5 Strategic Tips For Servers To Attack Returners
At this year’s US Open, many top players are backing up 15+ feet behind the baseline on the return of serve as Rafa Nadal has popularized. This tactic is designed to give the returner more time to react / return the serve whilst also being able to take a bigger swing to generate power and heaviness on the shot. While this play has its benefits for the returner, I feel that it opens up an opportunity for the server to gain the upper hand in the point by taking advantage of the angles that the returner is now exposed to. Below are 5 strategic tips for servers to attack the returner when they back up behind the baseline.
Tip #1: Stretch And Displace The Returner To The Corners
By backing up deep behind the baseline, the returner is no longer able to “cut off” the angle of the ball traveling away from them. As a server, you want to capitalize on this limitation of the returner and use court positioning to your advantage to gain an offensive or central position relative to the opponent’s defensive or displaced position (see fig. 1 below).
Tip #2: Take Full Advantage Of The Out-Wide Angle
As a server, you can take full advantage of the returner’s inability to cut-off the out-wide angle by shifting your serving position closer to the sideline (as you might do in doubles) to maximize the angle to displace the returner of the court (see fig. 2 below). Furthermore, since the returner is way back, their return will travel through a longer distance giving you enough time to recover to a more central court position.
Tip # 3: Vary In Serves With A More Sideward Trajectory
Mixing in serves with a more sideward trajectory (created by shifting the serve position closer to the sideline and adding lots of slice on the deuce court and kick on the ad-court for righty servers) will make the returner cover a longer diagonal distance and play a challenging shot from farther outside the court area. The server should now have the entire court open to attack on the next shot.
Tip # 4: Serve & Volley
By following your out-wide serve to the net for a volley (see red “Xs”in fig. 3 below), you will cut-off the return sooner, taking away time from the returner to recover back from their displaced position for the next shot. Also, try to angle your volley away from the center of the court (see red dotted line below) making the returner cover a long distance for the next shot (see blue dotted arrow).
Tip # 5: Play The Returner’s Shot On-The-Rise
As the server, if you choose to stay back (and not serve and volley), look to take your 1st shot early and on the rise to take time away from the returner as they try to recover back to the center of the court. In the image below, by stepping inside the court (see red “Xs”), the server is effectively attacking the returner who has a long distance to cover (as shown by the blue arrow) in a short period of time.
Practicing the above tips will prepare servers to take advantage of the angles that open up when the returner moves back. While the success of these strategies will depend on the server’s execution skills and the returner’s strengths, they will bring a degree of variation to the server’s game plan keeping the returner guessing and having to adjust their tactics.
All the best,
Harsh
