Deep serves

Andrew Pape Asked 13 years ago

Hi,

Serving deep used to set me up to counter-attack with my early-off-the-bounce backhand or else I could flat-hit with my forehand (only just learning to loop). I've noticed that many women players can't loop either, but can establish fast topspin and then flat hit. This is the kind of game I'd prefer to play. Unfortunately, last season I was punished for serving deep and learned that I had to use short serves. But this didn't help me attack. I've watched Werner Schlager on dvd, and he seems to get away with serving deep. I'm wondering how he does this without being killed. His opponents seem too scared to attack his serves. Also, Liu Guoliang served deep against Wang Tao in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics final, and Liu has been considered the best server of all time. I'm also wondering why Wang Tao pushed back all of Liu's deep serves when they were all deep enough to loop. Unless I haven't been watching closely, Schlager and Guoliang don't adhere to the 20% deep, 80% short serve ratio that you specify on your serving secrets dvd.

So, how can I play deep serves that set up an easy 3rd ball attack?

Cheers,

Andrew.

Alois Rosario Answered 13 years ago

Hi Andrew,

In the Atlanta Olympic final Liu Guoliang served a lot of balls to the Forehand corner but it looks like they would have bounced twice and that is why Wang Tao was pushing them.  He knows that Wang Tao has a good flick so would not have served super short but rather in that area where the ball would just be bouncing twice on the table.

Wang Tao though serves a lot of long balls because he relies on the counter attack to win points.

Don't be deceived by these players serving long.  The reason they can do this is because either their defensive block or their counter attack is special.  If your opponent is better than you at the short game then it is OK to serve more balls long. However, in general you should try to maintain the position of being able to attack first and the best way to do this is by serving short. 

Schlager also serves a lot of serves half long and looks for a weak opener by his opponent so that he can counter attack.  He doesn't rely on power to win points and often uses the power of his opponent against them.

So, if you are stronger than your opponent in the open rally then you can think about serving long.  Otherwise you need to work more on the short serve.

The women players do serve a lot of long balls because a lot of them don't rely on power either to win points but rather on speed and placement.