MALAGA, Spain — Sara Errani stands at the baseline and exhales deeply. She is about to land a second serve, with Italy ahead on match point against Poland. A place in the Billie Jean King The stake is the Cup final. So Errani does what she has done many, many times before: she hits a serve under the arms.
The ball floats in the service zone and on the racket Iga Swiatekone of the two players who can claim to be the best in the world. Swiatek is on in a flash and hits her return shot deep to Errani’s forehand. Errani again does what she has done many, many times before: she gets the ball.
She does the same on her opponent’s next shot, throwing a backhand lob into the air. Swiatek hits a long forehand volley and Italy advances to the final for the second year in a row.
Errani collapses to the ground, relieved, celebrating with her partner Jasmine Paolini and shaking hands with defeated opponents a few seconds later, before allowing himself a what-did-I-just-do smile.
For Errani, 37, it was another successful heist in a busy career.
On Wednesday, she added a fourth Billie Jean King Cup title (including three during the Federation Cup) at the Golden Grand Slam in doubles which she completed this year in win gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics alongside Paolini. It was a stunning year for Errani, who also won the mixed doubles title at the US Open with another Italian, Andrea Vavassori. She thought 2024 would be her last tour, having won her last major tournament 10 years ago.
“Last year I was thinking of playing in the Olympic Games and then stop playing tennis, but we play doubles really well and I’m having so much fun,” she said in an interview with Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during the WTA Tour Finals earlier this month.
Completing the doubles Golden Slam in Paris, Errani is part of an elite group of just seven women. Looking back on her career, Swiatek’s underarm serve on Monday will seem like a defining moment for a player who uses the controversial tactic more consistently and more specifically than anyone else.
His history with the underarm serve is central to his tennis life.
The underarm serve is one of the most curious shots in tennis, caught between the poles of the disrespectful trick shot and the tactical masterstroke. Big servers like Nick Kyrgios can use it to take advantage of opponents who are standing back and anticipating a 140 mph rocket. There is also an element of showmanship; This is absolutely the case for Alexander Bublik. He may be blessed with a big serve, but he’s also probably the current player most synonymous with the cheeky alternative.
Other players use it against specific opponents. World number 68 Alexandre Muller said Athletics at Wimbledon that he had specifically practiced the shot to use against Daniil Medvedev, who occupies one of the deepest return positions in the sport.
Corentin Moutetshooting master, began practicing the underarm serve after a shoulder injury. He has since incorporated them into his game, which was highly appreciated at Roland Garros this year. He used the underarm serve 12 times in his third round victory over Sebastian Ofner, winning nine of those points. He is the opposite of a player like Kyrgios, using the underarm serve because he does not expect to win free points behind his first serve; there is no drop in expected value.
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The reason why Errani uses this shot is familiar to many amateur players: she simply doesn’t have confidence in her serve.
Errani is 164cm (5ft 5in), which is small by modern tennis standards – as is his partner Paolini, whose serve is a little hot despite his height of 5ft 4in. Errani doesn’t have that pace, and his size has contributed to a shot often derided as the worst serve in the sport.
Smiling, she said it would be amazing to be a little taller. “Many times I think about it.”
Instead of letting his serve become a veritable albatross, Errani used his ground skills, tactical acumen and the shock factor of a serve that regularly clocks around 60 mph (96.5 km/h) in the fast gun to reach the pinnacle of singles and doubles tennis. .
She reached the 2012 French Open singles final and ranked among the world’s top five a year later, even though her opponents felt they would have to break her in every match. Instead, they are embarrassed by his incredible dexterity at the net or in the backcourt, as well as his difficulty reading and returning his serve.
Sara Errani has struggled with her regulatory department throughout her career (Thomas Samson/AFP via Getty Images)
“It happens so slowly and it floats in the air,” Mirjana Lucic-Baroni said at a news conference after losing to Errani in the fourth round of the 2014 US Open, a match in which the average speed of Errani’s service was 76 mph.
“It was really difficult to time the balls.” Errani’s serve became something of a meme in 2024 after Daniil Medvedev completely failed to return it during a mixed doubles match at the Paris Olympics.
Errani herself said in a press conference after that match that she had a different approach to serving than most players: “I’m not trying to make winners,” she said. declared.
“I’m just trying to kick, slice, try to change my game. I have to start where I want.” So sometimes it’s better for me not to serve so quickly, because if you serve quickly, the ball comes back (comes back) faster.
This belief was not always there. Her service reached its lowest point in April 2019, when she had just recently returned from a 10-month anti-doping suspension for letrozole ingestion, which was increased from the original two months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ( TAS). Errani said she was “really disgusted” by the length of the ban, saying her case was due to contamination after her mother, who was taking letrozole for breast cancer, dropped pills on the counter the kitchen where they prepared meals.
At the Copa Colsanitas in Bogota, Colombia, Errani committed 18 double faults per match in three straight matches (all of which she won) before hitting about half of her underarm serves in a loss in quarter-final against Astra Sharma. Later that year, at a low-level event in Asuncion, Paraguay, Errani took the nuclear option by serving underarm for the entire tournament. She made it to the final, thus facing a huge amount of abuse on social media.
In response, she wrote on Instagram: “In Italy I continue to be insulted by many people, mainly regarding my service.
“If you’re not happy with this, send a letter to the WTA asking to change the rules regarding service or ask them to disqualify me for horrible service. If on the other hand you just have other problems with me, send a letter to Santa.
Five years later, she says her service has completely surpassed everything else.
“I couldn’t compete. I thought about my service all the time,” she says.
“My coach told me, ‘Do an underarm tournament and just compete.’ It was to try to clear my head, not of panic, but of difficult times.
Although he recovered from those yips, Errani then endured the anxiety dream of a service game at the 2020 French Open in a second-round loss to Kiki Bertens. Errani was fined two time violations after five aborted ball throws and landed just one overhand serve, with one attempt missing the baseline. Serving the stage, she was broken by love.
“Sometimes it’s there and it can come out, but I try to manage it,” she says of the nervousness that can grip her when serving.
“When I was training, my serve was good. But then, in the matches, I felt the blockage, the panic. I know it’s still there. It’s not like it’s the past.
Errani, an unwitting pioneer, can laugh at the fact that underarm serving has come back into fashion, especially among men, in recent years. “If it can be a good tactic, why not? she laughs. Against Swiatek, the decision was more of a vibe.
“I just informed Jasmine after the first service, so it’s just that I felt it and I did it, just like that, without thinking too much,” she said at a press conference after the match.
At 37, Errani is the most experienced player on the Italian team and, as her teammates reiterated during Wednesday’s press conference, she is “the brains of the team.”
Errani resembles his compatriot Jorginho, the Italian midfielder of Brazilian origin and Arsenal who is so intelligent that he is a reference for everyone although he is not the most physically gifted.
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Paolini, who is world No. 4 in singles and a two-time Grand Slam finalist this year, constantly turns to Errani for advice on the doubles court.
“She wants me to tell her what to do at every point – even when she serves, she likes me to tell her where to put it and I try to push her to tell me what she feels most,” Errani said .
Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini formed a formidable duo on the doubles court. (Robert Prangé/Getty Images)
Whatever tactics are adopted, the Errani-Paolini partnership contributes to a golden period for tennis in Italy.
On the men’s side, Jannik sinner is the world No. 1 and has won two Grand Slam tournaments this year. He is part of an Italy team that hopes to defend the Davis Cup this week and complete a double with the victorious BJK Cup squad. Errani, who experienced a period where she was part of the Italian “Fab Four” who all reached a Grand Slam final and the world top 10 between 2010 and 2014 (Francesca Schiavone, Roberta Vinci and Flavia Pennetta were the others), believes that all the current best players in his country push each other to greater heights.
And Errani doesn’t want to leave his golden age behind him yet. “I told Jasmine: ‘I will continue next year, that’s for sure and then we’ll see’,” she says.
After the genre-defining underarm serve against Swiatek, this crafty veteran still has at least one last heist in her.
(Top photo: Fran Santiago/Getty Images for ITF)