John Yandell: The Sampras Second Serve

Printable Version As with his first delivery, the secret to Sampras’s second serve is his unique heavy ball combining speed with spin – it can exceed 5000rpm. In addition to his phenomenal first delivery, a major component in Pete Sampras’s serving dominance has been the effectiveness of his second serve. At the start of this series we described the quantitative properties of Pete’s first serve – his unique combination of high velocity and heavy spin (part 1). The secret to understanding his second serve is the same. Pete’s combination of speed and spin on his second serve is as heavy or heavier than any player in the pro game. Using high speed digital cameras at the U.S. Open, Advanced Tennis researchers found that Pete’s second serves spin at an average rate of over 4500 rpm. In fact, the fastest spinning ball we recorded in 5 days of filming at the Open was a Sampras second serve spinning at over 5300rpm. (AdvancedTennis.com). Just go out to your car and rev your tachometer to 5000rpm or so if you want to feel the incredible level of energy this much spin can impart to a tennis ball! And Pete combines this heavy spin…