Returning a long serve

Michael Tipton Asked 13 years ago

I have an opponent who uses one serve but he's played for more than 30 years so as you can imagine he uses it to great effect. its a basic hard line drive like serve its very low and comes at me very fast ive tried standing a few inches back and blocking it. and have tried putting top spin on it by brushing the ball with my racket going up. neither of which does any good i either make it bounce too high thus its smashed or just make it easy to hit back at me. what am i doing wrong and what can i do to fix it? you guys are very helpful thank you :)

Alois Rosario Answered 13 years ago

Hi Michael,

It sounds like you need to just experiment with the angle of your strokes.  You should use your topspin as much as possible. Play the same basics with your topspin.  Just adjust your start and finish position.  More vertical to get the ball with more sin and lift and more horizontal if the ball has topspin.