Are players serving harder these days?

07-03-2004, 02:32 AM

Is it my imagination or does everyone seem to be serving a lot harder all of a sudden? It seems like only a year or two ago that everyone was heaping praise on Sampras' serve, how he was the only one who could come up with second serve bombs consistently. Now Sampras serve would appear to belong in the 'slightly above average' category, like say Federer. Roddick is hitting a lot of second serves well over 120mph. Even an average server like Heman is hitting all of his second serves well over 100mph. This was unheard of even for the best servers during the mid 90's. Is there a steroid problem or are the radar guns juiced up these days?

JohnThomas1 · 07-03-2004, 03:08 AM

Hmmm good question. Verkerk and the Scud were serving second serves in the 120's too in their battle a week ago.

perfmode · 07-03-2004, 04:11 AM

Sampras' 3nd serves were hard AND they had tons of spin. It's not all about speed. Spin and placement can make or break a serve.

Jack Romeo · 07-03-2004, 06:04 AM

Sampras wouldn't have the biggest serve anymore if he were playing today, but it would still be one of the most effective because of his spin, placement, angles and consistency.

JohnThomas1 · 07-03-2004, 06:47 AM

If there has ever been a "better" server than Sampras i haven't seen him.

ProStaffTour90 · 07-03-2004, 06:50 AM

I thought it was because of this new serve speed measuring device!

It measures the speed of the ball right off the racquet, whereas the old stuff measured the speed of it after it had already travelled 4 or 5 feet!

So everybody's serves are getting quicker, but it is accurate!

Datacipher · 07-03-2004, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProStaffTour90

I thought it was because of this new serve speed measuring device!

It measures the speed of the ball right off the racquet, whereas the old stuff measured the speed of it after it had already travelled 4 or 5 feet!

So everybody's serves are getting quicker, but it is accurate!

It is ProStaff. That is why we are seeing jumps in serve speed...even though it's THE SAME players playing...but like you said, it's probably more accurate. However, you cannot compare these to the measured speeds of the past sadly.

AAAA · 07-03-2004, 02:22 PM

Stich and Krajicek.

NLBwell · 07-03-2004, 08:25 PM

Bill Tilden was measured at 150 MPH (though accuacy in those days was questionable). Ellsworth Vines and a few others were certainly in the 130's. Still, it was very rare for anyone to hit that hard, because with the tiny sweetspots in those days the chances of it going in were small. Anyone care to play with a 16oz racket?

07-03-2004, 02:32 AM	#1
Pistol Peter Guest Posts: n/a	Are players serving harder these days? Is it my imagination or does everyone seem to be serving a lot harder all of a sudden? It seems like only a year or two ago that everyone was heaping praise on Sampras' serve, how he was the only one who could come up with second serve bombs consistently. Now Sampras serve would appear to belong in the 'slightly above average' category, like say Federer. Roddick is hitting a lot of second serves well over 120mph. Even an average server like Heman is hitting all of his second serves well over 100mph. This was unheard of even for the best servers during the mid 90's. Is there a steroid problem or are the radar guns juiced up these days?

07-03-2004, 02:22 PM	#8
AAAA Hall Of Fame Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 3,390	Stich and Krajicek. __________________ Fed 2010: Federer aged 28 16 Slams(inc. career slam) vs Sampras aged 28 14 Slams(no FO)

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