Long tomahawk serve with a lot of sidespin

Where should I face with my bat?

Face it to your right to counteract the spin on the Tomahawk serve.

well if things get confusing, and you are sure its a tomahawk with lots of sidespin, then just hit to the centre line with a bit of topspin. It will go to the extreme corner of forehand......this works for me most times, so i also get the opportunity to attack this serve. Actually i too had problems earlier when i faced this service for the first time, but now its fine......JUST HIT TO THE CENTRE OF opponent's side of the table, and IT WILL GO TO THE EXTREME CORNER OF FOREHAND of opponent. Hope it works for you too.

Thank you, but you are not right. If I hit it to the centre of the table it will go off the table, because there is A LOT OF SIDESPIN. If I try to hit it down the line-it goes to his forehand corner, but he waits it there and makes a counter attack. Also there is some backspin or topspin on the ball which confuses me more. And also the ball is curving out wide to my forehand. That makes it very hard for to return it. If I stay into my forehand corner he will play the serve to my backhand. Thank you that you wanted to help me.

^^ Well yes you too are right, but it also depends on the bat angle......maybe you dont adjust your bat angle so it misses the table. Whatever the case, now you know where to hit the ball to make a successful return. Now remember this basic principle - the ball will always go to left side, so always try to hit the ball on the right side.....as if you will hit it to the left, it will miss the table. And about the topspin/backspin, to recognize it, you need to see the movement of bat.....if the bat moves downwards during the service, the ball haves backspin. And if the bat moves upwards, it mostly has topspin on it - though I still can serve without topspin with the topspin motion - so it confuses my opponent.

Just keep practicing and you will become perfect at returning tomahawk. 

Another thing I forgot to mention, that, if its a tomahawk serve, the opponent will always know that it will come to their forehand side and will position themselves to return it....so try to place the ball near his elbow (or to his backhand if he is not so much experienced, as experienced players will still stay in neutral position so as to play backhand if you return to backhand) to force a weak return

Yeah, but it's REALLY difficult to play the ball to his backhand because there is A LOT OF sidespin. I tried it.

Hey Alois,

I realized that I can play sidespin topspin against that serve. It helps a lot but I feel it difficult to play when there is backspin. Can you give me any advice about using it against backspin?

Try opening the angle of your racket up against the backspin.