The serve is the most important foundation block of anyones tennis game, unless you are Dementieva! (smile. Just kidding.)

Statistically, about 60 to 65% of the whole game of tennis is serve and return, if you understand the importance of these figures, you will easily understand why professionals try to excel particularly in these areas.

When watching professional players it may give you the impression that all hit their serves flat and at a "zillion" miles per hour....consequently many of us, when in trouble with the serve, follow that rule with disastrous results.

Factors that lead to losing control of your serve, yourself and your game:

- Panic. Your hard first serve is not working, you start hitting harder and harder and less and less of your serves are going in.

What to do - Start your matches by gradually increasing the speed of your serve, by serving the first serve with more spin the usual (kick, twist, slice, your choice) in the first couple of games. As you gain condidence and get deeper into the match according to the score and situation start using your first serve with lesser spin and as a weapon.

- Fear. Your opponents get cocky and start jumping all over your second serves and pounding them for winners or attacking you and putting enormous pressure at the net. This kibd of outright intimidadtion leads you to barely push the serve over the net.

What to do - Once you get control of your first serve the occasional need to hit second serves will be a lot easier to manage. One thing you have to keep in mind is; second serves are all about courage. No matter how much pressure your opponent is trying to exert on you, stand tall, show him you are confident, be courageous hit your second serve just as if it was a first serve but with a lot more spin on it!

- Distress. Your heart starts pounding like the steam train to Manchuria, your thoughts start getting blurred and you start serving faults and double faults in a rapid fire sequence.

What to do - Take your time, bounce the ball several times on the ground, take a few deep breaths, compose yourself, focus on the target area where you want to place your serve and go for it!

Very important: No matter how hard Professional players hit their first or second serves they always apply one kind of spin or another, you should do the same. For a visual slow motion of the serve feel free to go to my "Best Shots" section on my website at http://www.tenniscruz.com/login.asp (it is for free).

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