recieving extreme topspin serve

a guy i play on a regular basis puts me on the defense almost every point with  an extremely strong topspin backhand serve. The ball jumps so much faster off the bounce because of the topspin, it is very hard to read... does anyone have any suggestions on a stroke to return this much topspin?

simple way is to just touch it back short with slightly closed paddle or smash it. 

If the serve is any good, trying to smash it is only recommended if you are on a suicide harakiri mission. A good quality topspin serve is so low that a smash is no option. If it's long enough you can play topspin. If it's short I'd try to chop it short (short is more important than low if you place your return on the middle line because your opponent can't easiy attack these balls because the table is in the way) Medium long topspin serves can be flipped, chopped or carefully attacked with an over the table topspin.

If your opponent messes up and his topspin serve is high enough then smash, of course.

YATTP wrote: If the serve is any good, trying to smash it is only recommended if you are on a suicide harakiri mission. A good quality topspin serve is so low that a smash is no option. If it's long enough you can play topspin. If it's short I'd try to chop it short (short is more important than low if you place your return on the middle line because your opponent can't easiy attack these balls because the table is in the way) Medium long topspin serves can be flipped, chopped or carefully attacked with an over the table topspin. If your opponent messes up and his topspin serve is high enough then smash, of course.

Swiffers wrote: YATTP wrote: If the serve is any good, trying to smash it is only recommended if you are on a suicide harakiri mission. A good quality topspin serve is so low that a smash is no option. If it's long enough you can play topspin. If it's short I'd try to chop it short (short is more important than low if you place your return on the middle line because your opponent can't easiy attack these balls because the table is in the way) Medium long topspin serves can be flipped, chopped or carefully attacked with an over the table topspin. If your opponent messes up and his topspin serve is high enough then smash, of course. I disagree.  I think you should be able to smash these.  And I totally disagree  with trying to touch chop back the short service topspin.  I mean, it's to difficult and annoying to pull off.  At least to pull off without popping one up.

I'm with YATTP. If all topspin serves were smashable, then the pros would be smashing these, since they are the best. The reality is that if a topspin serve is short and low, you ain't never gonna smash it. Pros use short topspin serves a plenty and don't get smashed.

If you watch Wang Liqin (I think it's him), when a right-hander does a forehand short side-topspin serve, often he returns it with his forehand by keeping a slightly closed angle, and sliding his racket to the left. It's basically a gentle touch return, but he's sliding sideways as he does it. This is sort of hard to describe with words. But in any case, the topspin will put the ball back up just high enough to clear the net, and stay fairly short, maybe barely clearing the end of the table.

I often just touch return them with the backhand, with a closed racket angle. You could also try a backhand flick.

 

Sorry guys, i went to bed shortly after posting this last night. Thanks for the great advice, seems most people think smashing it back is the simple answer. However, this serve is coming after his drop shot serve and with alot of speed, so i can't sit back and smash it all the time because very often he catches me anticipating his short serves. The serve lands mid table, barely leaving the back of the table, but again, with great speed and spin that actually increases the speed of the ball off the bounce. He serves to backhand and forehand with this serve. Mostly, I find it easier to chop the back over the net, and let his topspin do all the work. Sometimes this is affective, but mostly not, because I have to make such a good chop return every time to prevent him from smashing it 3rd ball. With that said, should I still just work on jumping on this serve trying to smash it, which ends in unforced errors most of the time? Or should i just play it safe and try to get a good return defensively, and live to play another swing?

p_i_n_g_GO wrote: Sorry guys, i went to bed shortly after posting this last night. Thanks for the great advice, seems most people think smashing it back is the simple answer. However, this serve is coming after his drop shot serve and with alot of speed, so i can't sit back and smash it all the time because very often he catches me anticipating his short serves. The serve lands mid table, barely leaving the back of the table, but again, with great speed and spin that actually increases the speed of the ball off the bounce. He serves to backhand and forehand with this serve. Mostly, I find it easier to chop the back over the net, and let his topspin do all the work. Sometimes this is affective, but mostly not, because I have to make such a good chop return every time to prevent him from smashing it 3rd ball. With that said, should I still just work on jumping on this serve trying to smash it, which ends in unforced errors most of the time? Or should i just play it safe and try to get a good return defensively, and live to play another swing?

Since it's fast, topspin, landing mid-table, and just falling off the end of the table, I'm concluding that it's a low serve. I do this same serve, to both backhand and forehand sides. If you try to smash, you have nothing to aim for except net and sky. Try blocking it or looping it. Since it's not far off the table, you shouldn't have much trouble with positioning for a loop.

Definitely don't chop. If you're not a chopper, then it's too hard to do consistently, and you have much safer, easier options.

thanks, appreciate everyones help, i had much success today agains his serves kind of building my own idea around all of yours, mostly looping it if it's slow was successful and caught him off guard, and smashing it if he left it high. beat him 3 out of 5 games today, thats a first :-D.

MildSeven wrote: Hit it, and hit it hard. It doesn't even need to be very high, only higher than the net.

If you can hit it, it's a weak serve.

chopping back his heavy topspin serve for me is easy, i hardly ever make unforced errors, but it's too passive, and he simply goes balls to the wall on the 3rd ball :(. I guess it just takes practice to chop it back over the net, since this post i vary between chopping it and looping it, keeping him off balance, and it appears to be working.

Take the ball as early as possible.