Way back all majors were grass, except the French Open - clay.
Way way back this was grass too.
Tennis basically took over Croquet clubs..
The US Open Flushing meadows NY was grass until 1977. Aus open too until 1988!
Clay was invented by two ex wimbledon champion brothers at their Monaco coaching centre and club, in about 1898!
They had lovely grass but it burnt to a cinder come summer.
Their courts were next to a pottery works!
They came up with the idea of using crushed clay pots bedded down on the essentially dead grass roots - it worked! Clay spread over hot Europe and South America like wildfire…
Before 2000 or there abouts the speed of the courts (clay excepted) was fast, the players had evolved during the pretty much all grass play.
Indoor wood and carpet were lightning fast.
Most liked fast courts!
Grass back then was bumpy, you got to the net or faced a challenge with not so great bounces.
Hence serve volley.
You returned serve and chip and charged, if the server was not already there!
You had clay court specialists who’d never get anywhere at Wimbledon / the long grass season. Vice versa with serve volley players on clay.
McEnroe, Sampras, Edberg all came close in French finals but never won it.
The mixed skill players - Connors, Borg, Agassi of course could cross over.
I’d put Nadal and and to lesser extent Federer in this category.
Had it not been for Nadal locking out the French open Federer would have won many more.
So in 2000 we have fast courts, smaller head racquets 85 and 90sqin were the norm. Remember those guys had started playing with wood 64sqin…
Smaller head gives more control - great for serve and volley.
Gut strings are powerful too.
Pistol Pete Sampras was winning a lot. He got 16 majors.
His serve was so good it became rather boring to watch.
He and the likes of Ivanisevic, Kraijcek, Pat Cash, Pat Rafter, Boris Becker, Tim Henman, Stefan Edberg, Greg Rusdeski etc had cemented a hold on non clay surfaces. It was a dynamic serve, rush the net, volley, all over quickly style of play.
The word servebot came to be.
‘They’ the powers that be, decided to slow it down…
First the balls got bigger and heavier.
Not so easy to hit such hard serves with the then racquet tech.
Easier to see and return.
We’re only talking a mm and a few grams, but it was enough.
The writing was on the wall for Sampras when he lost to Federer at Wimbledon. Time to retire gracefully.
16 majors should have been enough :slightly_smiling_face:
Same sort of time the racquets got bigger, stiffer, more powerful (through stiffness, materials and balance) 100sqin for new guys like Nadal came to be the norm, Federer stuck to 95sqin until 2017 moving to 97sqin. Basically to try to keep up!
No one size fits all. As head size increases you get more sweet spot in the middle of the strings, but less control.
You don’t see really big racquets on tour for this reason.
Max allowed by the rules is 135sqin!!
No-one will go back to 85 or 64 either 🙂
Courts started getting slower.
Adding sand to the paint of hardcourts makes them abrasive and slower.
Grass tech improved.
Wimbledon went to rye grass only, that made it more durable, arguably a little slower.
It also allows a smoother more level surface to be prepared.
Gone were the days of the bad bounce, so bad you had to take the court surface out of the equation, by getting to the net first!
Add polyester strings and the racquet tech and slow court speed was at its peak for the likes of Djok, Nadal and Murray.
A very predominantly baseline game developed.
Long rallies. Serves easier to return.
Federer got less and less successful, even at Wimbledon.
Tony Nadal (Nadal’s coach and uncle) openly pushed for slower courts everywhere, so his boy could shine.
The early part of this reduced Henman’s and Rusdeski’s chances in his middle / latter part of their careers.
Folk being fickle have started to long for a bit more all court play again🙂
Long rallies, the time Nadal and Djok take up play - it got boring!!
The server clock has come in, but not really enforced.
The toilet break and medical timeout have been widely abused to break winning momentum.
Djok was master of this. Tsitsipas took it from him and recently caused uproar!
Toiletpas they called him.
The Aus open has sped it’s courts up the most so far.
Most players still serve and stay back at Wimbledon today.
Unthinkable 25 years ago!
There are a few serve volley guys.
Mischa Zverev (Alex’s older half bro, now retired), Cressy more recently.
If courts speed up and with the demise of Djok, Nadal, Murray it might return.
Can you imagine Isner with small balls (excuse the pun) and fast courts.
He and Karlovic 6’11"the would have won a lot!
Times changing just at the right time for 7’ Reilly Opelka?!
Murray, Djok etc would have either evolved a serve volley game or veen clay court specialists, withering under servebot fire.
