Best lefty serve for the deuce side?

Wes19

New User
The slice serve out wide on the ad side seems to be a clear go to for a lot of lefties, but what is generally the go-to on the deuce side? As I lefty I have found myself much more confident serving for to the ad side, but haven’t developed a lot of confidence on the deuce side.

Maybe flat and out wide at an angle?
 

Morch Us

Hall of Fame
Slice is the lefty power. So keep doing that slice to middle (to body) of the court, even on deuce side, if you are not confident, till the opponent get used to it. Don't worry too much if they are trying to take it on their forehand. They will just get jammed up from that nasty slice. If you see them getting used to it, then change the position either to right (T) or left(wide), but still keep it as slice. Do the "flat to wide" only occasionally as a surprise (You will get a lot of aces there, but dont assume it is because of the quality of your flat wide serve. You get an ace there only because your slices were too good, and the opponent is now thinking only about countering that).


The slice serve out wide on the ad side seems to be a clear go to for a lot of lefties, but what is generally the go-to on the deuce side? As I lefty I have found myself much more confident serving for to the ad side, but haven’t developed a lot of confidence on the deuce side.

Maybe flat and out wide at an angle?
 
Last edited:

2nd Serve Ace

Hall of Fame
Do you hit a kick serve that bounces left? That is a great serve to the left corner on deuce side.

It doesn't produce a ton of service winners, but it does get a lot of weak returns for easy put aways.

Also, don't forget the hard, flat serve right atum [emoji2]

Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk
 

Doubles

Legend
Slice is the lefty power. So keep doing that slice to middle (to body) of the court, even on deuce side, if you are not confident, till the opponent get used to it. Don't worry too much if they are trying to take it on their forehand. They will just get jammed up from that nasty slice. If you see them getting used to it, then change the position either to right (T) or left(wide), but still keep it as slice. Do the "flat to wide" only occasionally as a surprise (You will get a lot of aces there, but dont assume it is because of the quality of your flat wide serve. You get an ace there only because your slices were too good, and the opponent is now thinking only about countering that).
This. I had the same doubles partner for five years and this was his go to. First serves were either flat or slice serves up the T, and he used a lot of body serves to jam people. After he got into a rhythm, he'd go with to the wide serve to mix it up.
 

Dartagnan64

G.O.A.T.
Hitting slice down the T to deuce should be a bread and butter shot. Mix that up with a flat or kicker out wide and you are good as a lefty.

I find wide serves unless completely unexpected open up the opportunities for the returner too much. All of a sudden sharp CC angles are available or riskier shots DTL. Serves down the T keep the returner from making a great return almost all the time. He has no angle in that situation. That being said he will likely return down the middle to keep you from getting an angle whereas the out wide returner might give you an open court.

In the end it's best to be able to hit to a righties BH in your sleep and then work on body shots and out wide to the FH.
 

Wes19

New User
Thanks for the feedback guys, definitely appreciate it!! Sticking with the slice and to the backhand of a righty makes sense.

For some reason I’m more confident slicing out wide on the ad side, then down the T on deuce, but it could just be mental. I’ll have to keep working on it.
 
into the body. Hit it slightly into his FH so it curves back into his body. Also occasionally down the line into the backhand. And occasionally also kicker to his forehand so he doesn't know if it will hit into the body or not
 

Dartagnan64

G.O.A.T.
Thanks for the feedback guys, definitely appreciate it!! Sticking with the slice and to the backhand of a righty makes sense.

For some reason I’m more confident slicing out wide on the ad side, then down the T on deuce, but it could just be mental. I’ll have to keep working on it.

Just shift your body and feet a little more clockwise. And practice. As I said you want to be able to hit that serve in your sleep.

Then the next most effective serves are the slices to the body or FH. I don't know how many times a lefty has gotten me jammed with that serve. You think you've got spacing and then you don't. Did I mention I hate facing lefties?
 

Morch Us

Hall of Fame
It is because you are naturally tuned to hitting to open court. On ad side, especially at 3.5/4.0/4.5 levels, you will see a huge opening for you to slice the ball away, because folks think it is a crime to stand outside the sideline, or anywhere close to it, to return. So you enjoy moving that slice away from the returner. But just don't worry about it and get used to hitting to non-open court (on deuce side).

I’m more confident slicing out wide on the ad side, then down the T on deuce
 

LeeD

Bionic Poster
Since I barely have a twist past the alley, it's a slice up the T or a miss on the wide flat. Slice into the body only works the 1st few times, then I'm forced to scramble.
 

hurworld

Hall of Fame
into the body. Hit it slightly into his FH so it curves back into his body. Also occasionally down the line into the backhand. And occasionally also kicker to his forehand so he doesn't know if it will hit into the body or not
This. I played with a left hander and this serve caused me frequent problems. On both courts.
 

Traffic

Hall of Fame
into the body. Hit it slightly into his FH so it curves back into his body. Also occasionally down the line into the backhand. And occasionally also kicker to his forehand so he doesn't know if it will hit into the body or not
My son and his hitting buddy are lefties. His buddy has better command of his spins. He hits me with a top/slice to the body. Then he'll throw a power top out wide or a kicker to the T to keep opponents off balance.

The point being is that few players get to see good lefty spin. So as long as you change it around so they don't get used to it, it becomes a challenge to return cleanly. In doubles, this offers up some easy net play.
 
My son and his hitting buddy are lefties. His buddy has better command of his spins. He hits me with a top/slice to the body. Then he'll throw a power top out wide or a kicker to the T to keep opponents off balance.

The point being is that few players get to see good lefty spin. So as long as you change it around so they don't get used to it, it becomes a challenge to return cleanly. In doubles, this offers up some easy net play.

Yes. As a lefty, don't show them the slice too often if you don't have to. This is similar to a good starting pitcher in baseball, if he has a good fastball he usually will throw it a lot the first time through the order so they don't get too used to the breaking ball and then he has that slider still in his back pocket.

The opponent will never get used to the wide slice completely unless he plays lefties regularly but if you can manage to use it a little more sparingly it will be even more effective in crucial points.

Unless it is indoor carpet, then they will never return the slice all day long:).

On carpet I like to hit a hard slice that only has a bit of slice (more like a cutter than a slider in pitching terms). That one is really deadly and I often manage to get to tiebreakers on carpet against people half a level better than me that eat me 6:1 on clay.
 

time_fly

Hall of Fame
I’m a lefty with a lot of spin on my serve. In doubles you definitely want to go down the T to the backhand of a righty. This gives your partner a lot of easy shots to work with. In singles this tends to pull your opponent to decent neutral court position so there’s a bit more of a disadvantage to it.

My flat serve has good days and bad days. On a good day I will go out wide on the deuce side and down the tee on the ad side if my opponent starts cheating to cover the slice serve. On a bad day I will stick to spin but try to jam their forehands as variety from slicing to the backhand.
 

Morch Us

Hall of Fame
It is best to ask your opponents what makes them too nervous.

A lot of the times you get good results on a "weak shot" when you make "tough but consistent" shots continuously (without immediate result). So it may appear to you that the "weak shot" is the better one.

One example is if you follow a series of high quality heavy topspin shots with a weak short slice, you may see the opponent making an error on it. So you got the immediate result on the weak short slice. But don't confuse that with what happened before.

The point being don't always confuse the quality/toughness of serve/shot with immediate result. Yes, results is what matters in the end. But it does not always have to be "immediate".
 
Last edited:

Traffic

Hall of Fame
Yes. As a lefty, don't show them the slice too often if you don't have to. This is similar to a good starting pitcher in baseball, if he has a good fastball he usually will throw it a lot the first time through the order so they don't get too used to the breaking ball and then he has that slider still in his back pocket.

The opponent will never get used to the wide slice completely unless he plays lefties regularly but if you can manage to use it a little more sparingly it will be even more effective in crucial points.

Unless it is indoor carpet, then they will never return the slice all day long:).

On carpet I like to hit a hard slice that only has a bit of slice (more like a cutter than a slider in pitching terms). That one is really deadly and I often manage to get to tiebreakers on carpet against people half a level better than me that eat me 6:1 on clay.
My son will occasionally throw a power top down the T on the Ad side just to keep them honest. He's had several aces on this serve since they are leaning wide.
 

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
Against quick guys, hit it into their body more - slice into their body if possible. Against slow guys or those who leave a big space on one side, serve near the lines or into the open space if you can particularly on first serves. If someone has a big weakness like a BH return or return off high-kicking serves, exploit that a lot. If you have a lot of spins and targets in your serve repertoire, you can confuse returners also by hitting different spins to the same spot on consecutive points on each side.

In doubles if you have a good net guy, serve down the middle and body more.
 

LOBALOT

Legend
My son is a college playing lefty and from his/my perspective like most serving you need to move the serve around the box.

Just from what I have seen his preference when he really needs a point is out wide which I know sounds odd. He actually can hit it pretty well and surprises righty players with it as they are leaning up the middle. Should they get it back like a lot of lefties my son prefers his backhand and most likely that ball is coming to his backhand for a redirect in the open add court and a follow to the net.
 

jhick

Hall of Fame
As a lefty my go to serves in order of frequency typically are:

1. Slice down the T
2. Short kicker out wide
3. Flat out wide
4. Flat down the T
5. Slice into the body

This is against a right hander. Of course if there is a certain serve that the returner struggles returning then that serve will move up the list. I tend to mix it up quite a bit. I also find that into the body serve tends to be a high risk/high reward serve. When it works it's great but if you miss your spot then it can end up in their wheelhouse.
 

ey039524

Hall of Fame
I return for my lefty son during his private lesson weekly. The hardest return is the slice down the T. The easiest is the kicker to my righty fh. When he mixes in the T slice w/ the flat out wide and the slice to the body, it gets very difficult to cheat in one direction, and becomes a guessing game.

Couple that w/ an I formation net opponent in doubles, and returning on the deuce side gets complicated w/ many things for the returner to think about.
 
Top