Tomahawk serve return

Hi Alois,

I am a left handed player who often struggles when returning a tomahawk serve from right handed players.  Could you please tell me what would be the best stroke to use in my case when a ball has a heavy under/side spin and when it has top/side spin?  

Thanks, 

Ludi

Hi Ludi,

The ball coming in towards you can be awkward for the left hander.  It is a serve I don't feel comfortable against either.

Think about giving yourself enough room to make the return.  You may need to move more to the right than you normally would to give yourself that space.

Then your choice of returns.   If the serve is short with backspin, use a push stroke to return it. If it is short with topspin then you can flick the return.  If the serve is long with either backspin or topspin, then use a topspin return for the best effect.