coaches often encourage their players to ‘sneak’ when rallying, so why not do this after a good first serve? If the server sees the return floating or short, she should try to take the return out of the air by sneaking (or ‘ghosting’) in to the net. Like the first serve and drive volley, the first serve and sneak is an instinctive tactic based on the effectiveness of the serve. This means that the player makes her decision after her first serve rather than before it. (This differs from the traditional serve and volley tactic, described next, in which the server decides to come in behind her serve before the point starts.)
The difference between the first serve and sneak and the first serve and drive volley is that the drive volley will be hit against the high, floating return, whereas the sneak volley will be hit against the lower return. This will either be an orthodox volley or, if the return falls very close to the net, a short, ‘put-away’ groundstroke. Although this uses a groundstroke, the server has still used the sneak tactic to play it.
To practice using the sneak after the first serve, see drill 1.8 on page 35.
The sneak volley is also hit by the server as a second shot in doubles when the returner is under pressure from the serve. In a similar way in which the drive volley is hit, if the return gets past the server’s partner at the net, then the sneak volley becomes an option for the server if she is quick enough to react. This is an important tactic for the server to use (even if she plays most of her service points from the baseline) because it shows her opponents that she is prepared to play from the net at any time. This variety in play prevents her opponents from feeling too comfortable on the return. If the server plays only from the baseline, then the players on the returning team know that as long as they return away from the net player, they will have time to regain a good court position after the serve. Indeed, even if the server misses her sneak volley, she may have still planted an important element of doubt in the returning team’s mind.
