Bloomsbury Sport

There’s no point serving fast if your opponent knows where the ball is going, that’s worthless. If you can have your opponent guessing, that’s worth a lot.

Never expect to serve an ace

Sabine Lisicki, a former Wimbledon finalist who has held the record for the fastest serve in the women’s game, on ‘HOW TO SERVE AT 131MPH’ …

The key to hitting a fast serve is rhythm: ‘Without rhythm, you will struggle. To get rhythm on your serve, you need to spend some time on the practice court – when you’ve got it you can stand there on the baseline, just toss the ball up and hit it as hard as you can.

The flatter serves are the quick ones.

Sam Groth, who holds the world record for the fastest recorded serve, on ‘HOW TO SERVE AT 163MPH’ …

Try to stay relaxed: ‘If I try to really wallop the ball, I’m prone to mis-hits, and I end up being all over the shop.

Sam Stosur, a former US Open champion, on ‘HOW TO HIT THE PERFECT KICK SERVE’ …

‘To hit a good kick serve it needs to be to the left for a right-hander and, I find, a little bit behind. You don’t want the ball to be too far in front of you, too far into the court. If you think of a square, you’re moving the racket from the bottom left corner up to the top right.’
Use your whole body: ‘You have to have good core strength and the ability to bend. You don’t necessarily want to be thinking specifically about bending your back; a lot of it’s got to come from the legs as well. Then, you need good rotation through your shoulders.’

Sabine Lisicki, a former Wimbledon finalist, on ‘HOW TO HIT A BODY SERVE’ …