A legitimate tactic: Andy Murray throws his support behind the use of underarm serve
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Former World No.1 Andy Murray has commented on the use of the underarm serve during his routine Nitto ATP Finals Twitch stream with Gael Monfils. Murray saw the use of this serve during Daniil Medvedev’s match against Alexander Zverev at the ATP Finals, where the Russian used the controversial serve at the end of the second set.
Murray admitted his surprise when he saw the underarm serve but said that he had no issues with the use of it.
I think it’s a completely legitimate play: Andy Murray
Speaking to Monfils, Murray expressed his discontent towards the tennis critics who frown upon the use of underarm serve.
“It’s quite interesting because always when that happens, the commentators and the pundits start going, ‘Is it disrespectful to hit an underarm serve?’… and I don’t understand it,” Murray said.
Former Olympic gold medalist also believes that there is no disrespect when a player uses the underarm serve. “I don’t understand why that should be disrespectful if players are going to stand six, seven metres behind the baseline to return the serve. I think it’s a completely legitimate play and I think as we’ve seen, it actually has been at times pretty successful,” said the Brit.
Murray goes on to say, “It’s not like players are doing it just to mess around or make fun of the opponent.”
According to the Former ATP Finals Champions, players only use the tactic when they feel they can gain an advantage from it.
Monfils concurred with Murray’s view and added, “It’s also not that easy to do it.” Murray also highlighted the risk that a player takes when he uses this type of serve, saying, “I’d imagine if you miss it as well – I don’t remember ever doing it in a professional match – you’d probably feel quite silly. You feel like a bit of an idiot.”
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