The Rise Of Underarm Serves

Is the underhand serve good or bad? Ask people around your club and you will have so many different responses. The reasons why people like the underhand serve differ; some people like it for the entertainment factor, and some people think it is a great tactical move.

Today, I want to talk about the entertainment factor of the underhand serve, why it's gotten so popular, and more importantly, whether the underhand serve is a good tactic. There is something about the mental aspect of receiving an underhand serve and how that motivates a player to beat the player that does the underhand serve even more. However, more importantly, we should discuss if it should be part of the rulebook or not.

Entertainment

Personally, I am very entertained when somebody does an underhand serve because it is something that doesn't happen very often. So, when it happens, it is fun to watch. Why do we see the underhand serve utilized more than ever before? It is definitely a trend. Many players now utilize this tactic because the underhand serve gains a lot of attention, not only from the crowd but also on social media.

If you go on YouTube, you'll see that Tennis TV, which is the most popular tennis-related channel worldwide, has several videos of underhand serve compilations. Wimbledon and the US Open also have compilation videos of underhand serves. It is a fact that nowadays, players know that when they do a spectacular shot, they are going to end up on the Tennis TV feed on Instagram, which gets an incredible amount of views. In my opinion, the reason why you see the underhand serve performed more now than ever before is not because it's a great tactic, but because players are seeking attention.

A lot of people bring up Michael Chang. Yes, Michael Chang famously utilize an underhand serve in the fifth set against Ivan Lendl in the fourth round at the French Open because he was cramping and couldn't serve properly. He only used this once in the whole match and possibly only one time in his whole career. This is one of the most talked about points in tennis history. Back in the day, this was not something you would see very frequently, but you see it now.

Tactics

The underhand serve is simply not a good tactic. First of all, you have to understand that players utilize the underhand serve at very convenient scorelines. According to tennisabstract.com, which is the best statistical website in the world for tennis, the most common score in the game where the underhand serve is utilized is 40-love, followed by 40-15. In other words, you're not going to see players utilize an underhand serve in important moments of the service game.

One player that will occasionally do an underhand serve even in important moments is Nick Kyrgios. You have to understand that Nick has such firepower on the serve that he can afford to gamble with a point and throw in an underhand serve here and there. Alexander Bublik, on the other hand, will only use underhand serves when the score is unimportant. For example, he used it two times in a row when he was down 0-5 in the tiebreaker against John Isner at the tournament in Newport.

Drop Shot Comparison

People often compare the underhand serve to a drop shot. These two shots are nothing alike because you cannot hit a drop shot when you feed a ball to yourself. A drop shot requires the pace of the incoming ball as one of its fundamental elements. When you attempt to hit a drop shot with a high-to-low swing path and a slightly open racket face, you can generate backspin. You cannot do that on the underhand serve.

Players will either hit the ball straight out of their wrist or try to put a little bit of side spin on the ball. It is absolutely impossible to put backspin on an underhand serve and have the ball bounce very close to the net and then possibly bounce back towards the net. This isn’t possible unless you did it with an extremely open racket face very high over the net. However, this would be a ball that's very easily retrievable by the opponent.

On top of that, it is also extremely difficult to pull off. If somebody attempted to do an underhand serve with backspin, the ball would be so high it would be easy to read, and the other player would come up to the net and slam the ball for an easy winner.

Surprise Factor

I'm not saying that the underhand doesn't work. In fact, if you go to tennisabstract.com and read the article that I'm referring to, you're going to see that players do win a lot of points when they attempt the underhand serve. The main factor for this is the element of surprise, especially if we're talking about big servers where the returner is standing further behind the baseline.

Players will start their normal service rhythm and it will look like they'll hit a regular serve, and then somewhere in the beginning portion of their serve, they surprise the opponent by hitting an underhand serve. It’s the element of surprise and the fact that this type of ball is very low that makes the returner get up to the ball and not be ready for it. Often, the returner will slice the ball and come to the net, giving the server a pretty good look at a passing shot.

You rarely see players attempt a sidespin underhand serve because these are a lot more difficult to pull off. If someone can manage to do an underhand serve that bounces very short in the box and then curves off the court, it would be more comparable to the drop shot, but you don't really see that. When players attempt underhand serves, it’s usually a flat little flick, which is easily retrievable by players even if they're standing directly on the back fence.

Chances of Winning

If someone served an entire match underhand, do you think this person would have a good chance to hold serve at the elite level? Absolutely not. They would get broken in the vast majority of their service games. The only context in which the underhand serve works is the surprise factor. It is for that reason that even players who hit a lot of underhand serves don't use it in the most important moments of the match.

That is the tell sign that even for them, despite what they might say in a press conference, it is not as good of a tactic as a regular serve. A regular serve could be struck anywhere between 120 to over 140 miles an hour with many different variations in many different locations of the service box. It is a far better tactic, and it is for that reason that you don't see the legends of the game ever attempt an underhand serve.

Also, players at the elite level are very good at handling balls from the half-court. They have a lot of variety—they can do feel shots, power shots, and play the ball with different types of spin.

Final Thoughts

Would the underhand serve be a good option at the rec level? I can tell you that at the recreational level, the underhand serve would be an excellent tactic. At the elite level, players can very quickly make it from the back of the fence to the service line area because they're phenomenal athletes and really fast. At the recreational level, players might have some mobility issues and might get to that part of the court too late and do some emergency shots because of it.

The half-court area is one of the biggest problem zones where players commit a tremendous amount of mistakes. For that reason, if you did underhand serves at the recreational level, especially at the lower recreational level, this would win you a lot of points. However, this does not mean that you should go out there and start doing a ton of underhand serves. You should try to develop a proper flat, slice, and kick serve instead because that is the far better tactic to utilize at any level in tennis.