The Serve: Where Are We Now? The Women

In the last two articles we have focused on the commonalities in high level serves (Click Here) and on the differences (Click Here.) All the examples have been men.

So in this article let’s look closely at some elite women. Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Sam Stosur, and Justine Henin. All were very effective servers.

After the first two articles I got some emails asking why I hadn’t chosen any women for the models. And the answer is that as effective as these women are or were, we can find technical flaws in all their motions—with the exception of Justine who I will address at the end.

Still I am adding the women examples to the Side by Side section of the site for those who want to study these players more closely. (Click Here.)

Core Positions

If you recall the core elements in good serving there are 3 positions in the upward and outward swing: the racket drop, the contact point, and the extension.

Starting with the drop we see all these women make that position. The racket either falls along the right side like Maria and Serena. Or swings a little to the outside like Sam.

Sam’s drop shows…