The First attempt is known as the first serve. If a player manages to land that in, then the point is played out. If a player though, hits a fault then he gets a second throw at the dice. That is called the seconds serve.
The person serving has two tries to get his or her serve over the net and into the service box (the two areas immediately against the net) opposite the position from which he or she is serving.
If the first serve is clean, there is no second serve. If the first serve fails (a “fault”), the player may try again with no penalty, but if he or she fails twice consecutively (a “double fault”), the point goes to the opponent. Note that one effect of this is a player will usually have to sacrifice a little velocity on a second serve for the sake of accuracy and making sure the serve is clean.
Nick Kyrgios jokes with the crowd about bad serving | Wimbledon 2019
Why do tennis players so often fail on their first serve?
Because its a free serve – no penalty if they fail. They can use the first serve to try their fastest, and most angled or critically placed serves. They try high risk, high reward serves that if they get them in will likely win the point outright or put them in a position to win by making the receiver hit a weak return.
If they fail on the first, they can use a more conservative, higher percentage second serve to make sure they don’t lose the point on the serve by double faulting and get the ball in play.
Still its a low percentage to blast away mindlessly on first serve with low percentage shots. A considered approach is to use a strong enough first serve that you can get it into play at least 60% of the time. Then if you fault and need to use the second serve, have a slower, perhaps more top spin serve that is 95-99% certain to go in.
If you blast away on the first serve with only 0-5% chance of landing in, in the worst case, you get no advantage at all from having two serves, if you use too easy a serve on the first serve so that it always goes in, you give up the benefit of having a second serve chance. And your opponent will take advantage of a slow serve to blast a hard return back. The rule in serious tennis is, if you are presented with a second serve, try and jump all over it because it will be much weaker than a first serve. And because you have no chance of winning the point if you double fault the second serve.
NICK KYRGIOS put on a show to all those lucky enough to have a Court 3 seat at Wimbledon today – and one supporter even had the Australian in fits of laughter. Can’t By a first serve meaning
Kyrgios was given a tough first-round opponent in fellow countryman Jordan Thompson.The pair struggled to be separated as they took a set each and were locked in a tiebreak in the third.
As per the norm with Kyrgios, he entertained which an array of spectacular shots, tweeners and the odd foul-mouth tirade at the officials.But while serving for the set at 9-8 in the third set tiebreak, Kyrgios faulted his first attempt.
He then screamed, “I cant buy a first serve” to the amusement of everyone inside the ground.Kyrgios second attempt clipped the net for a let and a fan then shouted: “You cant buy a second serve.”Kyrgios found the quip hilarious and bent over in an attempt to contain his laughter. The world No 43 went on to win a blockbuster tiebreak 12-10.
Why is the second serve always slower than the first serve?
Second serve is not just slower but has more spin. First serve and second serve are generally two completely different strokes. First serve is meant to put the server on a positive unequal footing. The idea is to either win the point outright (unreturned serve), or put the server in an advantageous position in the point. Second serve is exactly the opposite. Purpose of the second serve is to prevent the returner from winning the point outright (double fault) or handing over advantage in the point through an offensive return.
So, by general rule of thumb (there are known exceptions to the rule, I’ll get to those in a minute) first serve is a flat, fast serve, hit close to service lines. Second serve is a spinnier, softer serve, not hit as close to service lines.
In a pro match a player is much more likely to miss many more first serves. To explain let’s take a look at typical stats. Consider a pro player who has served 60% and made 4 double faults If the player has served 100 times she has missed 40 first serves and missed 4 out of 40 second serves, meaning she has made 90% of her second serves, a much higher percentage than her 60% first serve percentage. On the flip side she is likely to win a higher percentage, say 70% of the points when she got her first serve in v/s 40% of the serves she got her second serve in.
Exceptions. Pete Sampras for example, would go big both on first serve and second serve at opportune times. At 40–0 up sometimes, he was willing to give up a point (double fault) in an attempt to finish off the game. In other words, those times he would serve two first serves. Conversely, Mats Wilander missed only 6–7 first serves in the 88 FO finals. He took something off his first serve, because he didn’t want his opponent to take a crack at his second serve. He wasn’t using his first serve to gain advantage but to start the point in neutral position. He trusted his steadier ground game to eventually gain advantage (BTW, the tactic worked beautifully). You could argue his first serve was a beefed up second serve. All added up, the number of such exceptions is small but not insignificant.
FAQ
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