Whether you have a shaky second serve or an unreliable backhand, you can still be successful if you learn to protect your weakness.

No matter what his or her skill level, every player has an Achilles’ heel. And sometimes, even with steady practice and effort, there’s only so much improvement one can make. The fact is nobody’s perfect. The key is to make do with what you’ve got and try to work around the situation.

At the club level, the two most glaring weaknesses I see are the backhand and the second serve. I can relate to the latter because as a professional my second serve didn’t scare anybody. What usually happens to players who struggle with a second delivery is either they serve a lollipop just to get it in or they pile up the double faults. And if your opponent is someone who can take advantage of a lousy second serve, neither option is appealing.

So the first thing I tell someone who’s losing a majority of second-serve points is to face as few of them as possible. Take some pace off the first serve and try to get in eight out of every 10. You don’t want to hit it as slow as your second serve, but the idea is to make your opponent believe he’s returning a normal first serve. That usually takes away some of his aggression, no matter how hard you hit it.

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James Blake goes to great lengths to hit a forehand rather than a backhand. (Photos by Harry How/Getty, Mike Fiala/Landov)

One is just to keep as many of your backhand shots in as possible. Sometimes, if you hit several in a row, your confidence builds and you no longer fear hitting it. Another objective should be to hit the ball with a lot of height over the net. Try to hit it 10 feet above the tape so you get some length on your shot. That will prevent your opponent from easily attacking it. But if you’re facing someone who’s doing a great job of picking on your backhand, then that’s the day you have to try to run around it as much as possible. Hit as many forehands as you can, and if you’re forced to hit a backhand, go for a couple of haymakers. Take a chance and just rip it. Maybe you’ll connect on a few and it’ll make your opponent think about his strategy. After all, if you’re constantly getting beaten, you’ve got nothing to lose.