An Overview of the Main Serves in Tennis

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Jonathan Blanc has driven activities at Varsity Athletic Apparel in Moorestown, New Jersey as company president since 1992. More recently, he has overseen operations at MVP Awards, a new division of Varsity Athletic Apparel..

Jonathan Blanc is an avid sports fan beyond his work in the industry. A former Collegiate tennis player, he enjoys playing the sport to this day.

The sport of tennis consists of three main types of serve. The flat serve can be viewed as the “traditional” service delivery. It features little spin and instead emphasizes pure pace as a means of overwhelming opposing returners. While an accurate, powerful flat serve represents a strong offensive weapon for servers, the lack of spin means flat serves have little margin for error in terms of placement and net clearance.

The kick serve, also known as the top spin serve, can be viewed as a safer response to the flat serve. Extreme amounts of top spin allow servers to reliably get the ball over the net and keep it within the correct service box, making it an ideal choice for a second serve. However, a well-placed kick serve can jam unsuspecting returners, making the kick serve an effective offensive threat when used sparingly.

Finally, the slice serve is arguably the most defensive of the three primary service deliveries, though, like the kick serve, it can be utilized to offensive ends. Slice serves have very little pace and a more predictable action compared to the kick serve. That said, a well-struck slice serve from a right-handed player to the deuce court can drag returners completely off the court, allowing for an easy winner on the next shot. This benefit is available to left-handed players serving to the ad court.