The State of Tennis
A couple days ago, while watching the First Rounds of the 2015 US Open, my friend asked me what I thought about the direction of the sport of tennis. It is no secret that over the past 30 years, tennis has possibly been the most transformed sport. The most significant change in the game has been via the drastic improvement in racquet technology. During the 1980's, great players like John McEnroe and Chris Evert used wooden racquets. However, the most common racquets these days are made of graphite, fiberglass as well as other progressive materials. The change in the material used in racquet production has made the sport much power based and much quicker. The easiest way to pinpoint this essential difference is via noting that with a wooden racquet; the “power” players used to serve and volley (Rod Laver, John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker, Patrick Rafter and Pete Sampras), however, today, the power players can have those same exchanges from the baseline itself (Del Potro is the first to come to my mind).
I’d like to go ahead and make a bold statement in saying that the match that I have linked above was the turning point for the sport of tennis. The sport really took a turn when Del Potro proved to the world that finesse and touch were not required to win a major. Del Potro made his bread and butter via beating the living crap out of the ball from the baseline, as you can see in the video above.
The next question you may ask is, why do we still see players like Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray compose the big 4? It’s a very reasonable question that has a very simple answer: Their stamina and ability to play through and above injuries is miraculous and sets them apart from the majority of players. Their style doesn’t implement much power and is a brand of much smarter tennis. However, the sport isn’t moving in this direction. 10 mens players thus far have withdrawn from their matches within the first two rounds. As people get stronger and grow into having the ability to sustain this rough and tough style of play, this past generation of players will be left in the dust, only wishing their finesse could do them any good.
The future of tennis consists of big serves and even bigger ground strokes. Having strong net play is always an asset, however, the fundamentals of the future of tennis, given the major racquet technology advancements etc rely on the power game. The serve is the first step to taking your game to the next level given that the serve is the only shot in the game that is not in-response. Having a big serve allows the major points to be setup and cover for an at-par complementary game (John Isner, Kevin Andersen, etc). Being a doubles player who prides himself at the net, this slightly disappoints me, but hey, it is what it is.
