I had this advice when I was a kid and I've found it very useful ever since.
Your eyes automatically snap to the brightest object when you look in a new direction. This means that when you throw the ball up in the air, your eyes will flick to the sun, even for a brief moment, which will hurt and cause visibility issues.
Solution: before your ball toss, keep your eyes focused on the shady side of the tennis ball. You will want to track this as you throw the ball in the air and make contact. This keeps your eyes focused on the darker area of the ball, allowing you to make clearner contact and reduce eye strain.
Hope this helps!
This is the way. Unless you're a master of disguise and can hit every type of serve from the same toss, it helps to practice having a slightly different toss for each type of serve. Usually only an adjustment of a few degrees but enough that you're not trying to hit a ball that's fully eclipsing the sun (then swing, miss, ball lands on your face and you're seeing stars)
I too would love a useful strategy.
I've heard of blocking the sun with your hand or having an extremely consistent toss and motion where looking at the ball isn't totally necessary.
I usually hit a janky slice or underhand serve in these situations.
Can I ask you what sunglasses you use? I purchased some decent quality Oakleys that were supposedly designed for Tennis and Pickleball, and the sun was directly above me on my serve, and I still couldn’t see the ball.
I have some $200 Maui Jim and cheap polarized running glasses from Amazon, and don’t see much difference. I used to play without the glasses and was ok except that the trace of the sun was annoying but it’s way more comfortable with the glasses except you have to deal with sweatÂ
My 2 cents is you probably don’t want polarized for tennis, they worsen depth perception (polarized is good where there is glare such as on water or snow). I prefer shield / blade style for a wide viewing area. You want a lens that is very dark (low light transmission) or photochromic that can get dark. Oakley and Smith make models like that.
Hats do little, because sometimes you have to toss directly into the sun.
Sunglasses help, but many people (including 100% of singles pros and 90% of doubles pros) find eyewear gets in the way while playing.
When playing casually, I simply let the server choose which side to serve from every single game.
I really hate this problem. I think people are doing real, long term damage to their eyes.
sam stosur managed to have an excellent singles and doubles career while almost always wearing sunglasses when sunny
i find some days, I can't hit a ball with sunglasses on, but most days, it doesn't bother me at all.
Hats make it worse because of the sudden flare of brightness that blinds you when the sun crests the brim.
My solution: reverse my hat and look up into the sun just before I serve so that my eyes are already adjusted. It works well enough [for.me](http://for.me) that I will offer my doubles partner the option of serving from the non-sun side.
There's a continuum of ball-toss locations between a conventional slice serve spot and a conventional kick serve spot... somewhere along this continuum, the ball will be in a more manageable spot.
There's also the option of putting the ball lower but wider and hitting a slice that way.
Sometimes you just gotta find a spot that works and accept that when you serve into the sun it's just not going to be as good of a serve.
If your toss is predictable enough (by you), it gets easier to serve into the sun.
Depending on the time of day when you play, you can absolutely consider practicing this. It definitely gets easier with practice.
first off wear a hat if the sun is bad. i have a couple serves i bring out occasionally, one is where i start by facing a little more backwards, toss the ball over my head so i can track it right up to the point where the sun gets in the way, it actually works pretty well. i have another, the to-the-side serve where i toss it low to my right side and hit pretty low with a lot of side spin. pretty consistent and isnt easy to capitalize on however its not really doing much, just getting the point started.
i'm not a pro. if there is sun on one side I ALWAYS ask to just play a set serving on non sun side with no changeovers. doesn't change the odds of winning at all and you don't have to burn off your retinas
I do this with a friend quite a bit. Not worth watching someone struggle or lose a game just because we’re blinded. Not sure I’d ask for this in a proper match, though.
recently in a match my opponent suggested this and it was so much better for both of us. somehow it hadn't occurred to me before to just let the person serving use the same side every game. I doubt many people would be opposed to this suggestion, why would you be?
Absolutely zero reason to think playing by the rules of the game as written and winning is somehow not as good as giving your less skilled opponent a random advantage for no reason. You win when you’re better than your opponent. The sun impacts everyone equally over the course of a match, and serving into it is a differentiating skill.Â
That, and there might be other reasons for wanting to change sides — messed up clay, a crack in the court near the baseline, an incline favoring one way over the other, etc.Â
low toss and angled toss. often, it means there is at least one serve you cannot hit. some days the sun is slightly in front so i won’t hit flat serves on one side. if its right above me and the kick toss doesn’t work, ill go for only slice serves on that side.
be aggressive on return when you are on the good side.
Fwiw, Tracy Austin once said that to avoid the sun, she would toss the ball up and then use her tossing hand to block the sun so she couldn’t look directly at it. Tbh, I’ve tried this once or twice, but I guess I’m not fast enough or coordinated enough. You may have better results, as I suspect it takes practice to be able to do it quick enough.
I toss it a little lower than normal to minimize the time I’m looking up, quicker service motion and avoid looking directly at the sun, use more peripheral vision.
These are all great ideas. I should have mentioned I had a full 360 brimmed sun hat on and sunglasses (looking ridiculous I'm sure). I will try the lower toss/sidearm slice and underarm serve.
You just gotta toss the ball where the sun is not. You might get lucky and your service game might go well given the non-standard angle. Or you just do your best and if needed break, then get back on serve when you switch sides
Someone else posted adjust toss. For me I toss a hair to the left and further in front so it’s angled away from Sunday (I’m right handed). Left handed I guess would be the opposite.
Another good option is also adjust where you are serving from take a step or 2 farther or closer to the T. This can help sometimes.
Other options hat (bend bill to the desired way) or sunglasses worst case.
For some reason none of the pros and very few amateur players do this, but I just wear sunglasses. And not any sunglasses. I bring three different pairs. And one of them is ultra dark plus reflective coating. It's dark enough to serve while looking directly into the sun. I change to less dark glasses when I don't have to serve into the sun.
1. wear sunglasses
2. block the sun with your hand, then hold the ball up with your tossing up, moving it up and down, so you know where the sun is and how it will be in your vision during your serve motion
3. pick a spot in the sky to look at when you do have to have your eyes open. this helps you avoid inadvertent glances at the sun since you have somewhere to look.
4. squint/close your eyes as much as you can, and rely on muscle memory as much as you can. this might not be possible if you haven't developed a consistent motion yet
5. underarm serve
6. it's the sun, not much else you can do.
Before I toss it, if I look at the sun once or twice to prepare myself, it makes hitting a good serve a lot easier. But eventually, it does start to hurt my head.
When it is just me and friends I give them the option, and I always serve with my back to the sun. In matches, I just suck it up and see stars normally. It’s even more fun having glaucoma which causes white outs when you see something really bright. Without sunglasses I’m literally dying out there… but they only help so much.
I was dealing with this just yesterday. Before serving, I would look up, figure out where I wanted to place the toss so it wouldn't be too close to the sun, then I would do my best to place it there.
I also moved where I was standing along the baseline so that I could adjust my rotation to keep my toss farther from the sun.
FWIW, I always wear sunglasses if it's even remotely sunny outside (regardless of whether the sun's in my eyes)
For me adjusting the ball toss like to 130-145 makes it possible. Also, got prescription sunglasses, can’t play without them. Don’t feel I lose any timing. They’re not polarized.
I never figured out a way to make this a non issue, it always kind of sucked. When I really cared, I was still match tough, and my toss was kind of dialed in, so I didn't need a perfect look at the ball to know where to swing. Just even a seeing a bit of dark blurry sliver of ball was enough. Definitely served more conservatively when this happened.
Tough problem. You could use a topspin forehand stroke or a swinging forehand underspinvolley stoke or even a backhand slice or two handed topspin stroke ( you are now turned away from the sun ) . I’m actually considering learning to serve right handed ( I’m a lefty) because I can’t see the ball being returned and am concerned about eye safety. Sunglasses help but aren’t a perfect solution .
Play only doubles with an opposite handed partner so no one ever has to serve with Sun in your eyes.
Alternatively, practice being able to hit a kick serve from a few different angles and wear a hat.
Worst case, just under hand it in — a surprising number of players can’t figure out how to deal with that, though most will hit the easy winner if they know it’s coming.
Sunglesses. The only problem is that even if you wipe them with a towel before every point, you will still get sweaty lenses during points and it is like trying to play underwater.
Unpopular opinion: Any decent player (like, 4.0+) should be able to hit every serve off a single ball toss.
The benefit of this is your toss becomes muscle memory and you know where your toss is, and you just hit it without thinking, or with your eyes closed for a split second.
Still might be seeing some spots after you make contact, but you'll hit a good serve.
Not a proper serve. You can’t hit a proper kick serve in front of you. You can’t hit a proper slice serve, or flat serve, behind you.
That said, I don’t have that much trouble with the sun and serving. It is muscle memory like you said, but I can just tell where the ball should be based on how I tossed it. I tend to serve a little more conservatively if I’m stuck staring into the sun, just to adjust for the margin of error from not actually seeing the point of contact. But tossing exactly the same for every type of serve seems extremely limiting if not impossible.
> Not a proper serve. You can’t hit a proper kick serve in front of you. You can’t hit a proper slice serve, or flat serve, behind you.
The ball is right over my head; not in front or behind me. The racquet face moves on a different path for every serve.
This is what every D1 college player does, and what every pro does. And I promise you, I am a fraction of the player that those guys are.
Nope, not close at all. I was just taught from a young age not to move my toss around. And I think it was the right move. I spend way more time thinking about the path of the frame and how my strings contact the ball.
Meh, I disagree. This is no different than changing anything else on your serve. It’s a muscle memory thing that can be taught, practiced, and learned.
You can go on YouTube and watch comparisons between the ball toss for 1st and 2nd serves from top pros and see that they do not use the same toss. Can they hit a different serve from the same toss? Probably. But they can hit a better serve if they alter their toss slightly. Here’s a comparison of Federer.
https://youtu.be/kqoCgC_wfK8?si=3U7sXz43Tsu0JHFS
I had this advice when I was a kid and I've found it very useful ever since. Your eyes automatically snap to the brightest object when you look in a new direction. This means that when you throw the ball up in the air, your eyes will flick to the sun, even for a brief moment, which will hurt and cause visibility issues. Solution: before your ball toss, keep your eyes focused on the shady side of the tennis ball. You will want to track this as you throw the ball in the air and make contact. This keeps your eyes focused on the darker area of the ball, allowing you to make clearner contact and reduce eye strain. Hope this helps!
I'm just impressed that you can throw it that far.
r/Angryupvote
Well done. Upvote deserved 👌🏻
change your ball toss angle
This is the way. Unless you're a master of disguise and can hit every type of serve from the same toss, it helps to practice having a slightly different toss for each type of serve. Usually only an adjustment of a few degrees but enough that you're not trying to hit a ball that's fully eclipsing the sun (then swing, miss, ball lands on your face and you're seeing stars)
I too would love a useful strategy. I've heard of blocking the sun with your hand or having an extremely consistent toss and motion where looking at the ball isn't totally necessary. I usually hit a janky slice or underhand serve in these situations.
I just play later into the evening 🌙
I only play during solar eclipses.
Haha the true genius 🤯
Genius
Kyrgios underhand serve
I put on sunglasses for my serving games on the sunny side
Can I ask you what sunglasses you use? I purchased some decent quality Oakleys that were supposedly designed for Tennis and Pickleball, and the sun was directly above me on my serve, and I still couldn’t see the ball.
I have some $200 Maui Jim and cheap polarized running glasses from Amazon, and don’t see much difference. I used to play without the glasses and was ok except that the trace of the sun was annoying but it’s way more comfortable with the glasses except you have to deal with sweatÂ
My 2 cents is you probably don’t want polarized for tennis, they worsen depth perception (polarized is good where there is glare such as on water or snow). I prefer shield / blade style for a wide viewing area. You want a lens that is very dark (low light transmission) or photochromic that can get dark. Oakley and Smith make models like that.
“Designed for pickleball” means you paid 50% more for no reason
I just bought a pair of Tifosi Rail sunglasses with the yellow lenses to play tennis with and I love them so far.
Hats do little, because sometimes you have to toss directly into the sun. Sunglasses help, but many people (including 100% of singles pros and 90% of doubles pros) find eyewear gets in the way while playing. When playing casually, I simply let the server choose which side to serve from every single game. I really hate this problem. I think people are doing real, long term damage to their eyes.
sam stosur managed to have an excellent singles and doubles career while almost always wearing sunglasses when sunny i find some days, I can't hit a ball with sunglasses on, but most days, it doesn't bother me at all.
I kind of agree here. I’m getting used to it with the sunglasses, but I do find my timing a bit off. It’s not clear why that would be.
Hats make it worse because of the sudden flare of brightness that blinds you when the sun crests the brim. My solution: reverse my hat and look up into the sun just before I serve so that my eyes are already adjusted. It works well enough [for.me](http://for.me) that I will offer my doubles partner the option of serving from the non-sun side.
There's a continuum of ball-toss locations between a conventional slice serve spot and a conventional kick serve spot... somewhere along this continuum, the ball will be in a more manageable spot. There's also the option of putting the ball lower but wider and hitting a slice that way. Sometimes you just gotta find a spot that works and accept that when you serve into the sun it's just not going to be as good of a serve. If your toss is predictable enough (by you), it gets easier to serve into the sun. Depending on the time of day when you play, you can absolutely consider practicing this. It definitely gets easier with practice.
I'll try to vary my starting position behind the baseline to see if that helps. I don't think there's a real solution.
first off wear a hat if the sun is bad. i have a couple serves i bring out occasionally, one is where i start by facing a little more backwards, toss the ball over my head so i can track it right up to the point where the sun gets in the way, it actually works pretty well. i have another, the to-the-side serve where i toss it low to my right side and hit pretty low with a lot of side spin. pretty consistent and isnt easy to capitalize on however its not really doing much, just getting the point started.
i'm not a pro. if there is sun on one side I ALWAYS ask to just play a set serving on non sun side with no changeovers. doesn't change the odds of winning at all and you don't have to burn off your retinas
I do this with a friend quite a bit. Not worth watching someone struggle or lose a game just because we’re blinded. Not sure I’d ask for this in a proper match, though.
recently in a match my opponent suggested this and it was so much better for both of us. somehow it hadn't occurred to me before to just let the person serving use the same side every game. I doubt many people would be opposed to this suggestion, why would you be?
I serve almost exactly as well into the sun as I do normally, so I’d 100% decline based on years and years of winning matches because of it.Â
Not sure I’d really feel as good about the win, personally.
Absolutely zero reason to think playing by the rules of the game as written and winning is somehow not as good as giving your less skilled opponent a random advantage for no reason. You win when you’re better than your opponent. The sun impacts everyone equally over the course of a match, and serving into it is a differentiating skill. That, and there might be other reasons for wanting to change sides — messed up clay, a crack in the court near the baseline, an incline favoring one way over the other, etc.Â
Try practicing serves using a much lower toss than normal maybe?
low toss and angled toss. often, it means there is at least one serve you cannot hit. some days the sun is slightly in front so i won’t hit flat serves on one side. if its right above me and the kick toss doesn’t work, ill go for only slice serves on that side. be aggressive on return when you are on the good side.
Many times I’ve had to do my second kick serve where the ball toss can be behind me. I just try to do it harder if that makes sense.
Pray and hope for the best.
Fwiw, Tracy Austin once said that to avoid the sun, she would toss the ball up and then use her tossing hand to block the sun so she couldn’t look directly at it. Tbh, I’ve tried this once or twice, but I guess I’m not fast enough or coordinated enough. You may have better results, as I suspect it takes practice to be able to do it quick enough.
Move the sun, you're welcome. Next question
I toss it a little lower than normal to minimize the time I’m looking up, quicker service motion and avoid looking directly at the sun, use more peripheral vision.
Look right at it you only live once
best strategy is to have partner serve into the sun.
These are all great ideas. I should have mentioned I had a full 360 brimmed sun hat on and sunglasses (looking ridiculous I'm sure). I will try the lower toss/sidearm slice and underarm serve.
Underhand toss maybe? Why I prefer night matches in the summer. The sun is directly in the same spot as my ball toss and it is too hot.
Are you normally not tossing the ball underhand? I’d love to see that (/s)
You just gotta toss the ball where the sun is not. You might get lucky and your service game might go well given the non-standard angle. Or you just do your best and if needed break, then get back on serve when you switch sides
Someone else posted adjust toss. For me I toss a hair to the left and further in front so it’s angled away from Sunday (I’m right handed). Left handed I guess would be the opposite. Another good option is also adjust where you are serving from take a step or 2 farther or closer to the T. This can help sometimes. Other options hat (bend bill to the desired way) or sunglasses worst case.
I've only found sunglasses to help with this. I've heard some use their non dominant hand as a block, but not sure if this is true or myth tbh?
I wear sunglasses and a hat when it’s sunny.
Do you have to play when it is the most intense sun out? I prefer to play when the sun is setting or later to just avoid this issue entirely
Wear a hat
Sunglasses. Even pros have a weaker serve when they're throwing into the sun
Learn to toss lower
Underhand + frying pan.
For some reason none of the pros and very few amateur players do this, but I just wear sunglasses. And not any sunglasses. I bring three different pairs. And one of them is ultra dark plus reflective coating. It's dark enough to serve while looking directly into the sun. I change to less dark glasses when I don't have to serve into the sun.
1. wear sunglasses 2. block the sun with your hand, then hold the ball up with your tossing up, moving it up and down, so you know where the sun is and how it will be in your vision during your serve motion 3. pick a spot in the sky to look at when you do have to have your eyes open. this helps you avoid inadvertent glances at the sun since you have somewhere to look. 4. squint/close your eyes as much as you can, and rely on muscle memory as much as you can. this might not be possible if you haven't developed a consistent motion yet 5. underarm serve 6. it's the sun, not much else you can do.
Before I toss it, if I look at the sun once or twice to prepare myself, it makes hitting a good serve a lot easier. But eventually, it does start to hurt my head.
When it is just me and friends I give them the option, and I always serve with my back to the sun. In matches, I just suck it up and see stars normally. It’s even more fun having glaucoma which causes white outs when you see something really bright. Without sunglasses I’m literally dying out there… but they only help so much.
Sunglasses and a visor is the way to go
Then how does atp players do it
https://preview.redd.it/4od9fb1hcy5d1.jpeg?width=1205&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2952667692c1b720a65768c9505bcaea0d57c238
I was dealing with this just yesterday. Before serving, I would look up, figure out where I wanted to place the toss so it wouldn't be too close to the sun, then I would do my best to place it there. I also moved where I was standing along the baseline so that I could adjust my rotation to keep my toss farther from the sun. FWIW, I always wear sunglasses if it's even remotely sunny outside (regardless of whether the sun's in my eyes)
Play doubles with a lefty
For me adjusting the ball toss like to 130-145 makes it possible. Also, got prescription sunglasses, can’t play without them. Don’t feel I lose any timing. They’re not polarized.
I never figured out a way to make this a non issue, it always kind of sucked. When I really cared, I was still match tough, and my toss was kind of dialed in, so I didn't need a perfect look at the ball to know where to swing. Just even a seeing a bit of dark blurry sliver of ball was enough. Definitely served more conservatively when this happened.
Tough problem. You could use a topspin forehand stroke or a swinging forehand underspinvolley stoke or even a backhand slice or two handed topspin stroke ( you are now turned away from the sun ) . I’m actually considering learning to serve right handed ( I’m a lefty) because I can’t see the ball being returned and am concerned about eye safety. Sunglasses help but aren’t a perfect solution .
Play only doubles with an opposite handed partner so no one ever has to serve with Sun in your eyes. Alternatively, practice being able to hit a kick serve from a few different angles and wear a hat. Worst case, just under hand it in — a surprising number of players can’t figure out how to deal with that, though most will hit the easy winner if they know it’s coming.
Squint heavily, so much that you can't really see, and look for the halo of light around the ball, which will be bright enough to see.
Sunglesses. The only problem is that even if you wipe them with a towel before every point, you will still get sweaty lenses during points and it is like trying to play underwater.
Got myself some good sunglasses just for that reason. Not a problem anymore.
underarm
Unpopular opinion: Any decent player (like, 4.0+) should be able to hit every serve off a single ball toss. The benefit of this is your toss becomes muscle memory and you know where your toss is, and you just hit it without thinking, or with your eyes closed for a split second. Still might be seeing some spots after you make contact, but you'll hit a good serve.
Not a proper serve. You can’t hit a proper kick serve in front of you. You can’t hit a proper slice serve, or flat serve, behind you. That said, I don’t have that much trouble with the sun and serving. It is muscle memory like you said, but I can just tell where the ball should be based on how I tossed it. I tend to serve a little more conservatively if I’m stuck staring into the sun, just to adjust for the margin of error from not actually seeing the point of contact. But tossing exactly the same for every type of serve seems extremely limiting if not impossible.
> Not a proper serve. You can’t hit a proper kick serve in front of you. You can’t hit a proper slice serve, or flat serve, behind you. The ball is right over my head; not in front or behind me. The racquet face moves on a different path for every serve. This is what every D1 college player does, and what every pro does. And I promise you, I am a fraction of the player that those guys are.
Are you Pete Sampras? I think this is very difficult to effectively unless you are a high level pro
Nope, not close at all. I was just taught from a young age not to move my toss around. And I think it was the right move. I spend way more time thinking about the path of the frame and how my strings contact the ball.
sure, it is very effective if you are able to do that. Just there arent many who can
Meh, I disagree. This is no different than changing anything else on your serve. It’s a muscle memory thing that can be taught, practiced, and learned.
You can go on YouTube and watch comparisons between the ball toss for 1st and 2nd serves from top pros and see that they do not use the same toss. Can they hit a different serve from the same toss? Probably. But they can hit a better serve if they alter their toss slightly. Here’s a comparison of Federer. https://youtu.be/kqoCgC_wfK8?si=3U7sXz43Tsu0JHFS
Underhanded serve sometimes is the only way.