Serve return hidden serves

Shripathi ramakrishnan Asked 11 years ago

hi alois and jeff,

ive started playing against an opponent who has a pendulum sidespin serve with very powerful spin. i have great difficulty returning this serve as it often goes into the net. ive tried watching the ball curve and get into a positon . it works fairly well but when i play my bh topspin it goes into the net. and even if i do get the ball over the net, it flies out. any ideas ?

also another opponent of mine plays a foul serve . he doesnt toss and covers the ball with the free arm. in official matches he plays different serve (legal!) but in  league matches in my club i lose quite some points against this as i dont know where the ball will go or how deep it lands in advance (its too sudden but with same spin). as you have definitely have some experience back from the hidden serve era, can you please help me understand how to return these serves? :D

thank you!

Alois Rosario Answered 11 years ago

Hi Shripathi,

Firstly to return those sidespin long serves to your backhand take a look at this lesson How to return a long sidespin serve.

To return the hidden serve you need to watch the swing and the flight of the ball carefully.  This will give you a lot of information.  It is a shame that this rule is so hard to police in league matches.