Return of serve

I don't know about you, but if you are an amateur like me, I find the return of serve from good male players almost impossible. Their serves just seem to whiz by without me being anywhere near in position.

Andre Agassi has always been considered the best return of serve in the professional men's game because he always takes the ball on the rise after it bounces and he hits it from within the baseline. It therefore returns to the server well before the server is really ready for it. The same applies to Lleyton Hewitt who is also a good returner of service. Perhaps the smaller men have to develop that skill earlier in their career to turn around their disadvantage in height to a weapon. Not that either of them are particularly small but male tennis players are getting taller and therefore can produce a serve that comes from on-high.

Return of serve tactics

To counter these servers who are serving at 200kmh, here are a few tactics.

Try to work out where the serve is going to go. Federer is excellent at disguising this, as he use the same ball toss for every serve. But not everyone can do this.

Grip

Use the correct grip for you. There are various controversies over this. Most inexperienced players use the forehand grip expecting that the ball will come to their forehand and if not, they run around a ball to hit with the forehand. But not so in the professional circuit. So the thing to do is use the grip that you can change the most easily if you need to. Hold the racquet with two hands so the non-playing hand can twist the racquet if necessary. Two handed players probably have an advantage here, like Agassi and Hewitt.

Recognise the cues. It is not the speed which causes problems, believe it or not, but the placement. Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanisovic could serve very fast but also anywhere in the square. But some players stand in a particular spot to serve that fast one and hold their racquet in a particular way. Otherwise they can't serve fast all the time. So you must observe the way the server serves. Watch the player play someone else. Try to work out the tactics so you know his/her habits when it comes to serve placement.

Ball toss

The toss of the ball is often a good clue. For example, if your right-handed opponent tosses the ball out to the right, chances are he/she is going to hit a slice ball on the first court and down the middle on the second court. Dementieva, for all her greatness at the moment, has a lot of trouble serving. Her most predictable serve is the slice to the corner to your forehand.

If the server is tossing the ball wide when he/she is serving to the forehand side and you know he/she can't disguise the ball toss, use a forehand grip. Similarly if the opponent can only hit a wide serve to the backhand court then get you backhand ready.

When a player is down break point they will most likely go for the serve that works best for them.

With serves increasing in speed and accuracy, the most the receiver can do often is use a compact swing. They don't wind up for the shot. It is called counter punching also. But the trick is not to hit straight back to the server, but down at their feet, if they are serve volleyers or where the server will have to stretch to get it.

Don't be predictable in where you stand to receive. You may have noticed how Venus Williams sometimes stands almost on the service line to receive. That can be very intimidating. Dance about so the server knows you are ready to move either way. If you know where the serve is going, or have a pretty good idea, stand somewhere that the server doesn't expect you to stand. Tennis is a mind game as much as anything else. Use shots that might not work all the time, but will unsettle your opponent.

Naturally, after you return the serve, you must get back into position pretty quickly as you would after every shot.