Chapter 605 Retro Style
Throughout the 1990s, Agassi's serve receiving skills were unrivaled in the world. Even now, compared to the two serve receiving masters Djokovic and Murray, Agassi is still unsurpassed.
Back then, Agassi was able to perform excellent serve returns simply by standing on the baseline with his feet. He relied on his talent, outstanding reaction speed and coordinated hand-eye coordination to be unrivaled in the world.
Now, players use racket technology to stand farther away from the baseline to resolve the pressure of ball speed, and they can still hit faster and higher-spinning returns than Agassi even two meters away from the baseline. Nadal and Thiem are representative players of this type of return.
In other words, the innovation of racket and string technology has given the receiving side more room, and naturally, the pressure faced by serving and volleying has increased exponentially.
From Edberg to Sampras to Federer, this is the evolution of the entire era, mainly reflected in the way the opponent handles the serve after serving and on the way to the net:
Edberg used a volley, which is a standard serve-and-volley.
Sampras used the half volley, which is a modified serve and volley.
Federer used a half-court drive, which was no longer a serve and volley, but at most just net pressure.
In other words, as the quality of serve reception improves, the ball speed and rotation increase, it is difficult for the serving side to reach the net and complete the interception immediately after finishing the serve. Even if they can barely reach the net, it is difficult to find the hitting point above the net to complete the top-down pressure interception.
The return ball from the receiving side has a much faster, more powerful and more rotating feel than before.
Of course, the only exception in the entire tour is Karlovic.
The 208cm height gives Karlovic a unique serving advantage. His use of the three-dimensional space of the entire court is different from others, which also makes his serve and volley successful. But overall, he is just a shell, without any technical content or tactical combination. Even Karlovic himself admitted:
"I can win matches with just one technique. I'm such a genius."
After British player Tim Henman retired, both traditional and non-traditional serve-and-volley players have basically disappeared from the tour.
However, among the active players, there are still many who can skillfully use serve and volley to enrich their game tactics.
Gao Wen met Zverev Jr. in the previous challenge match. His brother Zverev Sr. is a serve-and-volley player. As you can imagine, his results are far inferior to his brother's.
Among them, the most famous is naturally Federer. However, for Federer, serve and volley is just a part of the comprehensive tactical curry.
In addition, Felipe Lopez can also be considered one of them.
"Tears of Time", when people look back on the past in this way, it inevitably seems light and simple, but the actual situation is often more complicated.
When it comes to the "serve-and-volley players leaving the stage," the popularity of tennis, commercial promotion, and technological development are intricately intertwined, ultimately ending the glory of a style of play.
In fact, throughout the whole process, Wimbledon also faced a lot of pressure and they also made the same choice.
The 1991 Wimbledon final, Michael Stich vs. Boris Becker; the 1998 Wimbledon final, Sampras vs. Ivanisevic, both matches were considered extremely boring serve battles, with only a few shots lasting more than four rounds.
It was simply a serve practice match.
To avoid a repeat of this visual disaster - and to avoid a heavy blow to ratings - the All England Club has been working to improve the quality of its turf, replacing wear-resistant grass species and trimming the turf shorter. These measures make the grass at Wimbledon firmer and the bounce of the ball more regular.
The end result is that the Wimbledon court is more like a natural hard court.
Pressure from ratings and sponsors has also forced Wimbledon, a traditional sport, to make concessions. This is also a result of the trend of the times.
As of 2021, Federer is an eight-time Wimbledon champion, while Djokovic is a six-time champion, but people just call Federer the "King of Grass", not because Federer has more championships, but mainly because Djokovic basically treats the grass as hard court.
Today, the "serve and volley style of play" is even jokingly called the "suicidal style" by commentators. For young people, this may be a harmless joke; but for players and fans who truly experienced the 1980s and 1990s, it is not a funny thing.
Jiang Yanyun herself likes the serve-and-volley style very much. After all, she is also one of the fans in the 1990s.
From the perspective of playing style, Lopez, Sampras and Federer are indeed in the same system, but in specific terms, there are differences.
Lopez likes to attack and also likes to go to the net, but at the same time, his excellent hitting and mobility abilities give him a good ability to hold the baseline. Watching his games, he is more in between Sampras and Federer. He uses serve and volley as a technique less frequently than Sampras but more frequently than Federer.
It is also because of this that Felipe Lopez can be said to be a top doubles player, but as a singles player, he has not been able to reverse the tide of the times.
Looking at Lopez's performance in his career, his results in Grand Slams have always been mediocre. His best record is reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon three times. He has entered the second week of the other three Grand Slam tournaments only three times in total, twice at the US Open and once at the Australian Open, which is far less than imagined.
This year was no exception, with Wimbledon reaching the fourth round and the other three Grand Slams all being eliminated in the first week.
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It can also be seen from the side that Felipe Lopez's playing style does face many challenges in today's professional tennis, but Felipe Lopez's world ranking is still rising steadily, and he has already entered the top 20 in the world, which also proves his ability; moreover, Felipe Lopez's consecutive participation in Grand Slam main tournaments is second only to Federer, ranking second in history.
Among the players ranked in the top ten in the world, he has defeated Berdych, Ferrer, Raonic, Davydenko, Soderling, Fognini, Safin, Del Potro, Roddick, Wawrinka and many more.
In addition, before Djokovic had fully matured, Lopez had defeated him once.
Lopez's real rivals are Federer and Murray. He lost all 13 games against the former and all 11 games against the latter.
This year, Lopez has continued her upward momentum.
In August in Toronto, Lopez defeated Berdych and Raonic, who were in excellent form this season, and entered the semi-finals.
In Shanghai, Felipe Lopez defeated compatriot Nadal to advance into the third round.
For Gao Wen, although Felipe Lopez is not Nadal, since Felipe Lopez was able to beat Nadal, it means that Felipe Lopez is stronger than Nadal in the Magic City this week; moreover, the "serve and volley style of play" is the first time Gao Wen has encountered in his career.
Sampras was a little "disdained" because in his opinion, even he himself was not a pure serve-and-volley player, not to mention the young players after him, all of whom were full-court players, slightly different from baseline players, with a coverage area that could extend to the front of the net.
That's all.
(End of this chapter)