WATCH: Andy Murray's underarm serve and his later explanation
In his first round match at the 2022 Wimbledon, Andy Murray defeated James Duckworth in four sets, also thanks to a his ability to adapt.
After losing the first set, former world number 1 got up and running in the second and confirmed his lead in the third set with an early break. After breaking his opponent and gaining the lead, Andy Murray used an underarm serve after which he won a point.
“He changed his return position, that’s why I did it. He was standing very close to return. He was struggling a little bit on the first-serve return, so he stepped probably two meters further back. As soon as I saw him step further back, I threw the underarm serve in."
“I personally have no issue with players using it. I never have. Certainly more and more players have started returning from further, further behind the baseline now to give themselves an advantage to return. The underarm serve is a way of saying, If you’re going to step back there, then I’m going to possibly throw that in.”
“I don’t know why people have ever found it potentially disrespectful or… I don’t know. I’ve never understood that. It’s a legitimate way of serving. I would never use an underarm serve if someone was standing on the baseline because I think it’s a stupid idea because they’re going to track it down and it’s easy to get."
“If they stand four or five meters behind the baseline, then why would you not do that to try to bring them forward if they’re not comfortable returning there? Tactically it’s a smart play. No one says it’s disrespectful for someone to return from six meters, whatever, five meters behind the baseline to try to get an advantage. So I used it not to be disrespectful to him but to say, If you’re going to step further back to return the serve to give yourself more time, then I’m going to exploit that.”
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