TennisOne Lessons

Singles Strategy

Serve and Volley Tactics

By Monty Basnyat, TennisONE Associate Editor

Serving allows you to begin the point with a distinct advantage--don't surrender it. Learn to set setup to points with a good serve rather than a great volley. If you're constantly forced to come up with great volleys to rescue your weak serve, you're going to end up losing more matches than you should.

A good serve-and-volley player must do two things before moving in to volley:

1) First, the player must mix up the speed and spin of the serve. This forces the receiver to constantly, keeping him from getting any sort of rhythm on the return.

2) Secondly, the serve-and-volley player must place the serve outside the receiver's striking zone. This is achieved by either serving into the body, jamming the receiver, or by serving away from the returner, forcing the receiver to stretch. By serving outside the striking zone, you force a defensive reply by the receiver, a reply that you can put away--without a great volley.

The diagrams below show you the three basic placement options for serving: wide, at the body, and down the T.

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