The serve is the most complex shot in the game and the most important shot for success.
So what exactly is the key to a great serve?
Roddick: Federer Third Favorite At Slams
Former world No. 1 Andy Roddick says strong leg drive is the secret to a big serve.
The ballistic-serving Roddick, whose signature serve featured a shortened backswing, knows a bit about explosive serving.
The 2003 US Open champion is fourth all time in both service games won (90 percent) and career aces (9,068).
In a conference call to promote his appearance at the Power Shares QQQ Cup at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Saturday night, Roddick told Tennis Now leg strength is the foundation for the game’s greatest servers—Goran Ivanisevic, Pete Sampras, Boris Becker, Serena Williams and Roddick himself.
“The one commonality in great servers I think is a big knee bend, a big, strong base leg,” Roddick told Tennis Now. “I think people talk about shoulders and live arm a lot – I think that’s probably overstated.
"I think the part that’s understated is if you look at Sampras and Becker and Ivanisevic, just the power and drive they get from their legs.”
Using the legs to drive up into the serve generates power and variety, says Roddick.
“And I think it also creates the ability to create different spins and pitch a good ball game, also,” Roddick said.
Hall of Famer Sampras stresses leg drive and an accurate toss as vital components to his iconic serve.
“It all starts with the toss; if your toss is off it’s tough to serve consistently well,” Sampras told Tennis Now in a past inverview. “If you know that your toss will always be in the same spot you can really go after the serve. When I was a junior my coach had me practice the toss over and over to get it in the same spot so that I could hit all the spins from the same toss.
"If you think about it, hitting a serve is like hitting an overhead but on the serve you can control the toss. A lot of players don’t practice the toss, but it’s key because it all starts with the toss.”
For Becker, consistency is key to developing a damaging serve.
“The secret of a good serve is percentage,” Becker says in his tips for a great serve.
Photo credit: Rob Loud/PowerShares