Weakest serve to win Wimbledon?
- Thread starter ADuck
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TheNachoMan
Legend
Murray, Hewitt and Nadal don‘t exactly have great serves. They made up for it in other ways though.
agassi also.
BeatlesFan
Bionic Poster
Agassi by far, especially in 1992 when he won it. His serve had more velocity and placement in the 2000's before his back became a permanent issue. Jimbo would be a close second, but he had the lefty advantage with serve.
jm1980
Talk Tennis Guru
Murray has a very good first serve, probably better than Novak's back in the day
Nadal's serve is underrated. Sure, it won't light up the radar guns but it sets him up very well
nolefam_2024
Bionic Poster
Murray had amazing first serve. His slice in ad side was the best those days. Nole couldn't stop him.
TheNachoMan
Legend
He DESTROYED peak William Marshall 6-1 6-2 6-4. The 12 people who saw it said it was the finest serving and display of shotmaking they had ever witnessed.
Poisoned Slice
Bionic Poster
Boris Becker when he was playing on his 20 sleeping tablets.
Peak Hadow breadsticked him the following year and proved that title was just a FLUKE won in a MUG era.
TheNachoMan
Legend
Gore had already declined by that point and had a bout of mono. Happens to all the greats.
nolefam_2024
Bionic Poster
Haven't seen Edberg play so my question is how was his serve.
Holmes
Hall of Fame
Gore suffered an age disadvantage, being 5 years older than Hadow.
Holmes
Hall of Fame
Gore suffered an age disadvantage, being 5 years older than Hadow.
fundrazer
G.O.A.T.
Watch old videos on YouTube and educate yourself?
Like, have you never watched any footage of him at all?
Holmes
Hall of Fame
ATG level kick serve.
TheNachoMan
Legend
I try to watch matches from the 90s but the servebotting and netrushing just bores me. Zoomer brained.
I Am Finnish
Bionic Poster
Fedr
nolefam_2024
Bionic Poster
I have watched his Wimbledon finals but it's grainy videos from 1980s.
ADuck
Legend
Least effective
heavyD
Professional
He was one of the best ever pure serve & volley players to play the game so even if you didn't watch him you could come to the conclusion that his serve was very good out of necessity for that play style.
Holmes
Hall of Fame
Edberg was like the Fed of the net in the sense of being smooth, effortless, pure, and elegant. His technique on his volleys was perfect, particularly his backhand (obv unlike Fed) and his anticipation was peerless.
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heavyD
Professional
Todays fans would have hated his forehand like they hate Norrie's backhand. It stuck out as an ugly stroke for an otherwise graceful player.
Holmes
Hall of Fame
Fed of the net.
His forehand was almost as bad as Fed's topspin backhand, agreed.
TearTheRoofOff
G.O.A.T.
Ivanisevic, obviously.
ADuck
Legend
best serve to win wimbledon?
Lleytonstation
Talk Tennis Guru
172cm if he wins.
NonP
Legend
With the only possible exception of Kodes (which really shouldn't count anyway due to the boycott), it's Connors (in the OE). Per TA's charting data only Coria got a lower % of freebies on serve and that's unlikely to change much even after adjusting for eras/racquets. As we saw in the '74 USO final Jimbo's serve could be a weapon, but such instances were few and far between.
As for the women, TA also tells us Evert had the lowest average Unret% among modern gals at 11.0%, but my infallible hunch is that with graphite sticks from the get-go her % would be a tad higher than Martinez's 12.7%. Not enough charted matches for BJK, Court and Goolagong but most everyone would agree their serve was at least a class or two above the unlikely Spanish champ's, and while Ann Jones bucked the trend of her era and preferred the baseline to the net it's still hard to imagine a lefty's serve being the absolute worst among the women. Ergo the correct answer (again OE) is Martinez.
A couple more things:
The net-rushing part, that I can see. But it's the way tennis is supposed to be played on grass!
All things considered, it's Pistol. Doubt anyone will ever average a whopping 50.8% of all serves as freebies across multiple Wimby Fs, let alone seven. No wonder he lost serve only 4 times out of 131 times.
As for the women, TA also tells us Evert had the lowest average Unret% among modern gals at 11.0%, but my infallible hunch is that with graphite sticks from the get-go her % would be a tad higher than Martinez's 12.7%. Not enough charted matches for BJK, Court and Goolagong but most everyone would agree their serve was at least a class or two above the unlikely Spanish champ's, and while Ann Jones bucked the trend of her era and preferred the baseline to the net it's still hard to imagine a lefty's serve being the absolute worst among the women. Ergo the correct answer (again OE) is Martinez.
A couple more things:
In terms of Unret% it's not even close between Bull and Dre/Rusty/Muzz, LOL. 22.8% vs. 26.1/27.0/27.0% which is in Djoker's range (also 26.1%), and Dre's would probably top 27.0% with today's racquets. Clearly ahead of Bull, let alone Jimbo.
In all seriousness any of the modern champs had a better serve than those Brits of yore, especially if we're to believe that Maurice McLoughlin was among the first to serve up aces and freebies by the bucketful.
You can't really judge Stefan by usual standards cuz his main goal was to use that famous kicker to get to the net, but he still had about the same Unret% as Stan and Monfils. Not bad at all.
Possibly even worse than Jimbo's, but like I said '73 wasn't a de facto major so he's out.
Players are botting more than ever, LOL. (Yeah, thanks to dem big sticks.)
The net-rushing part, that I can see. But it's the way tennis is supposed to be played on grass!
Would probably be the consensus pick for Smoothest Player Ever if not for that FH. Maybe co-#1 with Fraud, then.
If we're talking serves as isolated shots, for sure.
All things considered, it's Pistol. Doubt anyone will ever average a whopping 50.8% of all serves as freebies across multiple Wimby Fs, let alone seven. No wonder he lost serve only 4 times out of 131 times.
Bhagi Katbamna
Legend
Jimmy Connors.
Olli Jokinen
Hall of Fame
Awesome! Extreme topsin which allowed him to approach at the net leat a step faster than any other player. It wasn't hard, it was extremely spinny.
kevin qmto
Hall of Fame
Just go find the person who won with the lowest percentage of 1st serve points won.
There’s your answer.
There’s your answer.
clayqueen
Talk Tennis Guru
Watch match point.
kevin qmto
Hall of Fame
Umm. No he didn’t.
Not the same stat, but here were Kodes's unreturned serve percentages in his 3 grass court finals:
1971 U.S. Open (vs. Stan Smith): 19.8%
1973 Wimbledon (vs. Alex Metreveli): 28.8%
1973 U.S. Open (vs. Newcombe): 12.9%
-20.4% average
I Am Finnish
Bionic Poster
Olli Jokinen
Hall of Fame
He played with a metal raquet. And after he switched to graphite the serve was still the same.
kevin qmto
Hall of Fame
I will say, if you look at the matches he played with the Pro Staff in 1984, his serve does seem to have some more pop on it. but apparently despite that he didn't care for the frame and gave up on it eventually. Went back to the T2000 for another couple years.
Sampras-Bruguera 1993
Legend
Renshaw. Won as many Wimbledons as Pete and Djoker. Something tells me he wasn't putting up Hurkacz speed #'s
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