Serve and Volley?

[thefan]

How come there are so little pros that play the game of serve and volley. Tim Henman is the only one that I can think of. I've heard people say that the modern racquet killed the game of s & v. But how exactly did "modern racquet" do that?

 

[ATXtennisaddict]

Henman doesn't even S&V much now. At Indian Wells (at least for the match I saw on TV) he stayed behind.

 

[Andres]

It's not the modern racquet who killed the S&V, since most players are still playing with 'not so modern' racquets (PC600, PS6.1, 6.0 (if still anyone).

It's the modern string who wounded the S&V.

 

[edmondsm]

The string technology benefited the returner more than the server. It increased the sweet spot making it much easier to get the ball back with a reflex stab return, as well as giving the returner the ability to take a full swing at a second serve.

 

[MirkoMecir]

Also the slowing down of the game in general, by slowing court surfaces and increasing the size or weight of the tennis balls has pretty much given the baseliner the advantage over the S & V.

 

[fastdunn]

Also the slowing down of the game in general, by slowing court surfaces and increasing the size or weight of the tennis balls has pretty much given the baseliner the advantage over the S & V.

I think so. Mud slow court speed and "reportedly" slightly bigger and heavier ball
(Roddick refered them as watermellon ball AFAIK and Henman's "claim" that
Wimbledon opens the can of balls well before the start of tournament)

I'm surprised lots of people do not know or care. IMHO, it changed
the whole game (not a sudden change, gradual changes over many years).

And the new generation polyester happens to be better string for current baseline
oriented game...

 

[the new new york]

New strings do acount for a main reason of more baseline play, but lets not cancel out racquets. While most still play with older racquets babolat has all power sticks, and there are a lot of pros with babolat.

 

[Clive Walker]

I would put the blame on the modern racquet- but then this opens the debate as to what defines a "modern racquet."

IMO S&V died out as a development tool probably in the early 1990s.

 

[rum02]

chris guccione is the only up and coming serve volleyer i know of. he's australia's second best player!

 

[go_nadal]

Serve volley should be done more ofen... Go the gooche

 

[caulcano]

People still try and S&V on grass but they'll get passed so many times that they'll either stop S&V as much or lose quickly.

 

[illkhiboy]

^ You know, Bjorkman, Stepanek and Myrni made the round of 16 last year playing S&V. Federer was there but he barely came in during the tournament. Ancic also made the quarters, but I don't think he was serving and volleying much.
Anybody who calls grass "green clay" should see last year's match between Max Miryni and J Blake. Blake was forced over and over again to hit great passing shots. He eventually broke down trying to hit topspin off Miyrni's low slices.

Damn I need to learn how to spell Max's name!