The Second Serve Ace

        The second serve could be one of the most important shots in tennis. If you can't start the point, you definitely can't win the point. At the lower levels of tennis, you were probably a "pusher" and just tapped the ball in. However, you eventually get to the point where you can't do that because your opponent will win the point straight off the return. As you advance, you get to the point where your second serve is still not as hard as your first serve, but you can feel confident about not being pulverized by your opponent off the return. In order to prevent that from happening, I bet that most of your coaches have probably told you to hit your second serve to your opponents backhand to increase your chances of starting the point on offense. That is generally the "safe" thing to do, but what you may not have known is that you can actually sneak an ace off your second serve one or two times in a match!
        The key to hitting the ace here is understanding that your opponent is probably expecting the "safe" serve to their backhand. In many instances, they will try to run around your second serve and hit a forehand because that is a generally a player's stronger shot. If you anticipate this move, you will notice that their forehand side is left wide open. I used the term "sneak" earlier because after you do this once or twice, your opponent will most likely stop trying to run around your serves. However, if they don't stop you can rack up even more aces!
       The best opportunity to do this for a right-handed player is when you are serving on the deuce side against another right-handed player. Your opponent will try running around towards the middle of the court so you can serve it to the outside. For a left-handed player against a left-handed player it is the same situation just on the ad side. This strategy is not as effective if you play someone who uses the opposite hand (right against left, left against right) because it is harder to serve to the outside in these situations.

Here you can watch tennis star Maria Sharapova employ this strategy:
Second Serve Ace Example

Whack those aces!