A newly established tactic used in the women’s game by players such as the Williams sisters is the serve and drive volley. A powerful first serve can force a high, defensive return. If this return is allowed to bounce, the initiative can be lost because the returner has time to recover. Also, it is harder to generate pace off a slow, deep, bouncing ball. Therefore, just as with the early, aggressive groundstroke tactics, the server should recognise the high, defensive return as a chance to maintain dominance and hit her second shot out of the air as a drive volley.
The drive volley differs from the normal volley in that it is hit using groundstroke technique. In other words, the player swings through the ball rather than punching through it, thus creating more pace and spin on the ball. This extra pace is required because the drive volley is often hit from behind the service line and against the high, floated return. Because the ball has little pace itself, the server must add pace to it. Players choose to drive volley the floating ball because they believe that the added pace and spin allows them to control the shot better than with a blocked volley, especially when it is played from above shoulder height.
The lack of time allowed to the returner is the key to this tactic’s success. This is an important point. The returner will often not be in a position to defend against the drive volley because she is not ready in time. As a result, her movement will be less effective, and she may end up guessing which side to defend, allowing the target area for the server’s second shot to remain large. This drive volley should therefore be played with a big margin for error (i.e., comfortably within the lines) because lack of time beats the returner.
To practice the first serve and drive volley tactic, see drill 1.7 on page 34.
The drive volley is also hit as a server’s second shot in doubles when a high return floats out of the reach of the server’s partner at the net. the server, quickly reading the flight path of the oncoming ball, moves inside the baseline and hits an aggressive drive volley either crosscourt to the returner on the baseline or down the line to the returner’s partner at the net. this shot helps the serving team maintain dominance over the returning team for the same reasons as it does for the serving singles player.
