End of the Serve and Volley Era?
Following is an excellent posting from the
Tennis Warehouse Pro Player Talk
board. It came up shortly after the 2002 U.S. Open.
End of the Serve and Volley Era?
Rabbit - 11:19am Sep 10, 2002 PDT (#10 of 23)
I think S&V tennis is going the way of the wood racket.
Prior to Jack Kramer, tennis was mainly a baseline game of fewer errors than your opponent. Jack Kramer revolutionized the game with percentage tennis. Likewise, Nick Bollitieri has created another revolution with academy tennis. NB's strategy is vastly different than the one that preceded it. Where Tilden's treatise on strategy focused on fewer errors than your opponent, Bollitieri emphasizes hitting more winners than your opponent. These two stategems are in direct opposition to each other. We happen to live in the era when they clashed.
IMO, Stefan Edberg was the ultimate S&V player. His style of play and physicality were the pinnacle of serve/volley. Two of Edberg's contemporaries, while not as successful, were the future of tennis; Jimmy Arias and Aaron Krickstein. While we've seen a decline in the S&V player, the number of academy (power baseliner, huge first serve, huge forehand) players has increased tremendously.
The two biggest factors in this change are racket construction and results.
First, racket construction has changed so radically that now rackets are much more headlight than their wood counterparts. This enables much greater racket head speed and more extreme grips. Rackets are also lighter overall than they used to be and much more powerful. In the 70s, Borg was the only player capapble of consistently hitting winners from the back court. Today, this is commonplace and seen daily. It is not the size and strength of the players alone that dictates this, but also their rackets. I have not mentioned head size, but this too is a determining factor in the demise of S&V.
The second factor is results. An S&V player takes more time to develop than a baseliner. Today, the players are younger than ever (only limited by rules not allowing them to enter professional competition) and when they develop a winning game, are reluctant to change it, if at all.
Combine extreme grips with two handed backhands, and volleying is becoming a dying art. This is not to say that the pros can't volley, but the majority of today's touring pros have neither the technique or the proficiency of their predecessors.
There are other factors. Patrick Rafter said that court surface limits the life of a S&V player. S&V takes a toll on the body and is accelarated when hard courts come into play. By the time a S&V player develops these days, his body is nearly worn out. One would think the opposite would be true since S&V players play (on average) shorter points, but this is not the case.
Another major factor is the demise of grass. Once, a large part of professional tennis was grass. I was speaking with an older gentleman who told me he saw Laver play at a grass court tournament in Tuscaloosa Alabama in September after the Open in 63. The grass court season started before Wimbledon and went through close to February of the next year. Three of the four majors, Wimbledon, the Open, and the Australian were played on grass in a row. Hard courts were not nearly as commonplace as they are now. Percentage tennis on grass is predicated on solid net play (at least until Borg came along).
There has also been a great call to slow the game down. A consequence of this is that net play will become harder and harder if your opponent has more and more time to set up and play a pass.
IMO, these all these factors have combined along with the right set of circumstances (U.S Open and Australian Open ditching grass) to effectively end S&V as a mainstream strategy in tennis. Players will continue to hit the ball harder from the baseline with changes in equipment and the continuing call to "slow the game down". There will always be the odd S&V player, and probably always one in the top twenty, but the golden age of S&V tennis, much like the day of the wood racket is gone forever
And an equally excellent follow-up post:
Only time will tell, ultimately. You guys are kind of indirectly proving my point. You can only name a handfull of S&V players now. I didn't say that there would be no S&V players, I did say that as a mainstream strategy, it's gone.
You need only to watch Wimbledon for proof. This year at Wimbledon, the grass inside the service box was not worn and chewed up as it was twenty years ago. The baseline, on the other hand, was a mess. I think all would agree that Wimbledon is the place where S&V players are able to showcase their skills. If we use Wimbledon as the barometer or forecast of playing styles, then clearly S&V tennis is on the decline.
I've said before that the Academy style tennis is a better way to win a tennis match, much the same way as Kramer's S&V was a better way to win with wood rackets on grass courts. I've also said that it may be a better way to win, but it's not attracting fans. Will S&V be back? I truly think it's doubtful because of the speed of the ball. There's simply no way a player can serve 125 MPH and then get to the T of the service box, unless they foot fault.:) If they slow their serve down, which is the only alternative to close the net, they are going to get eaten alive by the returners of the game, the power baseliners. Unless there is a change in the game, one that involves either surface or equipment, then the current trend will only gain momentum.
There will be the occasional S&V player, but there will be fewer and fewer of them in the future.