I had this really strange game of singles in my university league the other day. I lost, as the better player won but even as I only took fifteen points off him over two games, the match lasted almost an hour. The main problem was that when each of us got the serve, we couldn't actually do anything with it. 99% of them were high serves deep into the back of the court but we just kept smashing, deceptively dropping and punch-clearing into our respective backhand corners. Needless to say, he managed to do more with his serve than I did but it made me think a lot about my positioning and stance on court during those situations. Let's assume that the score is 0:0 and I'm on serve. I serve high and deep into the back of the court. Naturally, I like to position myself in the centre of the court but slightly to the left to cover my backhand corner a bit better. I've experimented different stances (square to the net, racket foot leading) and postures (upright, leaning back, leaning forwards) but I can't get one which I find to be effective. Can anyone out there give me some advice on this? Cheers.
if you serve deep to the baseline, then i would stand square on at the net, because it is easier to cover smashes to the backhand and the forehand
OK firstly you should serve high and deep towards the middle line of the court becasue it is the easiest position to respond to the other players response, its about the angles or so I'm told. You should have a slight angle with your racket side nearer the net than your non racket side, only slight. Standing square on means you have to add an extra bounce and sometimes a step in there before you move, the angle cuts this extra bit out. At this stage you should be in the middle, if you serve out to the side of the box then you should move your base over a half step or so to the side because you expect a straight reply and it makes it easier to defend the smash. Also standing square on is a more defensive posture and more needs to be put in to change it than if you are at a slight angle.
