Hey there!

Look, hitting a more powerful serve is a topic that has a lot of moving parts.

In this video, I’m teaming up with the crew at Essential Tennis to entertainingly (if that’s even a word?) offer you our top 4 “secrets” to getting more power on your serve.

1. Ian talks about the need to move away from the “waiter’s serve” where the palm stays open during the backswing and the trophy pose.  It’s important to move towards keeping the palm rounded and facing downward with loaded shoulders in the trophy pose, so you can achieve a wrist “snap”. Not to mention nobody can come put cupcakes on your racket during the serve and expect you to pass them out.
2. Kirby mentions the need to keep your toss in front of you, into the court. This prevents your momentum from falling backwards during the serve, and instead, encourages a good body lean into the court, ensuring that your momentum is going up into the ball. POW!
3. Ira tells us that his top tip for getting more serve power is to stay loose.  He says that most players “gear up” to try and hit a big serve, and usually end up trying too hard, getting tense, and ultimately not getting as much power behind their serve as they’d like. If you have trouble getting loose, tell your significant other you need a massage or a shot of tequila immediately.
4. Finally, Ramon talks about how to properly use your legs on the serve. He mentions the “squat and thrust” method, which some players on the tour still use (Such as Bouchard).  He then shows you the best way to use your legs which is through the “corkscrew method” where as your legs bend, your hips rotate away from the baseline, creating the coil… which will later be delivered into the ball.

For more great videos like this, please head over to my Youtube channel.

The 2023 US Open in New York brought to light an issue that affects professional tennis players around the world. Recently, Vox Video spoke with players and the head of the Professional Tennis Players Association to discuss the pay problem in our sport.

It turns out that tennis is unique in how players are paid, what costs they are responsible for, and how they are categorized as independent contractors. Unfortunately, this means that unless you are consistently among the very top-ranked players like Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Coco Gauff, and Iga Swiatek, it’s nearly impossible to make a living with income from tennis alone.

It’s concerning that, unlike other sports (like football, baseball, and basketball) that provide support for athletes outside the very top performers, tennis leaves them high and dry. Professional tennis players not only have to pay for coaching, training, travel, and accommodations for tournaments, food, equipment, and all medical needs.

• A shocking 80% of the top 1000 players don’t earn enough from the sport to cover the expenses of playing at the top level.
• Even players ranked between 751-1000 earn between $5500-$4400 compared to the top 10, who bring in between $6.5-3.69 million.

It’s important that we hear from professional players like Taylor Townsend, Hubert Hurkacz, and Alycia Parks, as well as the Executive Director of the Professional Tennis Players Association, Ahmad Nassar, to understand the challenges they face and work towards a solution.

Yes, we understand that Taylor Townsend is currently on a come-back winning streak, with year-to-date earnings of $988,223. And Hubert Hurzack has earned $1,988,312 so far this year. Alycia Parks has also had a good year with $690,400 in earnings. So why do they appear in this video discussing tennis players who are struggling to make a living? Simple – they used to be those players, and are open to talking about it. And if they get injured and need expensive surgery(ies) and treatment, they can easily become those players again.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you feel that the lower-level professional tennis players should earn more for their matches? Or do you feel that the system is fair as it is? Let’s discuss in the comments below.

Tennis has produced plenty of stars famous for what they wore on the court – it’s made a fashion icon out of the like of Anna Kournikova. Likewise, Emma Raducanu’s Tiffany jewelry pieces have already become the talk of the tennis world.

Like Raducanu’s jewelry, it isn’t always what a player wears off the court that raises eyebrows – indeed, many players have made fashion statements on the court in the form of glasses. Players wearing glasses is not new – Billie Jean King often wore glasses while playing, and she often stressed their importance in her career.

Tennis Players Who Wore Glasses On The Court

Whether they wore sunglasses or eyeglasses, these tennis players made huge statements with what was on their faces during their matches.

Sam Stosur

Sam Stosur is one of many players who chose to wear an iconic brand of sunglasses while playing. Indeed, Oakley sunglasses have become a staple of the game for many players. Stosur preferred the Half Jacket range when she was on the court. They’re both lightweight and functional, with polarized lenses to protect from glare and high-quality acetate frames.

The 39-year-old Australian player was a US Open winner in 2010 and was once ranked number one in the world for doubles with victories in the French Open (2006), Australian Open (2019), and twice in the US Open (2005, 2021).

Natasha Zvereva

Natasha Zvereva was often seen on the court wearing sunglasses and was also known to favor Oakley. She often wore a wraparound pair, which increased the stability while playing, and had tinted orange lenses for some matches.

Though Zvereva played singles tennis, she became famous for her doubles tennis. From 1989 to 1997, she amassed 18 Grand Slam titles, including four Wimbledon titles in a row between 1991 and 1994. She also broke ground politically as the first major Soviet Union athlete to publicly request that she should be able to keep her tournament earnings which were going into Soviet coffers, while she received only expense money.

Janko Tipsarevic

Janko Tipsarevic is a player we featured in our article Tennis Careers That Sparked But Never Flamed and is another player who, like Billie Jean King, needed prescription glasses for tennis. He also favored Oakley, utilizing the Oakley True Digital Corrective Lens technology when beating Andy Roddick in 2010. Towards the end of his career, he wore the Oakley Rx Flak Jacket sunglasses, popular with cyclists and golfers.

Unlike our first two players, Tipsarevic never tasted Grand Slam success. However, he made it into the quarter-finals of the US Open in 2011 and 2012 and was a member of the Davis Cup-winning team in 2010.

Martina Navratilova

While Tipsarevic needed prescription sunglasses, Martina Navratilova needed regular glasses to get her through a match. The image of her wearing eyewear and lifting trophies is something etched onto the mind of tennis fans from the eighties. She started wearing glasses in 1985, attributing a loss in form to her failing eyesight.

The fix must have worked for her; she won three Wimbledon titles on the bounce (1985, 1986, and 1987) while wearing glasses, as well as the Australian Open (1985) and two US Opens (1986, 1987). She also captured 13 Grand Slam doubles titles while wearing eyeglasses, usually with long-time doubles partner Pam Shriver.