HomeTennis instructionIs Serve and Volley Still Alive?

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Is Serve and Volley Still Alive? — 4 Comments

  1. In general – NO.

    The answer is yes only in Wimbledon and with few biggest servers who are very tall.
    If the court would be just little bit smaller – it would be another story.
    ps. for those tall guys – the court is a bit smaller (the relativity law : )

  2. Hello,
    I am a top D3 collegiate level tennis player and I actually pursued a serve volley game early in my career. This playing style produced very little success for me for a number of different reasons (yes I do hit a two handed backhand, but that had little or no effect).
    The #1 reason why the serve and volleying game is no longer around is because of the new technology with rackets and strings. Both of these allow massive amounts of topspin to be generated on the ball allowing extreme angles and massive amounts of control when hit really hard.
    To serve and volley at the professional level (and be successful) an individual would have to have beyond super human reflexes, reaction time, hand-eye coordination, and speed/quickness to deal with the tennis balls traveling 110 mph’s off a ground stroke or a ball that has 2,500 RPM (Federer’s) to 5,000 RPM (Nadal’s). One could argue that the pro’s do already have some of those characteristics and I agree some do. However, to serve volley (and be successful) the player must have double or even triple that amount of “super human” talent that exists on the tour today.

    It physically is not possible at this day and age to do so.

    -Alex Makos

  3. If juniors players have not added serve and volley to their game, what do you expect from pros?

    The great serve and volley players of the past forty years or so were, in general, great tennis players who added serve and volley to their game. If Pete Sampras or Boris Becker were to play right now, would they be able to beat a top 10 player? My answer is yes.

  4. I believe Sampras has beaten a few pros post-retirement employing serve and volley tactics, including Federer. I know these were exhibitions, and so on, but he still put major pressure on great players with the tactics. Hell, even Roddick, when he plays the appropriate approach, can serve and volley today. It’s a matter of commitment to the art and practice.