ABSTRACT
Expert performance in many racket sports is characterised by athletes reacting extremely quickly to key events such as the direction of an opponent’s shot. Returning the serve in tennis is no exception and with men and women now serving at speeds of up to 240 km.h−1 and 205 km.h−1 respectively it is perhaps unsurprising that the first serve is such a dominant factor in the game. For example, Magnus and Klaassen (1999) collated statistics from four years of singles matches at the Wimbledon championship and found that men won 73.3% of points when their first serve was ‘in’. Nevertheless, elite players are able to make many successful returns and much research over the past 20 years has focused on establishing the means by which they are able to be successful. This research has centred on the comparison of expert and novice players, and evidence points towards the expert’s superior ability to anticipate the likely direction of the serve before the ball has actually been struck.
