How often did Borg Serve Volley at Wimbledon?

[sandy mayer]

Which years, rounds and serves (2nd as well as 1st)?

[The Gorilla]

He served and volleyed on every first serve, so approximately 60% of the time.

[maxply]

Not quite every 1st serve , but most,sometimes on the second as a change of pace.

[Moose Malloy]

that's funny, I was just recently watching several Borg matches & took my own stats as far as how often he S&Ved(don't have them with me, but will get back to you with them later)

from memory:

1973 QF vs Roger Taylor(a 5 set loss) 17 year old Borg S&Ved on virtually every first & second serve.

1976 Final vs Nastase-Borg S&Ved on every first serve, very few 2nds

1977 Final vs Connors-Borg mixed it up, not S&V on firsts as much as vs Nastase(guess that Connors return made him wary), never came in on a 2nd

1979 Final vs Tanner-just watched the 5th set, was an interesting pattern. Borg didn't S&V on any 2nd serves, but when he came in on firsts he won almost every point. a few games he didn't S&V at all & those were the toughest games to hold(maybe he was nervous, so he decided to stay back, which almost cost him the match, since Tanner was attacking relentlessly)

[stormholloway]

I find it interesting that a baseliner served and volleyed his way to 5 straight Wimbledon titles.

If S&V was his strategy, you'd think a better serve and volleyer would come along and beat him. I guess his return games were just that good.

Imagine Rafael Nadal coming along and winning 5 straight Wimbledon titles BY SERVING AND VOLLEYING.

[Moose Malloy]

Imagine Rafael Nadal coming along and winning 5 straight Wimbledon titles BY SERVING AND VOLLEYING.

Hell, imagine Fed winning one Wimbledon S&V(he hardly ever S&Ves)

To be fair, S&V was a lot more common/easier with wood racquets since it was so hard to hit returns with that equipment, esp on faster surfaces. You got a lot of unreturned serves, easy put aways back then. Plus the grass has been changed as well.

Almost everybody S&V quite a bit on grass in the 70s, even Connors.

[Rabbit]

Yep, it is amazing that Borg is remembered for his baseline work at RG, but almost everywhere else, he was moving forward.

[The Gorilla]

Originally Posted by Moose Malloy

Hell, imagine Fed winning one Wimbledon S&V(he hardly ever S&Ves)

To be fair, S&V was a lot more common/easier with wood racquets since it was so hard to hit returns with that equipment, esp on faster surfaces. You got a lot of unreturned serves, easy put aways back then. Plus the grass has been changed as well.

Almost everybody S&V quite a bit on grass in the 70s, even Connors.

in fairness he won about 80% of his points by serving and volleying during his serving games in his first wimbledon.

[stormholloway]

Originally Posted by Moose Malloy

Hell, imagine Fed winning one Wimbledon S&V(he hardly ever S&Ves)

To be fair, S&V was a lot more common/easier with wood racquets since it was so hard to hit returns with that equipment, esp on faster surfaces. You got a lot of unreturned serves, easy put aways back then. Plus the grass has been changed as well.

Almost everybody S&V quite a bit on grass in the 70s, even Connors.

Duh, how many Frenches has Federer won? Borg wasn't a chip and charge player dude. That's the point.

[slice bh compliment]

Borg was not a great volleyer. But the grass actually made his volleys more effective. The skidding and the dying.

Also his athleticism, precision, balance, dipped returns, perfect lobs and passes did not hurt when he was on the defensive.

[A.Davidson]

Very true - you can't overlook the fact that he was extremely committed to winning, especially at places like Wimbledon. He never gave up, which certainly helped him.

[CyBorg]

In Bjorn news: http://www.towleroad.com/2007/03/bjorn_borg_cour.html

Over the weekend, he held a model search for his underwear line at Selfridges in London, revealing that even though he's been off the court for a while, he still has an interest in how to put away fuzzy balls.

[noeledmonds]

A player orginaly deemed a clay court specilist winning 5 wimbledons is really incredible, particularly when he consider this is probabely the greatest clay courter of all time. Also grass and clay were more different back then, clay was slower and grass was faster and had more uneven bounces. The uneven bounces did aide Borg's vollying, allowing him to get away with less accurate vollying, however this is still a great achivement. I am always suprised Borg is not more often involved in the GOAT argument, in terms of career domiance he is unparalled. Borg has the highest winning percentage of all open-era GOAT contenders, and it is even higher in slams. Borg won something like 41% of all slams he ever entered. Borg also won 3 slams without losing a set, 2 FO and 1 Wimbledon. Noone who played Borg 3 times or more had a winning Head2Head against him. Borg won a record 33 consecutive davis cup matches, and has a 5 set record of 26-4 (W-L), noone else is even close to these figures. He certainly deserves a mention in any open-era GOAT argument.

[BounceHitBounceHit]

Borg played s/v at Wimby WAY more often than most of us think. And he is certainly a name to be considered in the GOAT discussion. However I think it's pretty clear who will ultimately claim that title now......... CC