Like
Taylor Dent · 3,972 like this
April 16, 2011 at 11:15am ·
  • being a pure spectator of the sport for the last 5 months or so i find myself wondering if enough tennis fans will demand to see more variety in the game. I personally think the game is played at its highest level ever, and enjoy watching. many disagree and want serve and volley back. there are a ton of things you could change to make that happen, but im just not sure its in tennis' best interest.
    · Comment
    • Ronnie Tidy, Ahmad Mubarak, Israel Castillo and 15 others like this.
      • Steen Kirby I want serve and volley back 2. its how I play and its a lot more exciting. we need you back!
        April 16, 2011 at 11:21am
      • Paul Rooke I say whatever works for the individual player is what should be played. Surely tennis is in part entertainment for spectators but it didn't start that way. It's still a sport, not a show. What works, works and if the winning tactic is to serve and volley, so be it.
        April 16, 2011 at 11:21am · 2
      • Jerry Smith The game has certainly changed and It looks as though serve volley can't really work now. Personally I do think that's a shame - it was fun seeing a great returner battling a great server and also seeing players being forced to adapt their natural game to the surface.
        April 16, 2011 at 11:27am
      • Don Turner I teach my students to serve and volley and the like. It is much harder than banging from the baseline.
        April 16, 2011 at 11:49am
      • Ricardo Salas
        As an expectatir I certaily like to see variaty. I tend to want to watch only players that are unique, Fed for style, Rafa for his energy but I could not wait for Santoro to play before he retired. Women players seem to be coming out of th...e cookie even more so than men. So I now find it hard to watch. Ladies like Hennin and Scoivoni (sp?) bring variaty. I see all these kids coming out of these academies like a factory of identical robots. Don't really know what to think. From a spectator point variety is good. Sooner or later a new style technique will evolve. Perhaps the jump serve, and multindemensional player. See More
        April 16, 2011 at 11:51am
      • Ricardo Salas Cookie cutter. Lol.
        April 16, 2011 at 11:52am
      • Ron Patrick I think maybe they should make the service box smaller for the professionals. Just like they make the 3-point line in basketball farther out. It would make the serve-a-thon like matches a little more interesting and make the rallies longer. oh, and of course serve-and-volley. :)
        April 16, 2011 at 11:54am
      • Belinda Shaw
        Maybe variety is what makes the game so much more enjoyable. There are some players who could never be great servers and volleyers - take Olivier Rochus for example - he has to be one of the more dimunitive players on the circuit but is so ...talented. Personally I prefer the mix - tennis is so much more than a huge serve finished off by a smash at the net, but I appreciate it is a personal preference and people are never going to have the same opinion.See More
        April 16, 2011 at 11:54am
      • Ross Cann They don't allow pro baseball players to use metal bats. What about pro tennis players having to give up their metal racquets?
        April 16, 2011 at 12:07pm · 1
      • Karl Rosenstock
        When I was first playing tennis in Californis in the 70's courts were smooth compared to the very gritty courts of today, The balls had very little fluff to them also. The balls were also white and would soon pick up the dirt from the court...s and get really hard to see. Big serving back then made for weak returns - ripe for volley putaways. I would not like to go back in time. Remember when Stich did well at Wimby? Big serve, weak reply, easy volley putaway. That got boring to watch, too. All court style is what is most creative and fun to watch - Dolgopolov for example...See More
        April 16, 2011 at 12:21pm
      • Jeannine K. Trout
        I like a variety of court surfaces. There should be serve and volley tennis & fast courts and slow courts and grinders. I also miss the fast courts. I love the clay and I like grass as well. I think there is room for everything and ever...y style should have a platform. The courts at the Tennis Garden are too slow and seem to cause injury to players. You would know better than I. I would love to see the Australian played on very fast courtsSee More
        April 16, 2011 at 2:04pm
      • Riot Nrrd
        Ross Cann beat me to it. Bring back wood racquets!

        The technology has become scary good but the sticks nowadays are like bludgeons. They've caused a nuclear arms race in fitness just to keep up.

        Now guys have full time physiotherapists ...and trainers in their entourage and nutritionists etc. on the payroll. It's led to some incredibly fine-tuned athletes (Novak has turned into a human backboard, which has undoubtedly been a big factor in his great run this year so far) but at the cost of subtlety.

        Try re-watching Borg-McEnroe matches from back in the day - they seem so slow compared to today's tennis. But they were more like chess matches than bludgeon-fests - I'm sad that part of the game has been lost, apparently for good.        See More
        April 16, 2011 at 2:08pm
      • Mark R. Root This is why we need TAYLOR DENT BACK! :-)
        April 16, 2011 at 5:53pm
      • Tom Brennan Taylor change is always good. Lets first start with the Davis Cup format and go from there.
        April 16, 2011 at 7:56pm
      • Pascal Holleman
        We as coaches are responsible for keeping service volley a life... I agree that this type of gameplay must fit THE players physics and caracter...But I think THE reason why we don't see this type of play has nothing to do with THE fact that... THE players are hitting harder and therefore its more difficult to come to the net.. Its more what the coaches are theaching their students, you have to motivate them more to play this type of great tennis, for excample let them see "old" matches on tape....See More
        April 16, 2011 at 11:57pm
      • David S Keating Im with you Taylor there needs to be some more variety and strategic tennis in place ie serve volley
        April 17, 2011 at 3:57am
      • Žiga Zkranc Kranjec
        I'm a serve and volley fan, but still appreciate what Nadal or Murray do on court from the baseline, but it just gets boring to me, those baseline exchanges last a ton and offer little to no strategy. Pascal you're right coaches are just te...aching the kids to play baseline because it's the surest way to have success today, we don't need the McEnroe, Edberg, Sampras era to make a comeback, I just want serve and volley to be at least semi-successful way to play, so me kids would learn it and we could watch it, the net vs. baseline battle is great to watch.See More
        April 18, 2011 at 8:26am
      • Greg Zachary Taylor...isn't the game primed currently for situational serve and volley?
        April 24, 2011 at 1:50pm