Weakest serve to win Wimbledon?

[Deleted member 765728]

Enjoy:

Definitely a post-prime Edberg, but still a lovely performance. Poor Muster, got destroyed once more...

 

[mattennis]

Edberg's serve was perfect for his game.

He was an extremely gifted specimen, physically speaking (strong, fast, one of the quickest ever to get to the net).

He seemed to fly effortlessly above the court sometimes...

He would put you under extreme pressure all the time, you blinked once and he was already at the net, and his forehand-volley, backhand-volley, athleticism and smash were all top notch.

His one-handed backhand was also one of the best.

He was one of the players that I have enjoyed the most, his game was a thing of beauty.

Even his forehand he would use intelligently and was much more serviceable than most people would think at first sight.

 

[Deleted member 765728]

Edberg's serve was perfect for his game.

He was an extremely gifted specimen, physically speaking (strong, fast, one of the quickest ever to get to the net).

He seemed to fly effortlessly above the court sometimes...

He would put you under extreme pressure all the time, you blinked once and he was already at the net, and his forehand-volley, backhand-volley, athleticism and smash were all top notch.

His one-handed backhand was also one of the best.

He was one of the players that I have enjoyed the most, his game was a thing of beauty.

Even his forehand he would use intelligently and was much more serviceable than most people would think at first sight.

Here is what great Pete said about his match-up with Edberg in his autobiography:

In hi s prime, Edberg had a great serve—a big kicker that gave him plenty of time to get to the net, and once he was there it was tough to get the ball past him. He was always trying to rush you. The most deadly thing you can do to a guy is take away his time—make him rush or feel like you’re swarming all over him. Stefan was very good at that. His volley was superb, especially on the backhand side, and he was a tough guy to lob.

No wonder he struggled quite a bit vs Stefan, Edberg was running all over him the same way Pete rushed the other players and it did affected him mentally I think.

 

[tex123]

Least effective

Angelique Kerber had a pretty poor serve and a serve motion.

 

[tex123]

Edberg's serve was perfect for his game.

He was an extremely gifted specimen, physically speaking (strong, fast, one of the quickest ever to get to the net).

He seemed to fly effortlessly above the court sometimes...

He would put you under extreme pressure all the time, you blinked once and he was already at the net, and his forehand-volley, backhand-volley, athleticism and smash were all top notch.

His one-handed backhand was also one of the best.

He was one of the players that I have enjoyed the most, his game was a thing of beauty.

Even his forehand he would use intelligently and was much more serviceable than most people would think at first sight.

Edberg had an awesome kick serve that allowed him to get to the net.

Rafter also used a lot of kick to complement his game. Unfortunately the same serve gave Edberg back problems.

 

[Holmes]

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:





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.

A fair perspective.

 

[Kralingen]

Here is what great Pete said about his match-up with Edberg in his autobiography:

In hi s prime, Edberg had a great serve—a big kicker that gave him plenty of time to get to the net, and once he was there it was tough to get the ball past him. He was always trying to rush you. The most deadly thing you can do to a guy is take away his time—make him rush or feel like you’re swarming all over him. Stefan was very good at that. His volley was superb, especially on the backhand side, and he was a tough guy to lob.

No wonder he struggled quite a bit vs Stefan, Edberg was running all over him the same way Pete rushed the other players and it did affected him mentally I think.

Andre’s third most impressive victory behind AO 95 and WB 92 is YEC 90. Beating that Edberg, indoors, in a final? Insane.

 

[Deleted member 765728]

Andre’s third most impressive victory behind AO 95 and WB 92 is YEC 90. Beating that Edberg, indoors, in a final? Insane.

Edberg struggled with players who returned his serve aggressively and forced him to play low volleys or simply keep him back. No wonder Agassi, Courier or Connors had success vs Stefan.

 

[mattennis]

Yes, Agassi, Courier, Connors (and Chang almost there as well) all had the amazing skill of being able to return aggresively first serves from way inside the court.

Almost nobody else was able to return first serves like that.

 

[Dane_is_Finnish_OJ]

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.

Maybe, but I don't think his serve was very imposing when he switched to the Slazenger racket. Agassi's clearly better.

 

[travlerajm]

Fed of the net.
His forehand was almost as bad as Fed's topspin backhand, agreed.

Yet his return stats on hardcourt are top 5 all time. So his fh couldn’t have been that bad.

 

[kevin qmto]

Maybe, but I don't think his serve was very imposing when he switched to the Slazenger racket. Agassi's clearly better.

I agree. Maybe the Slazenger had less power lol.