How to serve in tennis: first serve and second serve

What a good serve looks like

Every good serve passes through the same six phases. Weak club serves skip one, usually the fourth.

1. Stance. Sideways to the net, weight on the back foot.
2. Toss and load. Both arms lift together and the knees bend.
3. Trophy position. Tossing arm pointing at the ball, racket up behind the head, legs loaded.
4. Racket drop. The legs drive up and the racket head falls behind the back, because the arm is loose enough to let it.
5. Swing and contact. The racket goes up to the ball edge first, the forearm turns over (pronation) and the strings meet the ball at full reach, slightly in front of you.
6. Landing and recovery. You land on the front foot inside the baseline, the back leg swings out behind for balance, and you split step for the return.

The whole thing is an overarm throw; the racket just makes the arm longer.

The continental grip, and why the frying pan has to go

Serve with a continental grip. Hold the racket as if you were hammering a nail with the edge of the frame: the base knuckle of your index finger sits on the second bevel (top right of the handle for a right-hander, top left for a left-hander). The strings face the side fence rather than the target. That is the point: the face turns to the ball only through pronation, which is where pace and spin come from.

Most beginners serve with an eastern forehand grip, the "frying pan", strings facing the net from the start. It gets a flat ball in quickly, then caps you: no spin, no pronation. Switch early. Your serve will get worse for two or three weeks and better for years. Learning the slice serve at the same time makes it easier.

Stance and toss

Put the front foot about 45 degrees to the baseline, toes pointing at the net post, and the back foot roughly parallel to the baseline, a little more than shoulder-width apart. Club players do well with this platform stance. The pinpoint stance, sliding the back foot up, adds a little height and a lot to go wrong.

The toss decides the serve before the racket moves:

• Straight arm, lifted from the shoulder. Elbow and wrist stay quiet; the arm moves like a lift, not a flick. Let go at about head height and leave the arm pointing up after the release.
• Height. The ball should peak a little above the highest point you can reach with the racket, roughly 30 to 50 cm higher, so you hit it at or just after the peak. Club tosses are often twice that, which turns timing into guesswork.
• Placement for a flat first serve. In front and slightly to the hitting side: one o'clock for a right-hander looking up. Let it drop and it should land about 30 cm inside the baseline, just in front of the front foot.
• Placement for spin. For a slice serve, further to the hitting side, around two o'clock. For a kick serve, above the head or slightly behind it, towards twelve or eleven o'clock.

Cue: the toss arm stays up until the racket is on its way. Dropping it early pulls the shoulders down and the ball into the net.

Trophy position and racket drop

At the trophy position the tossing arm points up at the ball, the hitting elbow is at about shoulder height, the racket is up behind the head with the tip roughly towards the sky, and the knees are bent. The front shoulder sits higher than the back one. If the elbow is below the shoulder you are carrying a waiter's tray, and the serve will be a push.

From there the legs drive up first and the racket drop follows: the racket head falls down behind your back, pointing at the ground, while the body rises. You do not place it there. It drops because the arm is relaxed while the body rises underneath it, the lag of a whip. Grip hard and you skip the drop and most of your racket-head speed with it. Grip pressure around three out of ten.

Cue: legs, then arm. If the racket starts forward before the knees straighten, the legs did nothing.

Contact, pronation and landing

Out of the drop, the racket swings up to the ball edge first. In the last part of the swing the forearm rotates inwards and the strings turn to face the ball at contact. That rotation is pronation. It keeps going after contact, and the racket finishes down past the opposite hip.

Contact is at full reach, arm and body in one line from the ball to the landing foot, slightly in front of the baseline. Keep your eyes on the contact point until the racket has passed it. Dropping the head to watch the result pulls the body, and the ball, down.

Land on the front foot, inside the baseline, with the back leg kicking out behind as a counterweight. Then split step as the returner makes contact.

The second serve: slice and kick

Most club players follow a hard first serve with a slowed-down copy of it. Slowing the arm makes it less safe, not more: a slow flat ball has nothing pulling it into the box. A good second serve uses the same arm speed as the first and turns more of it into spin. The target is 85 to 90 per cent of second serves in, landing deep in the box.

Slice serve

The easier spin serve, and the one to learn first. Toss a little further to the hitting side and hit around the outside of the ball (the right side for a right-hander, as if peeling it). The swing goes up and across rather than straight through. The ball curves and stays low.

Kick serve

The club player's gold standard for a second serve, and a shot that takes months. Toss above the head or slightly behind it, let the back arch a little more and the racket drop lower, then brush up the back of the ball from about seven o'clock to one o'clock, swinging up and out towards the side fence. The ball clears the net with room to spare, dips hard and kicks up, ideally above the returner's shoulder. If your shoulder or back complains, stay with the slice.

Cue for both: accelerate through the ball. A second serve the arm is scared of ends up in the net.

Common serve mistakes and how to fix them

• The toss drifts every time. The elbow or wrist is bending during the lift. Lift from the shoulder with a straight arm and do the toss drill below.
• Frying-pan grip. Serves go in but never get faster or spin. Change to continental and use slice serves while you adapt.
• No racket drop. The racket goes from the trophy straight to the ball. Loosen the grip, bend the knees at the trophy and let the legs start the swing.
• No pronation. The strings face the ball all the way up and the serve is slow and flat, or floats long. Shadow serve leading with the edge until the late turn of the face feels normal.
• Double faults on big points. The second serve slows down under pressure. Practise second serves with a score attached (the one-serve game below) until the accelerating version is the one that turns up.

Serve drills without a court

The serve is the best stroke to practise at home, because you control all of it. The full routine is in tennis practice at home. For the serve on its own:

• Toss drill, 50 reps. Toss and catch with the tossing hand without moving the feet, aiming for the ball to peak just in front of a mark on the ceiling or a branch outside. If you have to reach or step, the toss was wrong.
• Trophy holds, 10 × 5 seconds. Tossing arm up, elbow at shoulder height, knees bent. If you wobble, the problem is balance, not the arm.
• Throwing, 20 throws. In a park, throw an old ball overarm as far as you can from a sideways stance. It teaches the drop and pronation with nothing to think about.
• Edge-first shadow serves, 15. Swing up leading with the frame and let the face turn only at the top. Three slow reps to find it, then full speed.
• Full shadow serves, 15. One cue per rep, cycling: toss arm up, legs then arm, edge leads, land inside. How to make shadow reps count is covered in shadow swing drills.

Serve drills on court

• Targets. A basket of balls and three cones per box: wide, body and T. Ten serves at each, from both sides. Count hits, not attempts.
• First and second in pairs. Follow every first serve with a second serve, in or not. Club players practise first serves and play matches on second serves.
• The one-serve game. Play a practice set with one serve per point. You find out quickly whether the spin serve holds.
• Serve + 1. Serve, a partner returns down the middle, and you hit the next ball to a target. Twenty points.

Related guides

• How to hit an overhead smash
• How to hit a forehand
• How to volley
• Tennis practice at home: how to practise alone
• Shadow swing drills: the complete guide