Using the serve tactically

The serve is the only action in the whole game that you fully control. No opponent puts you under pressure, the Speeder rests in your hand alone, you choose the timing, the target and the pace. To leave this one gift of an opportunity unused would be a waste.

A legal serve simply brings the Speeder into your opponent's court. A tactical serve brings it to where it gives your opponent trouble. You have two levers for that: the target and the variation.

For the target, what you already know applies: the backhand side. A serve deep into the backhand corner forces your opponent, right at the start of the rally, into their least secure stroke. Often you get a weak return that you can put under pressure immediately.

For the variation, this applies: don't become predictable. If every one of your serves comes the same — same length, same target, same pace — your opponent settles into it. Mix deep and shorter serves, change the target. The unpredictability alone produces mistakes.

The serve is your first move in chess. You can waste it by always playing the same one — or you can open a plan with it.

In your next match, observe your own serves: do they all come the same, or do you vary deliberately? And where do you serve — simply into the court, or deliberately to the weak side? Most beginners serve only to start the rally. Whoever instead attaches an intention to every serve wins points before the rally has really begun.