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Where should a padel serve land?
Serve deep and wide toward the side glass. It stretches the returner and buys you the net.
You are serving from the right side to the deuce box. Where in the box is the best default target?
Serve deep and wide toward the side glass. It stretches the returner and buys you the net.
Why
Since the serve cannot be a weapon, its job is to make the return difficult and to give the server time to reach the net. Deep and wide does both: the ball lands near the back of the box and drifts toward the side glass, so the returner is either stretched wide or has to play it off the wall, and either way the return comes back slower and higher. A serve down the middle at a comfortable height is the one every returner hopes for. The body serve, into the returner's hip, is the second good target. It cramps them and produces a mishit.
What this means at your level
Beginner
Aim for the back corner of the box nearest the side glass. Depth matters more than anything else.
Intermediate
The wide serve into the glass works when it lands deep; short and wide is easy. Practise landing it in the last metre of the box.
Advanced
Alternate the wide serve with the body serve. A returner who is stepping wide to cover the glass leaves the hip open, and the body serve then produces the weakest return of all.
Common questions
You are serving from the right side to the deuce box. Where in the box is the best default target?
Deep and wide, into the glass. Serve deep and wide toward the side glass. It stretches the returner and buys you the net. Since the serve cannot be a weapon, its job is to make the return difficult and to give the server time to reach the net. Deep and wide does both: the ball lands near the back of the box and drifts toward the side glass, so the returner is either stretched wide or has to play it off the wall, and either way the return comes back slower and higher. A serve down the middle at a comfortable height is the one every returner hopes for. The body serve, into the returner's hip, is the second good target. It cramps them and produces a mishit.
Why not down the middle, as hard as the rules allow?
The serve cannot be hit hard. Down the middle at a comfortable height is the easiest return on the court.
What should a beginner do here?
Aim for the back corner of the box nearest the side glass. Depth matters more than anything else.
How does this change for an advanced player?
Alternate the wide serve with the body serve. A returner who is stepping wide to cover the glass leaves the hip open, and the body serve then produces the weakest return of all.
Puzzles like this one
Both of them are at the net. What is the highest-percentage ball?
Only the lob moves a net pair backwards. Everything else invites them forward.
beginnerYou have served. Where do you go?
In padel you serve in order to get to the net. Serve, then go.
intermediateWhat do you do with the return of serve?
The return lob is how the receiving pair steals the net. Aim over the player who is still moving.