Best servers 6ft3 or under in the graphite era (men's singles) besides the usual suspects, past or present?

d-quik

d-quik

Legend
Besides Sampras, Fed, Cash, Becker, McEnroe, Cash, and Roddick, who else were considered great servers? They don't even have to be good. Arthur Cazaux would be a pretty good example of this.

I have heard good things about Thomas Johansson, Kevin Curren, Johan Kriek, Way Ferreira, Feliciano Lopez, and Roscoe Tanner's serve but have never seen it myself. Can anyone verify or deny these claims or provide other examples?

Also interested in some of these Wimbledon quarter-finalists that I have never heard of or watched: McNamara, Frawley, Mayotte, Goldie, Chamberlin, Edmondson, Mayer, Gerulitas, Siemerink, Lewis, Purcell, Järryd, Bjorkman, Niemenen, Stoltenberg, Wasington, Leconte, Haarhuis, , Guenthardt, Eltingh, Sadri, Šmíd, Annacone, Sá, Enqvist, and Champion.

Thank you.
 
Agassi for me. Certainly not in number of aces or anything, but when Agassi was in...his serve was placed so damn well. He got alot of 'unreturnables' from his opponent, where they might've gotten a racket on the ball...but the shot was either out or the ball in a position for Andre to easily hit a winner
 
I've always liked the Dawg. His service motion was amazingly efficient and just great to watch. I dunno how great it was over all, but he did come out on top of Nadal in Indian wells in 2014.



 
Richard Krajicek was an incredibly good server. A TV commentator once said when he was serving well he 'was virtually unplayable". I agree with that. Good luck returning much of his stuff.
 
d-quik said:
Besides Sampras, Fed, Cash, Becker, McEnroe, Cash, and Roddick, who else were considered great servers? They don't even have to be good. Arthur Cazaux would be a pretty good example of this.

I have heard good things about Thomas Johansson, Kevin Curren, Johan Kriek, Way Ferreira, Feliciano Lopez, and Roscoe Tanner's serve but have never seen it myself. Can anyone verify or deny these claims or provide other examples?

Also interested in some of these Wimbledon quarter-finalists that I have never heard of or watched: McNamara, Frawley, Mayotte, Goldie, Chamberlin, Edmondson, Mayer, Gerulitas, Siemerink, Lewis, Purcell, Järryd, Bjorkman, Niemenen, Stoltenberg, Wasington, Leconte, Haarhuis, , Guenthardt, Eltingh, Sadri, Šmíd, Annacone, Sá, Enqvist, and Champion.

Thank you.
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Lopez’s serve was beautiful and effective. Definitely up there.
 
d-quik said:
Besides Sampras, Fed, Cash, Becker, McEnroe, Cash, and Roddick, who else were considered great servers? They don't even have to be good. Arthur Cazaux would be a pretty good example of this.

I have heard good things about Thomas Johansson, Kevin Curren, Johan Kriek, Way Ferreira, Feliciano Lopez, and Roscoe Tanner's serve but have never seen it myself. Can anyone verify or deny these claims or provide other examples?

Also interested in some of these Wimbledon quarter-finalists that I have never heard of or watched: McNamara, Frawley, Mayotte, Goldie, Chamberlin, Edmondson, Mayer, Gerulitas, Siemerink, Lewis, Purcell, Järryd, Bjorkman, Niemenen, Stoltenberg, Wasington, Leconte, Haarhuis, , Guenthardt, Eltingh, Sadri, Šmíd, Annacone, Sá, Enqvist, and Champion.

Thank you.
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Kevin Curren and Roscoe Tanner had huge serves. Haarhuis had a good serve. Most of the others were in the average-good level. Gerulitas had a weak serve.
 
Dropshot777 said:
Was Philippoussis under 6'3?
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No, he was about 6'5" I think.

Here he is next to Fed, who is about 6'1"?

muoeU5y.png



@d-quik, Steve Denton, the two-time AO runner up, was 6'2" and was a longtime holder of the official "fastest serve" record (138 mph in 1984).
 
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d-quik said:
I have heard good things about Thomas Johansson, Kevin Curren, Johan Kriek, Way Ferreira, Feliciano Lopez, and Roscoe Tanner's serve but have never seen it myself.
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Curren (and Tanner) both had fast serves with an extremely low toss; the ball was struck almost on the rise. This made them incredibly hard to read, possibly as difficult as the Sampras/Federer serves.

A quick Youtube search found the entire 1985 Wimbledon quarter- and semi-finals against McEnroe and Connors respectively. Plenty of opportunities to watch that service action at its best; Curren lost only 13 games in six sets against the two Americans:


 
d-quik said:
Besides Sampras, Fed, Cash, Becker, McEnroe, Cash, and Roddick, who else were considered great servers? They don't even have to be good. Arthur Cazaux would be a pretty good example of this.

I have heard good things about Thomas Johansson, Kevin Curren, Johan Kriek, Way Ferreira, Feliciano Lopez, and Roscoe Tanner's serve but have never seen it myself. Can anyone verify or deny these claims or provide other examples?

Also interested in some of these Wimbledon quarter-finalists that I have never heard of or watched: McNamara, Frawley, Mayotte, Goldie, Chamberlin, Edmondson, Mayer, Gerulitas, Siemerink, Lewis, Purcell, Järryd, Bjorkman, Niemenen, Stoltenberg, Wasington, Leconte, Haarhuis, , Guenthardt, Eltingh, Sadri, Šmíd, Annacone, Sá, Enqvist, and Champion.

Thank you.
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Hard Court said:
Kevin Curren and Roscoe Tanner had huge serves. Haarhuis had a good serve. Most of the others were in the average-good level. Gerulitas had a weak serve.
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Mayotte and Leconte had great serves.
 
Dane_is_Finnish_OJ said:
Mayotte and Leconte had great serves.
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You know I hear people say that about Leconte but I just didn't' see it when I watched him. Leconte's serve never seemed to a big weapon to me when
I watched him play. Mayotte had a hard serve. However, he double faulted a lot. Remember a Davis Cup match where he had over 20 double faults.
 
d-quik said:
Besides Sampras, Fed, Cash, Becker, McEnroe, Cash, and Roddick, who else were considered great servers? They don't even have to be good. Arthur Cazaux would be a pretty good example of this.

I have heard good things about Thomas Johansson, Kevin Curren, Johan Kriek, Way Ferreira, Feliciano Lopez, and Roscoe Tanner's serve but have never seen it myself. Can anyone verify or deny these claims or provide other examples?

Also interested in some of these Wimbledon quarter-finalists that I have never heard of or watched: McNamara, Frawley, Mayotte, Goldie, Chamberlin, Edmondson, Mayer, Gerulitas, Siemerink, Lewis, Purcell, Järryd, Bjorkman, Niemenen, Stoltenberg, Wasington, Leconte, Haarhuis, , Guenthardt, Eltingh, Sadri, Šmíd, Annacone, Sá, Enqvist, and Champion.

Thank you.
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Marcelo Rios had a very big serve for a 5’9” guy
 
King_olaf_the_hairy said:
Curren (and Tanner) both had fast serves with an extremely low toss; the ball was struck almost on the rise. This made them incredibly hard to read, possibly as difficult as the Sampras/Federer serves.

A quick Youtube search found the entire 1985 Wimbledon quarter- and semi-finals against McEnroe and Connors respectively. Plenty of opportunities to watch that service action at its best; Curren lost only 13 games in six sets against the two Americans:


Click to expand...
Curren truly was one of the best servers during the early/mid 80s. Still using a wood racket, and could really serve missiles to his opponents
 
Mardy Fish? 6'2", almost 5,000 career aces, once hit 43 in a single three-set match against Oliver Rochus (and still lost 7–6(5) 6–7(6) 6–7(15)), the ATP lists him at #30 for aces-per-match (since 1991).



I don't like picking guys who are right on the height limit, but 6'3" Aussie leftie Wayne Arthurs is #3 on that same leaderboard, ahead of everyone except Karlovic and Opelka. So a higher aces-per-match average than Isner, Ivanisevic, Raonic, etc. His Wikipedia bio cites four players — Karlovic, Johansson, Courier, and Agassi — who all said he had the best serve they'd seen.

 
Hard Court said:
You know I hear people say that about Leconte but I just didn't' see it when I watched him. Leconte's serve never seemed to a big weapon to me when
I watched him play. Mayotte had a hard serve. However, he double faulted a lot. Remember a Davis Cup match where he had over 20 double faults.
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I have to agree. Not a bad serve, but I didn't see it the way others did.
 
edberg (6'2") didn't get many free points on his serve but there was a stretch during 80s at wimbledon where he was almost automatically holding service games. he wasn't cracking bombs but he had mastered using his serve to set up his first volley; i don't know if that is what you're looking for.
during the same timeframe, lendl (6'2") was throwing some nice heat on the serve occasionally. the same could be said of courier (6'1") in the early 90s.
 
Dropshot777 said:
I always thought Leconte was one of the most underrated players ever. His serve was pretty good for sure and his net game was beautiful.
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He's fairly lionized around here for having a varied, dynamic, and flashy game. Even beyond Talk Tennis, he's mentioned for his artistic game still by some commentators, particularly when talking about the players who fleshed out his era. I don't think he's underrated.
 
King_olaf_the_hairy said:
don't like picking guys who are right on the height limit, but 6'3" Aussie leftie Wayne Arthurs is #3
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I forgot about this guy and Fish. Thinking of Fish also reminded me of Taylor Dent, and Dmitry Tursonov

Now I am curious about Jan-Michael Gambill, Nicolas Massu, Igor Andreev, Alexander Waske, Daniele Bracciali, Brandon Nakashima, Talon Griekspoor, and Agustin Calleri
 
Tallon keeps his racquet below or at waist height for a long time.
Was there anything in the ancients texts warning against keeping the racquet low for an extended period? There is like a giant gap between the ball toss and the swing. Everything starts out so slowly/delayed when developing, then suddenly, the entire swing comes out with great effect.
 
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