Federer Express wrote:
Seems like we do see a bit more volleying again, or at least both players coming in close at the same time.
Unorthodox players are always fun to watch, too.
Cue Dustin Brown. Tennis would be way more popular if it had more players like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2-CAWnLa1Y&ab_channel=WimbledonPrecious Roy wrote:
Musttt . . . nnnooottt . . . . agree . . . . with . . . Jamin
Dang it. He is right. Although I also think that another big motivation behind the changes was the fact that tennis was so hard on the players' bodies that stars were getting chewed by injuries by the time they hit their late 20s.
Today, tennis is an endurance sport. That favors players in their late 20s early 30s who have built up the aerobic endurance needed for all the long rallies and 5 set matches. There are a lot of big strong young players coming up who are very exciting to watch. But they still cannot get past 30+ year old players because they do not have the endurance.
It is boring to watch compared to the days of serve and volley. The players look like robots hitting dozens of ground strokes before anything actually happens.
Younger players have endurance; what they don't have is the experience of older players - and maybe not the same skills. What enables older players to keep up physically with younger players is the usual thing that is prolonging careers in all sports.
Tennis is a bit like distance on the track was when Farah was in control. Or, like the Tour de France was when US Postal or Sky or whoever would ride in 'train' formation and burn everyone out.
Here's hoping the newfangled berzerk Tour, and crazy world record TT pace, or Kejelcha trying to get away tendency will continue on the track.