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Tom Avery

A topspin serve is a great asset to have in your repertoire. Why? When you make a ball spin forward it creates air pressure on top of the ball, pushing it down. The faster you make it spin forward, the more air pressure you create, pushing it down sooner. Therefore, if you're hitting your serve long, create more topspin which will push the ball down into the service box.

However, a topspin serve is not one of the easiest strokes to master; it requires patience and a lot of practice. Typically, when players first try and hit a topspin serve they hit the ball with the edge of the frame. Don't get discouraged, that even happens to top pros once in a while.

The main difference between a flat serve and a topspin serve is that the racquet brushes up toward the sky and forward at contact for the topspin serve; whereas for a flat serve the racquet is moving forward toward your target.

Notice the forward direction the racquet would travel (as represented by the arrow) on a flat serve (left) at the moment of contact. The figure on the right shows the upward and forward direction the racquet would travel (as represented by the arrow) on a topspin serve at the moment of contact.

When hitting a topspin serve the edge of the frame approaches the ball as in this photo on the left (below). This is one reason the topspin serve is tough to master. Occasionally, you will even see a top pro frame the ball when attempting a topspin serve. That is because the edge of the frame must pass very close to the ball before the strings make contact with the upward and forward brushing movement.

On the photo on the right (above), the edge or frame of the racquet has passed by the ball and now the strings make contact, the racquet is still rising at the moment of contact. At this point the wrist is snapping up towards the sky.

Pat Rafter demonstrates the topspin serve.

At this point the ball is gone, yet the wrist is continuing to snap straight up towards the sky as Pat Rafter demonstrates in the annimation..

The wrist continues its upward snap even after the ball is long gone.

If the ball were a clock, after the edge of the frame passes by the ball, for a right-hander, the strings would contact the ball at the seven o'clock position and brush up to the one o'clock position.

For a left-hander the strings would contact the ball at the five o'clock position and brush up to the eleven o'clock position.

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