When serving and volleying the best strategy is to serve mostly to your opponent’s weakness.

How hard should you hit your second serve? Trying to serve too hard will lead to double faults but serving too softly will leave you vulnerable.

A good strategy against an opponent that always plays a safe chip return is to serve and volley.

An opponent that returns from far behind the baseline gives you more time to get closer to the net after the serve allowing you to catch the first volley at a higher point.

Having a hard first serve will give you an advantage but varying the first serve will give you an even greater advantage. Even a slight variation every 3 or 4 serves will be effective. Use different targets and spins to keep the opponent guessing.

In order to hit the first serve hard, you need to learn to hit it flat. However, for some targets a slice serve will be more appropriate.

The goal of the second serve should be to start the point and prevent the opponent from taking control of the point. If the opponent can attack all your second serves, you will most likely lose the match. Starting the point at least neutrally, will allow you to win most of your service games.

It is always easier for an opponent to attack a second serve with their favorite shot. Therefore, make sure you force the opponent to return with their weaker side any chance you have.

In order to be effective a player that likes to return and charge the net has to start moving forward early and take the return close to the service line.

You will always have a better chance of winning a match when you force the opponent to hit with his/her weaker side as much as possible.