Why Holding Serve Matters So Much in Women's Tennis: A Coach's Guide to Training the Serve for Competition

By Paul Dale | The 3AM Method

In women's tennis, players lose roughly one service game in three. The coach who helps players hold serve more often creates a huge opportunity for them to win more matches and improve their ranking.

The service game that isn't a formality

An examination of the Serve in women's competitive tennis
uncovers opportunities to exploit 

If you coach women's competitive players, you've seen it many times. A player wins a long, hard-fought return game to break serve. Then walks to the baseline to serve, and within a few minutes the break is gone. The set goes back to level. The momentum she worked so hard for disappears.

This is a frustrating pattern in women's tennis. Research on Grand Slam matches found that women hold serve about 65% of the time. Men hold serve about 80% of the time. That means women lose serve roughly every third service game, compared with roughly every fifth in the men's game.

For coaches, this opens up an area of the women's game they can exploit and improve.

"In women's tennis, don't allow your serve to become a way of starting the point. It's needs to become highly prized and worth fighting for" — Paul Dale

Why Do Women Lose Serve So Often in Tennis?

The numbers are clear, and they come from multiple sources.

A study by physicist Rod Cross, published in the ITF Coaching and Sport Science Review, looked at Grand Slam matches from 2002 to 2013. It found:

• How often the server is broken: roughly every fifth game for men, roughly every third game for women
• Aces and double faults: men served about twice as many aces as double faults, while women served about twice as many double faults as aces
• Double faults at the Australian Open: women lost a point to a double fault about once every 18 serves, men about once every 30

A separate analysis by Dave Renham at TennisProfits covered more than 1,000 WTA matches. It found almost exactly the same thing: about 64% of service games are held.

Some of this is physical. Men serve faster on average, and a faster serve wins more free points. But women can still apply pressure on their service points by smarter ball placement. Too often, women serve through the middle of the service box and simply start the point.

And speed and accuracy are only part of the story. The double fault figures tell us something important: in the women's game, the serve too often gives points away instead of winning them. And that isn't a question of power. It's a question of technique, commitment and mindset - these can be trained.

You also have to consider the returner. Because the serve is below par in the women's game, players have been taught to pressure the second serve and are very good returners. When a first serve is missed, the returner is waiting. A service game can turn into a defensive exercise.

The second serve has now become an opportunity to attack early in the point

How Much Is Holding Serve Worth in Women's Tennis?

I've been telling my female students to adopt a simple mindset in matches lately:

"Treat your serve as if it's worth one and a half games, not one." — Paul Dale

Here's why. Because a service game is lost one time in three, every hold is a game your opponent had a real chance of taking. Holding doesn't just keep you level. It wins you a game that was up for grabs and puts pressure back on her next service game.

To show what this means for results, I modelled a set between two evenly matched players, each holding serve about 64% of the time, which is the WTA average. Each player starts with a 50-50 chance of winning the set. Then I raised one player's hold rate. These are estimates from a simple model, not tour statistics, but they show clearly how powerful the serve is:

• Hold 5 percentage points more often (64% to 69%): her chance of winning the set rises to about 58%.
• Hold 10 percentage points more often (64% to 74%): it rises to about 65%.
• Hold 30% more often (64% to about 83%): it rises to nearly 80%.

Think about that as a coach. A player who holds serve 30% more often than her opponent, with everything else equal, wins roughly four sets in five. Very few changes in a player's game can produce a swing that large.

"A small improvement in how often you hold serve makes a huge difference to results. In women's tennis, the serve is where matches are quietly decided." — Paul Dale

Why Many Women Players Undervalue the Serve

In many years of coaching women players, from juniors to tour professionals, I've noticed a pattern. It isn't about ability. The women I've coached have been every bit as capable of building a reliable, purposeful serve. It's about emphasis.

Practice time goes to the rally. The rally gets the best hours of the day. In many programmes, the serve gets a basket at the end of the session, when the player is tired, and often never includes points involving the serve. 

The serve is seen as a starter, not a weapon. Many players think of the serve as the shot that starts the point, then try to win it from the baseline. That mindset makes the first serve a "get it in" shot and the second serve a "don't miss" shot. Neither mindset helps you win games.

The serve isn't measured. Ask most junior players what their first serve percentage or hold percentage was in their last match, and they can't tell you. Often, neither can their coach. An element you don't measure is an element you can't train.

You don't train pressure into the serve. Serve practice usually involves a basket. You're working on serve technique but seldom using it under pressure. In matches, players either lose control of their serve or tighten up. The wrist locks, the racquet head slows, and the double faults follow.

If most of your opponents undervalue the serve, the player who trains it properly gains an edge the rest of the field is leaving on the table.

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COACH ACTION

• Teach the 1.5 principle. Explain why, in women's tennis, a hold is worth more than it looks. Let it change how your players value the serve.
• Show them the numbers. Share the research: women lose serve roughly every third game. Players take the serve more seriously once they see the data.
• Protect serve practice time. Plan a serve block into every session, when players are fresh.
• Measure what matters. Chart hold percentage and first serve percentage in every practice set.
• Train the second serve against attack. Your players will face aggressive returners. Prepare them for it in practice.
• Give one cue, not five. Front foot or relaxed wrist. Let the player choose, then hold her to it.

Create a systematic process to help your players serve better during competition

PLAYER ACTION

• Know your hold percentage. After every match, count how many service games you held.
• Treat every service game as worth 1.5 games. Your opponent is trying hard to take it. Value it the same way.
• Find your first gear. Know the first serve you can land at 30–40 in a tight set.
• Build a second serve you trust. Ask practice partners to attack it, and learn which second serve holds up.
• Guard the gap after a double fault. Your opponent is watching. Go to your routine and pick one cue for the next serve.

The Serve Is Where Women's Matches Are Quietly Decided

In women's tennis, the serve is rarely the reason a match is remembered. People remember the long rallies, the passing shots, the big returns. But the data says something different: the player who holds serve more often very often wins, even if the difference is only one or two service games a set. And in the Women's game many matches are up for grabs.

That's why, in The 3AM Method, we ask coaches of women players to treat the serve as a priority, not an afterthought. Protect the time. Measure the numbers. Train it under pressure. And teach every player that her serve is worth one and a half games.