Good morning.
You hit the ball and look over the net at your opponent. You serve in the court of Deuce, and now serving in a wide field seems like a good idea.
You throw the ball nice and high and hit the serve well, cutting it off the court. Your opponent reaches wide and makes a clever defensive forehand return deep in the center of the court.
What’s next?
Seriously… what’s the next step in your master plan to get this point?
Specifically, what’s the plan with your +1 ground hit serve? Are you looking for a forehand or do you settle for what the returner gives you?
Is the main pattern going to the open court or playing from the back? Do you have a hard plan or do you have options?
Think about your recent matches. Do you whenever do you have a Serve +1 plan?
Feb 23: 1:00 p.m. Central US: Webinar for +1. Register HERE.
You DOWN have a service plan. You always choose wide, in the body or down the T. You control whether the returner hits a forehand or backhand return. So what about the next shot? Do you have a plan for your +1 server?
A must, definitely a must!!!!
At the 2023 Australian Open, 70% of all serves in the men’s draw were returned to play. Here’s the breakdown.
Australian Open 2023: Men
Nearly two out of three (63%) first serves are back in play, and over 80% (83%) of second serves have turned into trades.
Here’s the conclusion. It’s not enough to have a plan just for your service. You also have to think about hitting a +1 serve. You need a plan for that too. In fact, you need several plans based on the strength of the comeback that comes back.
In the women’s draw, more than three out of four serves (76%) have returned to play this year’s Down Under.
Australian Open 2023: Women
As you can see, the vast majority of servos are back in the game. Therefore, your +1 serve needs to have some structure and planning.
You need a basic game pattern based on what you want to happen most of the time. Then you need a secondary game scheme to hide the unexpected. For example, if the rebound is weak and short in the middle where you want it, the main pattern is to immediately attack your opponent’s running backhand on an empty court Ad.
But what if the returnee hits a great comeback? Then it’s time to play defense and get the ball back to the crossbar for the returner.
All of these strategy concepts – and much more – will be covered next week Provide +1 webinar.
Having a plan when serving is obvious. The same should be true for a +1 serve.
Register HERE for the Serv +1 webinar. Can’t do it live? No problem. Register and watch the video whenever you want.
See you there!
Craig
