Returning tomahawk serve

Shrihari K Asked 7 years ago

Can you give some tips to get a good defence bit like Jan over Waldner.  Actually I am a senior player, my age is 16 I am inspired by him. He is pretty good at his defence and blocking the ball please give me some tips.

I wanted to know how to return a tomahawk serve.

Alois Rosario Answered 7 years ago

Hi Shrihari,

Waldner has very good feel for the ball but the basic block stroke he does is a simple stroke.  Take a look at our lesson on the Backhand Block which is in our Intermediate Strokes section.

To return a Tomahawk serve you first need to see and understand the spin on the ball.  The ball will go to your left when you hit it so you need to angle your racket to the right hand side to counteract the spin.  You also need to adjust for the backspin or topspin on the serve.  For our Premium members there is a video on Understanding Spin which will help.