This for some of you may seem a strange tennis practice, but think of all those times when you have no one to practice with, and cannot afford a ball machine, well this drill is for you.

All you need are alot of tennis balls and a couple of targets ie racket cover/cones etc.

Place the cones as in the diagram, about 5 feet in from the singles tram line and 5 feet from the baseline in the two positions on the base line A and B.

Then position your self at point 1 on the court, and practice your forehand deep cross court to A.

Obviously the idea of this is to use good technique, so I would suggest that you have a look at your rackets finish position and be aware of any big errors when hitting down to the target, so you can adjust for the next stroke.

As target A does not get up and move and the net does not get any higher, it is a good idea to focus only on the ball when your hitting it, and see how long you can keep your head still before you look up to see where it has gone.

Then try the same with the forehand to point B - which I like to call a 90 degree hit rather than a down the line hit - down the line is too risky, 90 degree gives you a greater margin of error, especially as point 1 is a couple of feet inside the sidelines.

Then you just change your position to 2 and hit backhands to A and then B.

Position 3 can be used for hitting straight down the middle of the court so the ball lands between the A and B targets.

So you can see whether or not the length is good enough you want the ball to bounce for the "second" time outside the court - a pining shot that rises as it crosses the baseline - not falls inside the court for the second bounce.

Be aware of shots in the net and adjust to lift the next ball higher.

The practice I have explained here is for singles, but by adjusting the targets A and B to a wider position you could also practice your ground-strokes for doubles.

Have fun!!