Winning Ugly by Brad Gilbert

Author:Brad Gilbert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchstone

The Heater

The Heater. The Bomb. The serve with a lot of stick on it. These days, at least at the pro level, serves are coming in faster and harder. The new rackets are making ballistic missiles out of fuzzy balls. In fact, the tennis balls themselves seem different from a few years ago. I believe they’re harder. That combined with the newer rackets means there’s just more firepower available to good servers today. Stich, Krajicek, Wheaton, and a lot of the other young players are changing tennis with that power. Believe me, it’s not just the result of their service motions.

On grass it can become almost a joke. At the 1991 Wimbledon Men’s Finals between Stich and Becker the average point lasted less than three seconds! In the semis that year Stich beat Stefan Edberg and Edberg never lost his serve once. Power serving.

When I run into a guy who’s in the zone with his serve on a particular day, just firing aces like it’s nothing, there’s not a lot I can do. I mean, in order to return a serve first you have to see it. When a ball is coming up the gut at 131 miles an hour it’s by me before I can wink. It’s like the story of the cowboy who said he was the fastest gun in the West. Somebody at the bar said, “Prove it, partner. Show me that fastest draw in the West.” So the cowboy got up, put his hands above his guns and stood there motionless. Five seconds later he asked, “Want to see it again?” That’s how it is playing against a Heater by Pete Sampras. “Want to see it again?” And my answer is “No!”

It’s unlikely you’ll ever be on the receiving end of a serve that breaks the sound barrier. But you will face some serves that are big enough to put you on the defensive, forcing you to make errors or throw back weak returns. In that situation there are a couple of important tactics to keep in mind that I use when necessary.

1. MOVE BACK THREE STEPS

When someone is beating you with a particular shot or style of play it’s important to change what you’re doing. Give the player who’s cruising along on the other side of the net a different look. Make them react to what you’re doing. That’s true in almost any situation in tennis and it’s true here. When someone comes in with a serve you can’t handle, change your court position for receiving serve.

First of all, move back. Don’t fall into the macho mindset where you’re thinking, “Hey, I’m gonna stand my ground. I don’t care how hard he’s serving!” Don’t be proud. Back up. Maybe five feet. The extra distance will give you the time you need to react to the ball.

2. MOVE IN THREE STEPS

Then move in closer. Get inside the service line closer than you’d normally position yourself. You’ll try to block the ball back. Grip down on the racket and make contact in front of your body.

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