If this is more suited for the Game Room, could someone move it? Thank you.
Why don’t tennis players serve & volley anymore?
It’s much harder to beat a serve and volley player than a baseline player but yet, no one volleys anymore (it’s also a lot more fun to watch).
Obviously, a tournament on clay isn’t going to support that style of play but I’m watching Wimbledon and I see opportunity after opportunity for players to go to net and they don’t.
I was reading an article about Federer who some say is probably the greatest tennis player to ever walk onto a court but I wonder what would happen if he were to play Pete Sampras in his prime.
Pete Sampras’s serve was completely unpredictable and he spent a lot of time at the net. Would someone like Federer have the passing game to beat him?
I’m not at all an expert tennis strategist, so make sure to have some salt handy.
That said, I am under the impression serve and volley style play has fallen by the wayside because racquet technology has made it far easier to return someone’s serve.
Specifically, the returner can power the ball back to the server and if they came to net immediately afterwards, the ball will be traveling too damn fast for an effective volley.
Or something.
I hope that tides you over until someone smart comes along.
That’s interesting, never really thought of rackets being an issue.
Though, serves are that much stronger so you would think that would be a point in favor of serve and volleying.
Maybe though, what I’m really after is why volleying in general has fallen by the wayside. In watching Wimbledon, I’ve seen a lot of players, thrown off balance, hit a weak midcourt shot. This is a perfect opportunity for their opponent to come to net, instead said opponent stays at the baseline, allowing the other player to recover.
You’re right, sorry about that. I should have said both serve & volley (which has pretty much vanished off the landscape) and also a general reluctance to volley even when doing so presents a real opportunity to hit a winner.
Guess you missed the other thread we’ve been having this week where we’ve been discussing just that (the technology)…
That was my initial impetus when I started the other thread-not only are there fewer pure serve-and-volleyers, but there’s also this curious reluctance to come to the net in the middle of a point where you would think it would be to your advantage.
Having said that, both men’s finalists this year (Federer and Roddick) will often come to the net in such situations, even if they rarely follow a first serve in. While others here will disagree and think that things are just hunky-dory as they currently stand, extreme differences in play styles are inherently interesting to me (thinking about Sampras vs. Agassi, among many other matchups over the years-tho I rooted for Andre actually…).
I did. Thanks for pointing it out to me. Very interesting thread!
Agreed about Sampras vs. Agassi. Always a lot of fun to watch. Although, I would have liked to have seen Agassi at net more, as well.
Agassi’s return of service was so good, I think he could have gotten away with going to net after someone served. Not sure about doing that with Sampras, although Agassi probably could have done it on his 2nd serve.
