Alex Massie Alex Massie

How to Improve Tennis

Kevin Drum is in danger of becoming a lapsed tennis-fan. In particular he laments the elimination of the serve-and-volley style of play:

[…] I find myself following tennis less and less every year. Why? Because it’s gotten boring. Sure, today’s players are phenomenal athletes, covering the court like gazelles and routinely hitting breathtaking shots. But every match is the same, what I’ve come to think of as “thug tennis”: huge topspin forehands, booming two-handed backhands, and endless baseline rallies. The power and shotmaking are mesmerizing at times, but in the end, I can hardly tell the players apart these days.

[…] I know the current state of the game has lots of fans, but aside from an intellectual admiration I just can’t work up a lot of enthusiasm these days. In the end, new racket technology and the coaching that went along with it have finally conspired to spoil the game for me.

I’m not sure I’m wholly persuaded by this, not least because advances in string-technology allow players to play remarkable shots from remarkable angles. For that matter, tennis in the Federer-Nadal era (with, latterly, Djokovic and Murray as a fine supporting cast) has provided great dollops of compelling drama and extraordinary tennis. In many ways tennis – at least men’s tennis – is much better than it was a decade ago. When the top four are playing one another it can be pretty damn spectacular. (Tonight’s US Open final confirms this view.)

Nevertheless, Kevin has a point: the disappearance of serve and volley tennis has to be regretted. The power game is only part of the matter. Modifying the balls at Wimbledon had helped reduce the importance of the serve and so, more significantly, has the slowing of the courts but fitness, strength and the ability to generate extraordinary amounts of topspin have conspired to eliminate serve-and-volley tennis even on grass.

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