Calling Serves in Tournaments

by Nick
(MA)

I have recently started playing in regional tournaments and the I'm finding it difficult to call serves.

Last match I played was with a seeded player who served very fast. I'm not used to fast serves and had doubt about calling it since I had trouble tracking the ball. As a result because of the "code" I ended up playing them since I was not sure.

Later, after the match I checked in with some of the spectators. Since they had an aerial view I found out that around 75% of the serves that I wasn't sure of were out by quite a bit.

My opponent didn't say anything because he wanted to win. This is problematic for me since I want to win but I also want to make good calls.

So my question is how do you call fast serves, is it just a matter of experience or is there some kind of method I could use.

-Thanks for your time.