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.

Normally trying to stretch the opponent when serving is very effective. However, sometimes the best option is to hit the serve right at the returner, preventing him/her to take a good swing at the ball.

You have two serves in tennis so you have to make sure you take advantage of this. When you hit a first serve you have to approach the line with an aggressive mentality. You want to use the first serve to put the opponent on the defensive and start controlling the point right away. Do not hold back go for a big serve.

A first serve is meant to get the opponent in trouble – to gain control of the point, so make sure that after hitting you are not surprised by a short return. Be looking for a short return, move immediately forward and continue your attack.

A first serve needs to be aggressive and fast but will not be very effective if it is not going in. To be really effective you need to make at least 50% of your first serves. Be aware of this and adjust accordingly while you play during a match.

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.