Receiving Windscreen Wiper Serve Tips

[AdamTT]

I have a match tonight in my 1st div league. The top opponent has only lost one match all season and has an annoyingly good windscreen wiper serve, he's also been in the prem league for about 20 years and recently dropped into the 1st I believe due to age/health/lack of mobility, however he's still very good and was winning most of his premiership games at the start of the season before he dropped. I've only ever played him in practice and know that once I get the serve in I have a good chance of beating him. Any tips on how to return it would be appreciated. I've watched a few videos on how to do the serve which actually helped my understanding of the spin as I now get that depending on what part of the arc the ball is struck it could either have top/side, side, under/side on it so I know to look out for that. He's a right hander so I know that unless it's a reverse motion I should also be pushing it back to my left too.

 

[Takkyu_wa_inochi]

It should be clear which side spin it is / how the trajectory will curve.

It will be more difficult to tell if it’s also topspin / under spin or just pure side spin

Try to watch the wrist, the racquet angle at impact and angle, and the bounce …and also for meta hints: is it always under spin when he throws the ball higher for example etc…

 

[vvk1]

I have a match tonight in my 1st div league. The top opponent has only lost one match all season and has an annoyingly good windscreen wiper serve, he's also been in the prem league for about 20 years and recently dropped into the 1st I believe due to age/health/lack of mobility, however he's still very good and was winning most of his premiership games at the start of the season before he dropped. I've only ever played him in practice and know that once I get the serve in I have a good chance of beating him. Any tips on how to return it would be appreciated. I've watched a few videos on how to do the serve which actually helped my understanding of the spin as I now get that depending on what part of the arc the ball is struck it could either have top/side, side, under/side on it so I know to look out for that. He's a right hander so I know that unless it's a reverse motion I should also be pushing it back to my left too.

Ruta Paskauskiene used such serves quite frequently and I learned how to receive them by watching what her opponents did. E.g.

 

[AdamTT]

Ruta Paskauskiene used such serves quite frequently and I learned how to receive them by watching what her opponents did. E.g.

this is excellent, thank you

 

[NextLevel]

In general, for sidespin - underspin, a lot of the difficulty is created when you don't contact the same side of the ball as the server did when pushing the ball and lifting upwards. If you start out with adjusting to that, you will have decent results.

 

[JJ Ng]

My only valuable feedback. If you find yourself hesitating and popping the ball up, and the opponent kills it every single time, then it is time for you to get aggressive with your serve return and put the pressure on the opponent. In other words, if you think it is either a side spin or side top spin, attack the ball aggressively. You will be better off then popping the ball up and let the opponent eats you for lunch.

What I have noticed is that, some players when I misjudge the spin, I still manage to put the ball in and cause the opponent problems. then I stay conservative and play my game.

But some players, their serves are so tricky that when you misjudge, you either put it off the edge of the table or they just attack your ball with 100% accuracy, then in that case, psychologically, just go for it. Both for your sake and for pressuring the opponent's psyche's sake.

 

[Gozo Aruna]

Just enjoy the music.

 

[blahness]

It should be clear which side spin it is / how the trajectory will curve.

It will be more difficult to tell if it’s also topspin / under spin or just pure side spin

Try to watch the wrist, the racquet angle at impact and angle, and the bounce …and also for meta hints: is it always under spin when he throws the ball higher for example etc…

yes this is the hard part, with ppl who have fast body-powered serve actions, the difference between sidetopspin and sideunderspin can be incredibly subtle. Clearly OP's opponent is of very high level. In which case simplistic stuff which are parroted too often most likely won't work at all - he probably has mastered the art of disguising the serve spin very well (otherwise he wouldn't be that high of a level). What I would suggest in addition to what you said is - don't attempt to take the ball early and watch the trajectory like a hawk especially the 1st bounce on the opponent's side of the table - this will allow you to get a hint of what the ball is - underspin balls slow down and topspin balls accelerate during the 1st bounce. No spin balls usually allow you to spot the logo. Adjust your receive to information that you gleaned from the bounce and use receives that produce a lot of spin (slow safety loops, sideswipes, chiquita, slow pushes etc...) to try to get a more forgiving stroke and land the ball on the table. Either that, or play with LPs - the ultimate dirty secret to serve receive lol.

 

[AdamTT]

My only valuable feedback. If you find yourself hesitating and popping the ball up, and the opponent kills it every single time, then it is time for you to get aggressive with your serve return and put the pressure on the opponent. In other words, if you think it is either a side spin or side top spin, attack the ball aggressively. You will be better off then popping the ball up and let the opponent eats you for lunch.

What I have noticed is that, some players when I misjudge the spin, I still manage to put the ball in and cause the opponent problems. then I stay conservative and play my game.

But some players, their serves are so tricky that when you misjudge, you either put it off the edge of the table or they just attack your ball with 100% accuracy, then in that case, psychologically, just go for it. Both for your sake and for pressuring the opponent's psyche's sake.

You hit the nail on the head with this. Your advice and the other tips in this thread were invaluable and I pretty much managed to get all his serves back. It turned out to not even look like a traditional wiper serve and he had all sorts of strange serves. You were right though, I was so focussed on returning and getting the ball in a bit passively that I was then pretty much always on the backfoot and his 3rd ball/5th ball attacks were brutal. I almost got the first set but then he took more lead as I started to tighten up and I lost 12-10, 11-5, 11-4. Still, my win % is 87 this season vs my first league last year of 53% so I know I'm improving! Just need patience!