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Roger Federer, with 9 Grand Slams to his credit, obviously has a great serve. It is comparable to Pete Sampras's or Andy Roddick's serve, but without some of the extreme features that make the latter servers so difficult for the average player to imitate . Roger's is really a classic serve-- natural looking, effortless, and smooth. The analysis presented below is meant to be read while viewing the video clip of Roger's serve that was kindly made available to us by TennisPlayer.net.
Click here to see the video.
John Yandell at http://www.tennisplayer.net/ has already done some great detailed analysis of Roger Federer's serve. All I can do here is note some of the more significant features of this great serve.
What is immediately striking is the long smooth circular takeback of the racquet, the graceful lifting of the ball and its high gentle arc as it leaves his hand, and the natural bending of his knees as his weight settles back on both feet, ready to spring upward into the serve. This is pure poetry.
His back is straight, not arched. His tossing arm remains straight up long after the ball has left his hand. His head is up and he is focused on the ball.
The uncoiling of Federer's body as he thrusts upward into the shot is explosive. First his feet push off from the ground, then his knees straighten and turn toward the net, his hips rotate back toward the net, and his upper body begins a powerful return toward the net. His hitting arm has stretched back behind him, and he is now pulling the lower arm and racquet upward into the shot. As he comes off the ground and thrusts upward, his biceps contract and his elbow straightens. The forearm pronates just as it strikes the ball, brushing up and across and to the right. Federer's head is still focused on the ball; his chin is up.
As he makes contact his tossing arm come around his upper body, hugging himself, and stopping the forward momentum of his shoulders, creating more whiplike action on his hitting arm and the racquet.
At contact Roger's front foot is far over the baseline, but to keep balance and to add more power, his right leg kicks back toward the back fence. As he completes the follow through, he has landed several feet inside the baseline. If he wanted to, he could easily follow his serve into the net and pick off an easy volley winner from the returner. Instead he split steps in place and prepares to react to the return without moving further forward.
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