No one has perfected the drop shot like Chris Evert. In the January 1993 issue, she taught readers how to do improve theirs. First, it takes the right kind of ball, one that is not too low. It also takes a smooth stroke—“You don’t want to just poke at the ball,” she says. Finally it takes disguise: Take your racquet back as you normally would so your opponent doesn’t know the drop shot is coming.
From there the steps are simple: Open the face of your racquet slightly, carve through the ball in a U-shape motion and follow through toward your target. Evert emphasizes the most important thing about the drop shot: It takes a lot of practice. “Believe me, it can be learned,” she says. “I used to hit drop shots off second serves for hours … Just as you have to groove your ground strokes, you want to groove your drop shot so that when you call upon it, it’s there.”
