We all know that clay is a slower surface then hard court. But, throw in some heavy rain the day before, and clay courts can become incredibly slow.Depending on your style of play, this may or may not be an advantage. But, in my last ladder match at the club, it hurt both myself and my opponent.
Both of us have pretty big serves and are used to getting a lot of free points. But, the courts were so slow that returning his big first serve was pretty easy. On the other hand, I couldn't get many free points either so it was a match with lots of breaks.
Because I wasn't having much success serving I probably tried to do too much and I lost my rhythm. And, while my rhythm was disappearing like Kim Clisters in the third set at the French, my lead evaporated and I found myself in a tiebreak.
At the start of the tiebreak, I decided to just hit hard second serves as my first serve and give up all thoughts of aces or winners. Knowing that you're going to hit the same serve on both the first and second serve tends to relax me, since I don't have to worry about changing my toss or swing plane under pressure.
And, wouldn't you know that my opponent missed a big forehand when he tried to rip a high second serve. No doubles and I won the breaker 7-1.
The lesson here is to get a sense of what is happening when you hit your second serve. If you're winning a majority of the points on your second but are struggling with a low first serve percentage or the courts are too slow, then consider just hitting seconds.
Until next time,
Glenn Sheiner M.D. - author of Insider Tennis Strategies Serving on slow clay guaranteed to make you a smarter tennis player and take your tennis to the next level. Also, check out the world's top tennis humor screensaver
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