If there's a shot I've hardly if ever seen on club-level, it's this one, the cross-court to the body. Even on pro level, I don't really remember having seen it from players outside the top10. Nick Matthew and James Willstrop are the two who use it the most (and Lee Beachill pretends that it's his invention) so we might consider this as 'The English Tricky Shot' - not as fancy as for example Hisham Ashour's mizuki volley but maybe more efficient in terms of employability. So when do the top guys tend to employ it? Obviously after a good short ball, on the run, being late on the ball, which presumes that the only secure shot to escape is a wide cross-court; that makes the opponent anticipate to move towards the 'T' and to open his racket towards the open side of the court instead of keeping it in front of him; therefore he'll have no time to get it back to the other side to enable himself to ask for a 'stroke'. To dare to play this shot: quick thinking and intelligent risk-assessment needed!
