Expert asks opponents to surprise Rafael Nadal by underarm serve

Nadal has come back to form and fitness and he announced it with a convincing 6-3, 6-2 win against Kei Nishikori in the Monte Carlo final. In a bid to remain at the top of his game and ahead of everyone else at the age of 31, Nadal has been seen changing his return position that is much behind the baseline now. It has actually helped the Spaniard to react more efficiently to strong serving opponents and breaking them more regularly.

Briggs has asked players to take their chances in this opportunity by serving underarm, which would force Nadal to advance to return them and consequently allowing his opponents to catch him off position more often. 

“Clay is the hardest surface of which to achieve a surprise result. Craig O'Shannessy, the analyst and coach, has suggested that somebody should try an underarm serve because Rafa is standing to receive the serve so far back. If you are behind the court you almost can’t see him. That has become his strategy because it gives him time to take a full swing at the ball,” Briggs told the Tennis Podcast.

“There was talk that throwing in an underarm serve would be against the spirit of the game for tactic reasons. But I don’t see that at all. I think it would be fascinating and would disrupt what he is doing at the moment,” he further added.

However, it wouldn’t always work as the 16-time Grand Slam winner is surely having a plan B up his sleeves. And David Law has pointed out the same by questioning Briggs’ tactics.

“You can only really do that once, can’t you?  It would only win you one point. Once you’ve thrown in your underarm serve it is no longer a surprise tactic, is it?,” he asked.