Once you serve, your responsibility is to take care of your share of the court and by beginning here it’s going to put you in position to do that with little recovery motion. Don’t forget, it is always preferable to hit the ball straight back to where it originated from than change the direction of the ball. For this reason, the more you serve wide the more you will need to consider covering the wide angle return. You’ll need two things planned prior to when you serve; where you are about to aim your serve and where you are planning to go after you hit your serve. When figuring out your serve target, I split the service box down into three parts; A, B and C. A will represent the area nearest to the Alley, B will represent the middle section for the serve to the Body, and C will be the portion nearest the Center.
When serving on the “deuce side” or the right side, your primary target ought to be the “C” area of the court. You will find yourself serving to your opponents backhand (for the right handed opponent) and lowering the angles of return which will allow your partner to move out into the court and take more balls. The next best serve would be to the “B” section, trying to jam the returner. Again it cuts down the angles and doesn’t enable the returner to get their arms spread out to produce the shot. The final choice ought to be the “A” section. When serving here you are serving into a right handed players forehand (ordinarily a strength), opening up your partners line for the passing shot and as we spoke of earlier, it truly is easier to return the ball back to where it originated from therefore it opens up the cross court return as well. It’s vital however to utilize all of the different serves in order to keep your opponent off balance, but tend toward the greater percentage ones.
Things change a tad for the “ad” court or the left side. Your primary target needs to be the “B” section or the serve to the body. This prevents the other person from stretching out his/her arms while diminishing the return angles. The second most effective target would be the “C” section. Though it may be into your right handed opponent’s forehand, it helps to keep the angles of the returns down by keeping the ball toward the center of the court and in addition puts your partner in a stronger position to poach and cut off more balls. Again the last option is usually wide for the “A” section which exposes your partner’s alley and in addition exposes the angled return cross court.
We’ll discuss the X Factors during a different lesson which will take into account your opponents strengths and weaknesses when these targets may change. When you’re walking into a match not knowing your opponents, it is good to start out with percentage tennis strategy as discussed above and adjust your game as you take in more information.
