in direction will a slow, angle drive win outright from the baseline.
However, on short drives taken inside the service line, the soft, slow passing shot is much more effective than the hard hit drive, since a hard shot if it crosses the net will often go out. Only if the bound of the short shot is above the level of the net, so it can be driven down, is it good to slug a short shot. The thing that so many players forget in attempting to hit hard passing drives off short shots is that they are probably twenty feet into their own court, and that twenty feet is gone. It is not tacked on the back or sides of their opponent's court. If you must hit the ball hard in these instances, the straight drive is usually the best passing shot.
Whenever you go out for a passing shot with a drive, mentally and physically move in with your shot. If you have a very small space to hit through, and very little time to do it in, then actually move in, meeting the ball on the rising bounce, and go all out for your point. If you have plenty of time, take it. Approach your shot with your racquet back and your decision made. Move in, glide in to the ball, and hit it decisively as it falls to your waist without looking at either your opponent or the hole at which you are hitting. By keeping your eye on the ball, you give almost no indication of where your shot is going. Most net players get their advance information concerning your shot from your glance at the place you intend to hit, just before you hit there. Make the net player guess, and make your shot definite, determined, and either really hard or really slow.
The drive should be used also to give you the opening for your passing shot. A net player hits an attacking shot and starts in to the net. Do not attempt to pass him off his attacking shot, but play a low, medium-paced, short drive that makes him reach, and forces him to volley up.
His defensive volley off such a shot will usually be high and short. Then, move in on the ball and go all out for a clean winning passing shot. I do not mean that you must never attempt to pass the advancing net player off his attacking shot. There are exceptions to all rules. But do it seldom, and when you do, hit hard, very hard and low, so there is no answer to your shot if it's successful. Win or lose the point with your drive, if you try to pass in that way. The great majority of points against the net player's advance should be played as I first described-with the slow defensive drive.
The logical follow-up to how to meet a net player with a drive is how to use the drive yourself in reverse circumstances.
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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