How to deal with no spin serves short and half long to the middle and forehand short side?

Hi Tom and Dan,
yes this against a player that I play regularly.
he has a strong third ball attack from both sides FH and BH and puts me under pressure with these serves because I have to make a good return otherwise it is a strong attack following up.
I struggle to keep these no spin serves short, and so far what is giving me the best outcome is not to worry too much about the return but prepare for blocking his third ball attack and somehow steal some points when receiving. However I feel this is sometimes hard work.
last time I try to start using side spin on my receive, like a side spin slice, and kind of work, but he is good player and changes the placement to keep me honest.
I do not feel comfortable receiving no spin serves and he knows that and he mixes it up no spin and backspin and placement variation as well as sometimes long fast serves. So that makes it even harder, but the main difficulty is making a good return that makes it a bit uncomfortable when he does those no spin serves.
any other ideas of what I should do?

Hi Tom and Dan,
yes this against a player that I play regularly.
he has a strong third ball attack from both sides FH and BH and puts me under pressure with these serves because I have to make a good return otherwise it is a strong attack following up.
I struggle to keep these no spin serves short, and so far what is giving me the best outcome is not to worry too much about the return but prepare for blocking his third ball attack and somehow steal some points when receiving. However I feel this is sometimes hard work.
last time I try to start using side spin on my receive, like a side spin slice, and kind of work, but he is good player and changes the placement to keep me honest.
I do not feel comfortable receiving no spin serves and he knows that and he mixes it up no spin and backspin and placement variation as well as sometimes long fast serves. So that makes it even harder, but the main difficulty is making a good return that makes it a bit uncomfortable when he does those no spin serves.
any other ideas of what I should do?

Hey Fabian, sorry for the delay in reply. Ok so this happens quite often with players I coach and work with, sometimes returning back long and trying to get into position to block or counter will get you points but like you said that can be hard work. If you can flick these no spin serve sand put hi under pressure early in the rally this can be very effective, or even a fast aggressive long push his good which can surprise him and stop him attacking as strong.

If you can learn and be confident with the backhand flick I feel this is your best option as it is very flexible and will help you return all types of serves. If you can also try to target your returns a lot more into his body/crossover position that will make it harder for him to playa strong attack as he will have to move into position first. Let me know if you need any other help with this and how it goes! 🙂