Tennis serve bounce - spin doubles, speed halfs, why?

AI Thread Summary
A tennis ball experiences a significant reduction in speed after bouncing, often dropping to about half its initial speed due to aerodynamic drag and court surface effects. High-speed serves, such as those reaching 130 mph, can slow to around 70 mph upon return. The type of court surface plays a crucial role, with slower surfaces causing greater speed loss. Advances in string technology have allowed for increased topspin on serves, particularly second serves, which mitigates some speed loss after the bounce. Unlike table tennis, the spin on a tennis ball does not exceed its initial speed, except for backspin shots.
Skhandelwal
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First of all, can someone delete my table tennis post? Second, why does a tennis ball in a serve right after it bounces reduces its speed to half and increases its spin to double?
 
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The speed isn't lost by half, but it does slow down a lot. I remember reading that a tennis ball from a flat high speed serve leaving the racket at 130mph, is down to 70mph by the time it's struck by the returning player, aerodynamic drag is part of this, and the bounce off the court is the rest. A "slow" court surface slows the ball down more than a "fast" court surface.

With the new string technology, serves have more topspin than before, especially second serves, and the speed loss from the bounce is not as great. Unlike table tennis, the surface speed of the ball from spin won't be faster than the speed of the ball, except for backspin (slice) shots.

I responded to your table tennis post, it might be interesting to some here.
 
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