Venus Williams – Big service 3.0
Venus Williams (*80 / USA), winner of 7 Grand Slam singles titles, is one of the living legends of female tennis and together with her even a bit more successful younger sister Serena (*81) they are the most successful sisters in the history of tennis. Besides their combined total of 30 Grands singles titles, they won also 14 Grand Slam doubles titles (all as of February 2017).
While Serena’s service is being considered as the best in the game, service of her sister Venus is not that much behind…, besides solid technique also her tall body of 185 cm (6’1”) helps. The situation that Venus tends (mainly under stress) to tilt her head to the left side before the impact might be one of the reasons for her rather higher double fault rate than the one of Serena and sometimes erratic motions… The other risk factor is the sliding of the right foot too much to the right during the transfer from the platform to the pinpoint stance, which sometimes leads to a bit premature right hip rotation forward. Venus otherwise uses the energy from her body in most of her services extremely well and clearly fulfills the Service 3.0 standards standing for the service dominated by the efficient use of the body energy.
The photos from the 2015 US.Open presented below show the tilting of the head to the left side slightly only. In my opinion, Venus worked on this issue, which was more visible around 2011-13. The situation as seen below is then on the border of just an idiosyncrasy.
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match warm-up – add side – 1 of 8 – stable toss / lose beginning of backswing – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match warm-up – 2 of 8 – backswing / transfer to the pinpoint stance – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match warm-up – 3 of 8 – loading 1 – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match warm-up – 4 of 8 – loading 2 with a slight opening of the right hip – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match warm-up – 5 of 8 – push-off / cocking with a perfectly alined racket, good eye control, but the head is slightly tilted to the left- 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match warm-up – 6 of 8 – follow through 1 = perfectly controlled targeted pronation – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match warm-up – 7 of 8 – follow through 2 = relaxation – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match warm-up – 8 of 8 – advancement into the court / follow through 2 = relaxation continues – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match – deuce side – 1 of 9 – well-controlled toss with high ball release point – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match – 2 of 9 – toss / backswing – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match – 3 of 9 – backswing / loading starts – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match – 4 of 9 – transfer / loading – well-controlled left arm position brings body stability – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match – 5 of 9 – loading continues, the right hip is opening probably a bit too early – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match – 6 of 9 – push-off / cocking – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match – 7 of 9 – impact with eyes looking already forward – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match – 8 of 9 – end of follow through 1, the hitting arm is going from the pronation into the supination – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in a match – 9 of 9 – entry into the court / follow through 2 = relaxation – 2015 US.Open – NYC
Venus Williams (*80 / USA) – 1st service in the practice – follow through 1 = perfect targeted pronation brings perfect body energy integration into the stroke – 2007 US.Open
This article is just a partial stroke analysis not addressing all of the aspects involved. More information and further detailed photos are available upon request at drmgb11(at)gmail.com
Photos (August 2007, 2015) & text (February 2017) copyright by Dr. Martin G. Baroch
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