The chip return is the cheapest way to hurt a big server

Blocking a slice return low over the net asks a question that a server sprinting forward is badly placed to answer.

Facing a serve at speed, you have roughly half a second, and most of what you can do with that time is decided before the ball is struck. A full swing needs preparation you do not have. So you either shorten the swing or you guess.

The shortened swing that works is the backhand chip: a compact block with underspin, held firm, aimed low and deep or short and across. It requires no backswing worth the name, it is stable against pace because you are redirecting rather than generating, and it produces a ball that stays low.

That last property is the whole point, and it is what makes it a weapon rather than a survival tactic. A server who has just hit a big first serve is moving forward or standing tall inside the baseline, expecting either a floated reply they can attack or nothing at all. Give them a skidding ball at ankle height and they must bend, decelerate and hit up. From that position they cannot hurt you. Frequently they cannot even keep it in.

Against a serve-and-volley player it does more still, because a low return means the first volley has to be played upward, which turns an attacking approach into a defensive one, and suddenly the person who came forward is the person in trouble.

The reason more players do not use it is that it looks passive and it is unglamorous, and in juniors it gets coached out because a floated chip against a weak serve is a free ball for the opponent. That is a fair criticism of a bad chip. It is not an argument against the shot; it is an argument for hitting it properly, low and with intent, which almost nobody drills because return practice everywhere consists of somebody feeding second serves that can be attacked.

I would make return-of-serve the most protected block of practice time in the sport. It is the one shot a player cannot control the difficulty of, it is contested on roughly half of all points, and it gets a fraction of the hours that the forehand gets.

Ask most club players how many minutes a week they spend returning. The honest answer is usually none, and then they wonder why the big server at their club beats them every time.