Chickagoan

Check out the Tribune’s story on the longest tennis match in history:

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=10&tag=Wimbledon&limit=20

Andy Roddick and Serena Williams move on to the third round. Venus playing right now but she looks like she’s going to take it!

I hope everyone got up for the 6:30 a.m. coverage of Wimbledon! Just kidding. However, you can follow all of the tennis action at http://espn.go.com/tennis. Roger Federer is in dangerous waters right now against Alejandro Falla. Keep a look out for the top ranked American (Andy Roddick, Venus Williams and Serena Williams) to make a splash across the pond. I will have you updated everyday of this Grand Slam.

There are three kinds of serves: Flat serve, Slice serve and Topspin serve.

Basics of Serve: The fundamentals of serve starts with ‚Äú The four Bs‚Äù base, balance, back-scratch position and ball toss. To achieve a correct base, your feet should be shoulder’s width apart with your left foot at an angle towards the target box and your right foot parallel to the baseline.

Flat Serve:

Once you establish a good base, focus on the location of the ball toss. The ball toss should be at the one o’clock position slightly in front of you. Practice getting the ball into this position before trying the entire service motion. Your hip should rotate while trying the service motion, look at the pictures below.

“Tips”
Bend your knees to generate more power to the serve.
Slice Serve:

Slice serve is an arm serve, so you will not have the hip and shoulder rotation that you have in the flat serve. You will also turn your grip over a little more counter clockwise. The ball is tossed at noon, and you swing up to the ball visualizing a nail in the sky. In doing this you are trying to hit the ball on its side which generates the slice to make it kick. While the follow through of the flat serve is across your body the slice serve is going to be on the other side of your body. The feet should be stationary with a weight shift from the back foot to the front foot when striking the ball.

Topspin Serve:

The topspin serve is similar to the slice serve in many aspects. Throw the ball toss at noon, and a little closer to your body. If it lands it should hit you on the forehead. This is going to be an all arm serve. You also finish on the same side of your body as well. Swing up at the ball and push the racquet through the ball. The key thing is to generate as much spin as possible and that is achieved by attacking the ball aggressively when tossing it in the air.