Last month I wrote a blog post titled Serve-and-volley: Shifting from tennis to squash? One of the comments that I received was from Patrice Boies, a former colleague. Patrice played tennis for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas from 1989-1993, winning the MVP award three times. Patrice continues to remain actively involved in tennis, and in March 2012 won the Canadian National Singles and Doubles in the over-forty category and is currently ranked number two in Canada, in his age group. I felt that Patrice’s comments warranted a blog post, so here it is…
I really enjoyed your article! In fact, I decided to research and watch additional vintage footage to confirm if my childhood tennis memories were accurate! When learning the game, young players often adopt styles of play, rackets, strings, and shoes based on their favorite players, or the top players of the moment. Nowadays, there are practically no more serve-and-volley players, so we most likely won’t see that style of play coming back anytime soon.
My recollections are vivid! I grew up watching many different players with distinctive styles. I started to play at eight, in 1979. Top players to watch in the eighties and nineties were McEnroe, Borg, Lendl, Connors, Gerulaitis, Amritraj, Pecci, Noah, Edberg, Krajicek, Ivanisevic, Pat Cash, Wilander, Becker, Agassi, and Sampras! Thanks to YouTube, I can confirm that Noah and Pecci served and volleyed on clay at the French, and Borg occasionally came in on the first serve at Wimbledon in 1980 vs. McEnroe! I also saw a lot of “chip and charge,” which, as an offensive technique, also appears to be on the wane.
I agree with Lendl’s comments: “So to come to the net and be fishing for that ball when the guy takes a full swing and it has 8,000 rpm on that ball … it becomes very, very difficult to volley and put away.” I would add that it is especially difficult when the ball is low in the shoe laces, forcing a poor-quality volley.
In addition, many top singles players used to play singles and doubles, which helped to develop a solid net game and master the “split step”, required to push off into a two-step volley. In College at UNLV, I was very fortunate to have Larry Easley as a coach. Larry developed Pete Sampras’s volleys and attacking-style movement and the two-step volley. The game and ATP schedule are too physical and demanding now, which makes it virtually impossible to dominate in singles and doubles.
Pete Sampras claims, that serve and volley is dead. For now, I agree. Who knows? The game keeps on changing. After all, Roger Federer brought back an “improved version” of the drop shot. I call it the inside-out corkscrew drop shot and more and more players are using it.
Perhaps five to ten years from now, someone will master the art of serve-and-volley tennis again!
Note: Please add your comments to let me know if you agree with these views or, have a different take on this subject.
