Tennis game like Grand slam tennis

Note. I'm not being lazy or asking for code, just general pointers... There are games like grandslams tennis, in which players can execute various shots slice, drop shots, and various power shots. to me they don't look like physics simulations..

How do you suppose they go about doing these?

I'm presuming the ball has some properties set on it when you make contact, then it is sent on a set trajectory pending the shot type and current ball state, and the trajectory is then executed...

Is this how they do it? And when it comes to ai.. What are good strategies there? Ive been reading up on behaviour trees, and that looks the way to go... If anyone has any links to any reading material, blogs, or books that will be relevant, or any ideas,; I'd be most happy for the input. Note the question is specifically around sketching an algorithm, not implementation details.

I'm specifically curious about ideas as to how to determine an exact point to send the ball, and how these games would determine trajectories that are out or hit the net..

They're good fun to play, specifically because they are not real physical simulations, so before coding my masterpiece,it'd be great to really mull over some theories as to how they achieve these games.