Studia Kinanthropologica 2025, 26(1):7-13 | DOI: 10.32725/sk.2025.003

The toss of successful and unsuccessful flat serves of female tennis players

J. Carboch, & D. Hrychová
Univerzita Karlova, Fakulta tělesné výchovy a sportu

The flat serve reaches the highest speeds. To execute it successfully, the key is to toss the ball correctly and hit it. The aim is to determine the relationship between the toss and the success of the flat serve in female tennis players. We observed 8 competitive female adult tennis players who served 40 flat serves each. They were videotaped on a high-speed camera (200Hz) from the side view. On the basis of 2D kinematic analysis, we evaluated the racket-ball impact during 1) successful serves 2) serves into the net 3) serves fault–long 4) serves fault–wide. Using repeated measures ANOVA, the results showed that the toss peak was significantly lower (approx. 5 cm) for fault serves wide 351,7 ± 21,9 cm ((p < 0.05) compared to all other serve outcomes. The ball impact did not show any statistically significant differences, although fault serves wide had racket-ball contact closest to the baseline, and serves into the net the furthest. Kinematic analyses revealed some characteristics and variability in serve toss of selected serve outcomes. The serve toss affects the success of the serve, but players can to some extent use their own movement skills to compensate for its inaccuracies and make corrections in their movement to achieve a successful serve. One reason for fault serve wide is a low toss.

Keywords: kinematic analysis; first serve; movement skills; game performance

Received: December 15, 2024; Revised: January 8, 2025; Accepted: January 17, 2025; Published: May 12, 2025  Show citation

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Carboch J, & Hrychová D. The toss of successful and unsuccessful flat serves of female tennis players. Studia Kinanthropologica. 2025;26(1):7-13. doi: 10.32725/sk.2025.003.
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