I stayed up really late last night to watch the latest ending match for women at the U.S. Open. Samantha Stosur defeated Elena Dementieva in some of the highest quality women’s tennis I’ve seen in a long time.  What I noticed during the match was the effectiveness of the wide kick serve Stosur hit repeatedly to the ad court.

Samantha Stosur hitting a kick serve to the ad court

Samantha is only 5’7 1/2″ tall (1.72m) yet she hit that serve over and over at a decent pace. Even though Dementieva got to the ball virtually every time, only once in a while was she really able to smack a back hand that took control of the point. Most of the time Dementieva was so far off the court that Stosur was able to take control of the point.

If little Samantha Stosur was able to take control of one of the most in shape, fast and fantastic groundstrokers ever by hitting a serve out wide, I think it might be a good idea if we practiced it too.

Just take a rope or extention cord and put one end at the centerstrap and the other end on the wide corner of the service box. On the ad side try to serve to the right hand side of the rope and on the deuce side try to hit to the left hand side of the rope. Hit slow at first and only increase your speed when you can consistently hit your target.

Put this into play in a match and watch your fat buddies scramble.