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Strokes and Strategy:

Return of Serve

Click photo to hear Ken DeHart talk about the server's advantage.

Preparation and Movement

When I teach club players the return of serve, I start with the basics, which means the ready position. Players are often told, “your feet should be wider than your shoulders,” but I’ve found they don’t lower their center of gravity low enough or spread their legs wide enough. Start with your feet spread wider than a racquet’s length. This is the All-Sports stance. You see it in a basketball player playing defense or a linebacker in football, ready to move in any direction to stop a runner.

As the server begins the motion to serve, the receiver should shuffle from side to side, perhaps rhythmically swaying the shoulders a bit to create a loose, ready feeling. This helps prepare the mind and body for a quick step and shoulder turn.

It’s best to be in motion, so you can move explosively to the serve. And, as Tony Robbins says, "motion creates emotion." That is, motion helps create positive emotions to offset the nerves players often experience when waiting for the serve.

As the server tosses the ball, the receiver should be moving forward. If the serve is fast, the receiver doesn’t have enough time to take a full backswing, and the forward momentum and body-weight shifted forward helps the receiver deliver a solid return without a big backswing.

The All Court Stance

Just before the server hits the ball, the receiver should do what I call the “mall-shuffle.” Yes, this is the “split-step” everyone talks about, but many players just can’t visualize what a split-step is. The mall-shuffle is what you do when two people at the mall almost walk into each other. Everyone’s done that little shuffle, and that’s what receiver needs to do to lower the center of gravity, to engage the quad muscles in the thighs, and to be ready to spring into action. Overall, you want to be in motion before the serve is delivered, moving in and ready to react quickly. Remember, wherever you feet stop moving is “no-man’s land.”

As the server’s arm goes up, start to walk forward. Right before the server strikes the ball, do the mall-shuffle, and then you’re ready to do what we call a Y-OUT if the server goes out wide. This is a diagonal move to cut off the ball before the ball is by you. As you move towards the ball, keep making those little adjustment steps. Never stop moving. Once you’ve set your feet, if you’ve misread the ball at all, you have very little chance of hitting the ball from a balanced position.

Court Positioning and Grip Preparation

Let’s look at positioning for the return. First, my positioning should be such that my chest is pointing directly at the server, which means I’m positioning myself in or around the corner of the return box, straddling the baseline and the outside line.

In this way I’m ready to move in diagonally to cut off any serve hit wide to the forehand or backhand (note Agassi's return). Planting your feet on the baseline and facing square onto the net (as many club players do) will encourage parallel movement along the baseline, and you won’t be able to cut off a wide return effectively.

Returner on left moves parallel to the baseline putting him in poor position to cut off a wide serve. Returner on right does a Y-OUT, that is forward and out, which enables him to cut off the angle.

If I’m receiving the first serve of the match, I will usually stand a few feet behind my typical return position. So if I normally stand 2-3 feet behind the baseline, on the first return of the match I’ll stand 4-5 feet behind the baseline. This gives me a little extra time to pick up the serve. As I start to read my opponent’s serve as the match progresses, I’ll start my return of serve a few feet behind the baseline and then move forward from there.

A few bits of general advice on positioning for the return of serve. First, you can stand anywhere on the court or off the court when returning serve. For example, you can stand inside the service box, and as long as the serve doesn’t hit you on the fly (which will give your opponent the point), you can return from this position. No, standing inside the service box is not a tactic I recommend. What I do recommend is that you vary your return of service position, and there’s nothing un-sportsmanlike about this. Here are four basic tactics you should probably employ sometime during every match.

Here Andre Agassi moves forward and out to cut off the wide serve. Note his stance prior to the serve - facing the server not parallel to the baseline

First, stand far behind the baseline. This often encourages your opponent to overhit the serve in an effort to get it past or through you.
Second, stand closer to the service line. Many players take this as a sign of disrespect for their serve and become unnerved. Often it triggers a more aggressive, riskier serve than the server might otherwise attempt.
Third, a variant of the previous tactic, stand close to the service line before your opponent serves. This can create pressure on the server, then just before the serve, move back to a safer position to actually make the return.
Four, stand nearer to one side. Invite the server to serve into the open area of the service box. This tactic can often force a serve to your stronger side.

Finally, in thinking of returning serve, analyze your own strengths and weaknesses as a returner. If you have quick hands, you might want to crowd the service line more often. If you have a mighty forehand, you might want to leave the forehand side of the service box wide open, inviting a serve into your strength.

In terms of grips, as a general rule (and all rules have exceptions) whatever grip you have the hardest time finding on the return is the grip I recommend you set-up with, especially for the first serve. Remember, when returning serve, we’re generally in a defensive posture. You don’t know how fast the serve will come, and most smart players will serve to your weaker side once they have played a few games.


By changing position on the court, the returner can seize the initiative and dictate to the server where and how to serve.

Now if your opponent has a weak first or second serve, you may want to set-up with a forehand grip and attack your opponent’s serve. But the typical club player can usually “find” his forehand grip much easier and quicker than the backhand grip, so moving to the forehand grip usually isn’t a problem. It’s getting to that backhand grip which is the problem, so that’s why I recommend starting with the backhand grip.

Return Targets

In my last articles on serving, I talked about the need for rituals to help you deal with the competitive stress of the game. Thinking “ABC” (Alley, Body, Center) before you serve, enables you to quickly focus on the three serve target areas. I would like to introduce another mental ritual—4-Square. Yes, this is the 4-Square you learned as a little kid—with a rectangle on the playground divided into four squares. This is exactly how you should think of the server’s side of the court when you’re returning serve.

Just as the server should consciously choose the location where he/she intends to serve, the receiver should consciously pick out one of the four squares to return the serve. But there is a difference between the mentality of the server and the receiver. The server has certain inherent advantages over the receiver. The server selects the choice of weapon (spin, placement, speed), and the receiver must react to the offense of the server within a fraction of a second.

The receiver should always be thinking about attacking the serve, but it must be done within a recognition that the server has these advantages. Within the 4-Square context, I recommend players pick out one of the four squares to return the ball to, but be ready to adapt.

Returning to square two or three are the safer plays and should be preferred until you are comfortable with the server's capabilities.

Let’s look at the tactical choices for the receiver in terms of 4-Square.

If you don’t know the server’s capabilities, at the beginning of the match, it’s probably wise to be conservative in your choice of a target return area. That usually means targeting Square #2 or #3, using topspin or well-struck underspin shot that drives the ball deep into the court.
As the match progresses, you should start varying your return locations. To hit to Square #1 or #4, use a slice or underspin return. Many singles players prefer to camp out on the baseline, so returning to #1 and #4 forces them to play where they hate—a state of mind you want to generate in your opponent.
If you’re looking at a slow, shallow second serve into the service box, you can also use a drop shot to #1 or #4. If you don’t have time to execute your target choice, which typically means the serve is too fast, wide, or into the body, use your safety shot, the lob return. A great serve puts you in a poor position to win the point. The lob return enables you to start the point over, or if you will, renegotiate the point. Think of it as hitting “escape” on your computer.

The 4-Square concept is another one of those anchoring ideas which help you play with confidence and it's a sound tactical plan for winning points.

Return Percentages

There’s only two ways to lose a match: you’re opponent outplays you or you make mistakes. As a general rule in returning serve, you always want to give your opponent another chance to make a mistake. At the club level, most points last only three or four exchanges over the net. If you’re consistently making your opponent hit that third ball (after his serve and your return), you’re generally on your way to breaking your opponent’s serve on a regular basis.

It’s important to visualize a return target before your opponent serves. If you don’t, you may consciously or subconsciously realize, “Oops, I don’t have a target,” and take your eye off the ball and instead catch sight of the net tape or the back fence. Not good.

As I’ve said before, we generally hit what we see. Typically, the returner is looking at the server through the net, and too often the net becomes the visual target. Not surprising, then, that sixty percent of return errors go into the net. To combat this tendency, you need to visualize the arc of the ball over the net. I use the server’s head as the guideline for the height I want my ball to clear the net on my returns.

Top Pros like Lleyton Hewitt force their opponents to play every point by getting a large percentage of returns in play.

Just as you don’t go all-out in serving at the beginning of the match, you want to play more conservatively in returning serve as the match begins. This means playing at about 60-70 percent of your return stroke capability so you can get a high percentage of returns in. As the match progresses and as you begin to see your opponent’s serve better, and as the score dictates, you can begin to hit your returns more aggressively. But just as in serving, aggressive doesn’t mean “all-out.” You want to maintain a high percentage even even on your aggressive shots. Don’t ever let your opponent off the hook by giving away points by hitting wild returns which have almost no chance of success.

Wrap-Up

The server thinks it’s his responsibility to “hold serve.” To avoid becoming a victim of the server, the returner also need a positive mission statement. Think about holding return—or winning games when you’re returning. This translates to adopting a positive, offensive outlook, that you’re going to put pressure on the server continuously until you break his or her serve. This means consciously choosing return targets in advance of each and every serve. This means altering your return position to get inside the server’s head and dictate the serve placement. Implement these tactics on a regular basis, and I guarantee you’ll start seeing frowns and fear on the face of your serving opponent.

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