Back to the future as moribund tactic is revived

Roger Federer of Switzerland serves during his men's singles semi-final tennis match against Milos Raonic of Canada at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, in London in this July 4, 2014 file photo.

REUTERS/STEFAN WERMUTH/FILES

The yellowing obituaries are looking premature as serve-and-volley tennis creeps, with a few tweaks, toward a renaissance of sorts.

A number of top men are leading the charge and, in a curious twist, the same blend of technology and lung-busting fitness blamed for all-but killing off this style of play is behind its resurgence.

As players hit harder shots, miss fewer balls and run for hour upon hour, competitors need a ploy to shorten points.

Introducing... the serve-and-volley.

It is an old-school move which, used selectively, might just become the newest potent weapon in the armory of modern players.

"At the moment you see the guys winning the slams from the baseline," former tour pro and leading coach and tennis analyst Darren Cahill told Reuters.

"But then you see the great players of today working on their net games because they know it saves them physically because they have to work so hard to win points.

"Over the course of a grand slam, seven matches, best of five, they are looking at ways to shorten points to save as much energy as they can.

"I think Novak, Rafa and Roger are coming in way more than they were four or five years ago," Cahill said of Djokovic, Nadal and Federer.

Time was that unless you knew the dark arts of serve-and-volley, you could forget about winning Wimbledon.

Even baseliner Bjorn Borg would roll his rounded shoulders into the ball and race to the net at the All England Club, punching his wooden racket through the white ball.

Not as frequently as John McEnroe, of course, who elevated serve-volley to a higher art form -- nor the likes of Pat Cash, Boris Becker and Pete Sampras who followed him.

But, all the same, Borg knew his way around the net -- a fact mostly overlooked because his baseline play was so preternatural.

EVERYTHING CHANGED

Over the years it became received wisdom that grass, plus serve, plus volley, equals silverware. It was a simple equation which had served dozens and dozens of champions down the years.

Then everything changed.

Racquets got bigger, lighter, more powerful.

Players got fitter, balls got lighter and grass courts -- in a bid to recreate the longer rallies killed off by the super-powerful equipment -- got slower.

Different grass of different lengths was experimented with. The balance of baseline tennis and serve-and-volley tennis tipped.

In 2002 Lleyton Hewitt squared up to David Nalbandian in the first Wimbledon men's final contested by two baseliners.

Hewitt won a forgettable affair during which neither player attempted to serve-volley. Not one point.

Now that Wimbledon could be won with a big forehand and even bigger lungs, the motivation to learn and hone the art of net play, and serve-volley in particular, receded further.

The new racquets and strings allowed players to strike a ball down by their ankles with a full-blooded swing and send it flying low and dipping over the net -- a volleyer's worst nightmare.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia hits a volley to Jeremy Chardy of France in their men's singles tennis match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, in London in this June 29, 2013 file photo.

REUTERS/EDDIE KEOGH/FILES

A few cavalier souls persevered but, generally, the baseline pattern was set. Federer eased into all-court excellence, while Nadal and Djokovic mopped up grand slam crowns with baseline crunching shots.

Some skeptics said it was a cycle. Serve-volleying titans, including McEnroe and Tony Roche, imagined a time when a super-athlete emerged and breathed new life into the old tactic.

That has not happened yet. But slowly, the skill of hustling into the net immediately behind a serve is growing in popularity -- often on second serve where more spin and kick allows more time for the volleyer to get in place.

DECADES IN THE WILDERNESS

The tactic is becoming common on clay courts as a way to finish a point quickly, and it possesses the element of surprise after decades in the wilderness.

Andy Murray's coach Jonas Bjorkman, in his day a serve-volleyer, says he wants the Briton to use the tactic more.

Three-times Wimbledon champion Boris Becker, perhaps the most aggressive serve-volleyer of them all, wants his charge, world number one Djokovic, to give it a whirl.

Federer, now coached by another exponent of the art Stefan Edberg, best illustrates the trend. In 2002 he serve-volleyed more than 80 percent of the time at Wimbledon.

By 2003 that figure had dropped to 3.5 percent according to the tournament's official statisticians IBM.

A gradual increase then kicks in, with the Swiss upping his serve-volleying year-on-year to more than 20 percent in 2014.

Djokovic used the tactic to good effect in Paris at the French Open last month where he lost in the final.

Although nobody predicts a return to the tennis of 30 years ago, this year's Wimbledon statistics will make for interesting reading.

"I think anyone who does serve and volley well is going to have some success... it's different to what players are used to," Cahill said. - Reuters

Murray outclasses Anderson to take fourth Queen's title

Aegon Championships - Queens Club, London - 21/6/15Great Britain's Andy Murray celebrates winning the final with the trophyAction Images via Reuters / Paul Childs

Andy Murray warmed up for Wimbledon by winning back-to-back matches at the Aegon Championships on Sunday as he scooped his fourth title at Queen's Club by dismantling big-serving South African Kevin Anderson 6-3 6-4 in the final.

To the delight of the home crowd, the world number three showed no sign of weariness when returning to court two hours after completing his semi-final against Viktor Troicki which had been held up by rain the previous evening.

He had resumed at 3-3 in the first set against the Serb and quickly established control to come through 6-3 7-6(4).

Murray was confident his return of serve would enable him to cope against the lanky Anderson, who went into the final having thundered down 96 aces in his three previous matches.

So it proved, even though Anderson fired down two more aces in his first service game and soon reached three figures for the week.

The top seed's returning nevertheless enabled him to make a crucial breakthrough once in each set and his own serve never let him down.

A range of dropshots and lobs also proved too subtle for Anderson, and also suggested that Murray was in fine fettle ahead of Wimbledon which starts on June 29.

The first break came in the fourth game, when Murray confidently returned a 141 mile-per-hour serve, forcing his unseeded opponent to net a volley.

Anderson was broken with a series of superb shots to fall 3-2 behind in the second and was unable to recover.

Murray sealed victory when the South African went wide on a service return, allowing the Briton to join John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Lleyton Hewitt and Andy Roddick from the modern era as four-times Queen's winners.

The Scot's titles have come in alternate years -- 2009, 2011, 2013 and 2015.

"Both matches today were good performances and I played a little bit better as the week went on," Murray said in an on-court interview.

"It's been a great week for me and hopefully I can continue that form through to Wimbledon."

Murray even believes he is in better form than two years ago, when he won Wimbledon by beating Novak Djokovic in the final.

"I'm playing better than then, I feel," he added.

"But it's extremely difficult to win these events when everyone is improving all the time.

"You are playing against some of the greatest players that have ever played so you need to keep working hard and I still feel there are things I can improve on."

Anderson will also hope for a good run on the All England Club grass after an impressive tournament.

"I played some good tennis throughout the week and I can take a lot of positives from it," he said. - Reuters