Defending Against Wide Serves to Backhand

[Darkness]

I play primarily singles but have also faced this problem in doubles. One opponent in particular serves from the ad court and stands out near the alley. His serves are so predictable and always land short and take me out wide into the ad alley. He does manage to have some pace on the shot so, they are not easily handled serves. Especially since they are to my backhand as I am a righty.

At first, I would try to rip them down the line, as he leaves this wide open for me, but I miss about 50% of the time and hit the ball out or hit the net. If I hit down the T in the center of the court, it goes right to his forehand and he rips it down the line, on his side as he took me out wide with his serve.

Any thoughts or suggestions on how you can handle this?

Thanks

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

You're playing doubles, so cross court everything unless you have a wide open court, or you know for a fact that the net person can't handle your shot. 50% is not good enough.

As far as the server bringing you out wide, if he's predictable, why not step in and return it early? you just have to take the ball earlier to neutralize the spin/bounce. If you can hit it early, you won't be pulled as wide. And remember, cross court everything.

[LeeD]

Or lob DTL with underspin, giving your depth control.
But taking it shaper angle CC is the normal call, unless netperson poaches, then DTL.

[Fuji]

Definitely attempt to Slice DTL. If you hit it clean enough it should give you enough time to slide back to centre and set the point to at least neutral.

-Fuji

[KMV]

I have a 1hbk, vary between deep cross court back at opponent (safe), Dtl ( lower percentage but u can set u r self up if its predictable) and short slice (safe again).. Mixing it up helps and Keeps the opponent on his toes..

[LuckyR]

I would seperate singles and doubles.

In singles, it sounds like this guy does not S&V. If he does, he is likely vulnerable to a pass DTL, which I would not slice as it would likely sit up if he did manage to get a racquet on it. Much more likely he is a baseliner. As such I would go CC, since shots DTL need to be winners, since he has an easy CC shot to the opposite side that you are going to be out of position to get to. You probably already know that, which is why you are hitting 50% of your DTL shots out/in the net, ie you are going for winners (which you should be on that side of the court). Trouble is you aren't currently able to pull off the shot. Go CC, a slice is fine. Now he is faced with the problem you were a minute ago: do I try for a DTL winner (maybe he'll hit 50% of them out/in the net like you did) or do I go CC again, which BTW will be right to where you are standing, perhaps for an inside in FH winner.

Doubles is a different story. Many if not most netmen wll not shift to cover the alley on a wide serve, the answer is easy, DTL topspin winner into the alley. After a couple of those, the server will either stop hitting wide serves, or the netman will shift to the alley, which opens up the middle of the court from poaches, a much easier shot for you.

[ericwong]

Most of the time, I would step in and do a CC short slice, enough to drop on my opponent's side near the net post. Of course, this needs a lot of guess work

[The Meat]

I position my self on the ad court a few inches to the left of the line and rotate my body to face the server, allows me to run to my forehand side if they comedown the middle and allows me to cut down on the angle if they hit out wide.