Serena's Serve - this is the real deal!

Article by:

Jim McLennan

Essential Tennis Instruction

http://www.essentialtennisinstruction.com

Serena Williams observations ...

13 Grand Slam titles including:
2010 Australian Open and Wimbledon (so far)
2009 Australian Open and Wimbledon
2008 US Open
2007 Australian Open
2005 Australian Open
2003 Australian Open and Wimbledon
2002 Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon
1999 US Open

Plays with an incredible fighting heart
Questionable arousal control (semifinal loss to Cljisters at the US Open)

But as regards her serve, many of the commentators agreed that this may be the single best stroke in the history of the women’s game.

Miscellaneous but equally telling stats from the final:

Fastest serve – 122 mph up the T in the deuce court.

9 aces - 2 wide in the deuce, 3 up the middle in the deuce, 2 up the middle in the ad, and 2 out wide in the ad court.

66% first serve, winning percentage on her first serve an incredible 94%,
Total points won 62 – of which 9 were aces

Takeways – if you study Serena, and I highly recommend that you do just that, note a few things well worth copying.

Reasonably low toss – not overly high, and all the announcers comment on her rhythm
She opens the court on both the deuce and ad sides – with balls placed well out wide, and then aces up the T to keep the receivers honest .

Prior to each and every serve, she totally takes her time, composes herself, and seems so calm and within herself.

She hits up, and is actually ascending physically at contact

The motion appears balanced, fluid and effortless

PS – some years ago we had an astute ball kid at our club ask whether she should copy Venus or Serena when it came to the serve. And though Venus holds many titles and a very fast serve, truly Venus is not nearly as confident a server, and somehow with a significantly higher toss she is prone to rhythm errors, and in tight matches her second serve sometimes becomes unglued. Interesting to guess whether the photo below is a cause or effect – meaning is her head down and should that be corrected, or is her head down because of something else prior that caused it. Your hunches on this are welcome.