Serena dominates women tennis due to her mental toughness and superior serve.

[Amelie Mauresmo]

I don't want to sound sexist, but why is Serena Williams the only woman on the WTA with a consistent, huge serve?

In the past, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport, Mary Pierce, Justine Henin all had huge serves.

All the men on the ATP Tour or almost all of them can serve big yet the woman cant?

I wonder why? What is the difference? Is it due to bad coaching the women

are getting that they are not taught that having a huge serve is important?

Venus can serve big but her serve is inconsistent, Samantha Stosur has a good serve but she uses the kick too much.

I think Nadia Petrova has the second best serve on the WTA Tour after Serena.

If Victoria Azarenka is serious about being a great champion I feel she really needs to improve her serve. It is strange to see Victoria a tall strong young woman about six feet tall, in great shape yet she can only serve 107 miles per hour. What is Victoria's coach doing? The serve is the reason Victoria struggles against Serena.

Sharapova can serve bigger than Azarenka but she lacks her variety she's too one dimensional. Sharapova is six foot two yet she never players doubles. I think Maria should consider trying to play more doubles come to the net add some variety to her game, slice the ball more use angles ect.

 

[dominikk1985]

I don't want to sound sexist, but why is Serena Williams the only woman on the WTA with a consistent, huge serve?

In the past, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport, Mary Pierce, Justine Henin all had huge serves.

All the men on the ATP Tour or almost all of them can serve big yet the woman cant?

I wonder why? What is the difference? Is it due to bad coaching the women

are getting that they are not taught that having a huge serve is important?

Venus can serve big but her serve is inconsistent, Samantha Stosur has a good serve but she uses the kick too much.

I think Nadia Petrova has the second best serve on the WTA Tour after Serena.

If Victoria Azarenka is serious about being a great champion I feel she really needs to improve her serve. It is strange to see Victoria a tall strong young woman about six feet tall, in great shape yet she can only serve 107 miles per hour. What is Victoria's coach doing? The serve is the reason Victoria struggles against Serena.

Sharapova can serve bigger than Azarenka but she lacks her variety she's too one dimensional. Sharapova is six foot two yet she never players doubles. I think Maria should consider trying to play more doubles come to the net add some variety to her game, slice the ball more use angles ect.

none of them had a huge serve. steffi had a solid serve but not a weapon. justine had a good first but erratic second. davonport had a solid serve as did seles. but none of them had a huge serve.

in fact there are biggers servers now then a few years ago. most still suck but not only the sisters but also some other girls (ivanovic, lisicki) have served 125 mph. all of them have taken place in the last decade.

most women serves are weak but 20 year ago that was much worse.

 

[NadalAgassi]

The only players you listed who had great serves were Graf and Davenport. Henin despite reaching high MPH on occasion had only a reasonably good serve, it was arguably the least strong part of her game in fact. Seles had only a good serve at the best of times. Mary Pierce only developed a really big serve late in her career.

Then again compared to todays top players minus Serena, all those players could easily be termed to have absolutely outstanding serves by comparision. I have no idea why the serving today is so weak. It is a huge weakness for the current women though and one reason Serena even her age is able to dominate so easily, and will likely continue to do so for atleast another 3 years.

 

[Prisoner of Birth]

The only players you listed who had great serves were Graf and Davenport. Henin despite reaching high MPH on occasion had only a reasonably good serve, it was arguably the least strong part of her game in fact. Seles had only a good serve at the best of times. Mary Pierce only developed a really big serve late in her career.

Oh, not on your signature anymore, am I

 

[LeeD]

The potential women who would have great serves now play volleyball and basketball.
Serena is the biggest of all. Not the tallest not the heaviest, but biggest. At 5'10" or so, close to 175 lbs., she has the stabiltiy to go with her athleticism.
BettyStove had a fast first serve, really wimpy second.
SueBarker and HanaMandlikova has excellent first serves with minor head problems.
Serena's serves work because her groundies are the strongest, allowing her to make her adversaries run and tire out before she does. You know your serves work best when you're not heaving to breathe and dying from lack of oxygen.

 

[smoledman]

Remember Serena is playing against mostly 120lb waifs.

 

[power level 800]

none of them had a huge serve. steffi had a solid serve but not a weapon. justine had a good first but erratic second. davonport had a solid serve as did seles. but none of them had a huge serve.

in fact there are biggers servers now then a few years ago. most still suck but not only the sisters but also some other girls (ivanovic, lisicki) have served 125 mph. all of them have taken place in the last decade.

most women serves are weak but 20 year ago that was much worse.

not true.... Maria Sharapova who still plays today has a personal best serve recorded at 121 m.p.h, while Justine Henin a lot smaller being has her fastest recorded serve at 122 at the 2005 Family Circle Cup (back in the day)

 

[sixftlion]

There's an interesting article explaining how the girls throw differently compared to boys. Serve is the throwing motion that the ladies don't do as well as men:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/throw-like-a-girl-with-some-practice-you-can-do-better/2012/09/10/9ffc8bc8-dc09-11e1-9974-5c975ae4810f_story.html

 

[Amelie Mauresmo]

none of them had a huge serve. steffi had a solid serve but not a weapon. justine had a good first but erratic second. davonport had a solid serve as did seles. but none of them had a huge serve.

in fact there are biggers servers now then a few years ago. most still suck but not only the sisters but also some other girls (ivanovic, lisicki) have served 125 mph. all of them have taken place in the last decade.

most women serves are weak but 20 year ago that was much worse.

Steffi Graf had a huge serve for her era just ask Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert they both said Steffi's serve was fantastic. Steffi could serve over 114 miles per hour and probably higher. Graf's serve also had a lot of variety she could use kick, slice, flat serves.

Ivanovic's serve is terrible she can't even toss her serve probably it is all over the place.

Lisicki has a big serve but it isn't consistent she can double fault a lot.

 

[Deleted member 307496]

It's because Serena is big and has a lot of power behind her.

 

[dominikk1985]

not true.... Maria Sharapova who still plays today has a personal best serve recorded at 121 m.p.h, while Justine Henin a lot smaller being has her fastest recorded serve at 122 at the 2005 Family Circle Cup (back in the day)

well I consider 2005 "now".

I was talking "today" vs 80s to mid 90s players.

 

[dominikk1985]

Steffi Graf had a huge serve for her era just ask Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert they both said Steffi's serve was fantastic. Steffi could serve over 114 miles per hour and probably higher. Graf's serve also had a lot of variety she could use kick, slice, flat serves.

Ivanovic's serve is terrible she can't even toss her serve probably it is all over the place.

Lisicki has a big serve but it isn't consistent she can double fault a lot.

ivanovic makes a lot of faults but she can dial her serve up, at least she could a few years ago I have not watched her a lot in the last years (she looks like she is anorexic or so).