Aces high — How to serve up a winner

Put some twist into your serve to keep it in the service court and cause problems for your opponent.

The original purpose of the service in tennis was just to introduce the ball into play and start a rally but gradually that concept dropped away and the service became what it is today — an all-out effort to ace an opponent.

A good service isn’t only about speed — accuracy, reliability and variety are all important. Twist is the secret weapon to ensure that a service goes into the receiver’s court at a speed that’s going to cause problems for the receiver.

Don’t force errors on yourself by always looking for a clean ace, use your service to disrupt the ground strokes of your opponent.

Hit your service from as high a point as you can comfortably reach — don’t overstretch.

• To hit a slice service, start from a point above the right shoulder and as high as possible. The server should stand at about a 45-degree angle to the baseline, with both feet firmly on the ground. Put your weight on your right foot and swing the racket freely behind your back.
• Toss the ball high enough into the air to ensure it passes through the hitting plane you want and then slowly shift your weight forward while increasing the power of the swing forward as the racket starts to move up to the ball.
• Just as the ball meets the face of the racket you should throw your weight forward and put the full power of the swing into the service. The ball should strike the racket inside the face of the strings, with the racket travelling directly towards the court. The angle of the face of the racket will give the twist necessary to bring the ball into the court.

The wrist should be fairly flexible in service. You can lift the right foot and swing the whole body forward with the arm if necessary. Twist slightly to the right, using the left foot as a pivot. The general line of the racket swing is from right to left and always forward.

Footfaults

A footfault is crossing or touching the line with either foot before the ball is delivered, or it is a jump or step. If you place your feet firmly before the service there is no need to footfault.