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Variation on the serve is very important. Unless you have a bomb like Kyle, mixing it up keeps the receiver off balance. I play with a friend who has a very good return, hard and flat when I serve to the deuce court. I found that he has trouble with a short, heavy slice serve which pulls him off the court. Then his return is weak, and I can go forward for a putaway volley. So varying the placement and spin really breaks a good returner's rhythm...
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Spin and variation is incredibly important Phil. Great returners are only effected by big serves for a temporary period of time before they lock onto it and get their timing right. Using the whole service box and full range of spins allows the server to truly dictate and keep the returner off balance. Here is a clip of Stan Smith discussing the numerous varieties of a serves. I'm a big proponent of this as well...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxcMr1Ya5w0
Great serving is not just about the ability to reach back and hit the big bomb, thats not something every player can count on nor have the physical ability to do. There is a real innate skill of swinging a stringed instrument around and above your head at a high enough velocity to generate that pace required to unleash a thunderous stroke.
A great slice serve out wide is a favorite serve used by many champions. It really gets that point started off the right way with the opponent pulled off the court. Dennis Ralston has a great article on the slice serve on this site. One of the real hidden gems of an article on tennisplayer.net IMHO
Check it out...
http://www.tennisplayer.net/members/...ice_serve.html
Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton -
The great Jack Kramer coined "percentage tennis". He would hit a slice serve to the deuce court, swerving from right to left, causing it to pitch near the forehand sideline, so as to drag the receiver well beyond the sideline. A significant number of returns would back towards the middle. He would either hit a volley to the opposite corner, or a deep drive to the opposite corner, following the ball to the net. Percentage tennis because he would often repeat a pattern which resulted in his making more points than his opponent.Last edited by gzhpcu; 01-14-2015, 04:35 AM.Comment
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I look at each serve I hit as an investment. I have low, medium, and high risk serves and each opponent is a different market. To me the key to good serving is diversification.Comment
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Placement above all else...
I think serving tactics vary depending on your level. At club level, players often have more trouble with a dolly drop than a decent delivery.
But at good amateur level (probably the level most of us are on the forum) serving tactics can get a bit more interesting. In my day it was much a game of cat and mouse with most opponents. I had a decent, well placed serve but not enough power to deliver many aces. In matches, players would start to shift over to try and make their backhands more difficult to find. When they overdid this I would slot a serve over to their forehand (this is where my only aces came from) to keep them honest. Against those who stood inside the baseline to threaten my serve, I would serve into their body. I had just enough pace on my serve to make this work. That’s the thing with the body serve, if don’t you have enough power, it works against you. Variation is always a good thing so long as you’re not running the risk of serving into a major strength in doing so.
I think at good performance or top level the options for servers become far greater. We have a couple of servers at our club who can serve about 115mph and place their serves well. They can swing serves into the body or out wide and hit all the spots. They can also kick their serves in high and deep and put a lot of work on the ball. These guys play in Futures events, and the rest of us cannot get anywhere near them.
I value placement above power, though it’s nice to have both. Muscling serves down with little thought to placement doesn’t do all that much. I think it was Laver who said Rosewall’s serve was grossly underrated because people didn’t realise how hard it was to do anything with it.
The best tactical server for me was McEnroe. By the end of a match opponents must have felt impotent. I loved his placement and use of spin. His grasscourt tennis was flawless because he played exactly the right shot at the right time…virtually always.StottyComment
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Placement and power on the serve. Have your cake and eat it too. Always love a good strong body serve. Paralyzes my opponents and weak return is easy pickings for a volley or short forehand.
Agree with stotty on McEnroe. Always had a knack for the hitting the right shot, at the right place, at the right time with the right intention.
Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca RatonComment
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I always liked Edberg and Rafter's serves. Not the fastest, but well placed with plenty of spin to let them gain a net position rapidly. Since they were not cannonball deliveries, the returns weren't either.Comment
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A great server vs a great returner or a attacking player vs a steady baseliner or counterpuncher does not always guarantee a great match-up despite contrast in styles. Great execution of those contrasting playing styles makes for a great match-up. Rafter and Agassi had some entertaining matches.
At the end of the day, your serving strategy is at the mercy of your serving arsenal and variety. You can only hit what you can hit. It's using that understanding and restraint to formulate a plan of attack to exploit your opponents return weaknesses and limit their opportunities. A server with variety always has an advantage.
Much like groundstrokes and volleys, it's not just working on technique, but working on certain patterns of play using the serve. Executing all serves and understanding an opponents reactions and possibilities off the return of serve. Great servers understand its not about hitting that one shot, its about what that one shot creates and provides in terms of positioning, time (or lack there of), tactics and court geometry.
Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca RatonComment
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