It doesn’t matter how good you are, players always find really high balls difficult to deal with, especially on the backhand.
On the face of it, these lobs don’t seem particularly threatening. There’s little or no disguise, they are not even that close to the wall. What they do have though is height and they will end up dying in the back corner if they are not volleyed.
Each time what might look to be a speculative lob is actually a very well thought out plan, to produce a really loose ball from the opponent to attack. A number of cheap easy points can be picked up as a result of poor quality replies to these lobs.
Things to take note of are:
That these lobs are played from mid-court or rear-court. You do not need to be in the front-court to lob.
The racket comes from underneath the ball to enable the ball to be hit high and with float.
The shots are not directed near to the side wall. This is on purpose to give a margin for error. It would be ideal to have the ball dropping onto the sidewall here but there is no need to take the risk of hitting it out.
The time gained by putting the ball up high, gives the lobber plenty of time to get to the ‘T’ ready to punish any loose return.
So next time you play test your opponent's ability to control the ball when it is high in the air. Throw up a few cross-court lobs and you will be surprised what comes your way!
