Has the serve taken control of the game?

Has the serve taken away the fun in men’s tennis?

Without any doubt, today, the serve is one of the most important shots in Tennis. Has the increase in the importance of the serve been a benefit for Tennis or has it taken away its fun?

Every player in the top 10 of the world today has a big serve. It is a huge weapon. This serve carries them through in matches when maybe the other components of their game are lacking authority.

Now think to the women’s game. Most women lack the same amount of power as the men. Hence their serve is nowhere near as powerful as the men’s. To prove this the fastest ever serve by a women was 129 mph whereas the fastest by a man was 156 mph.

Now think how many more upsets are there in the women’s game rather than in the men’s.

In the women’s game since 2006 there have been 11 different winners of grand slams but in the men’s game since 2006 there have only been 4 different winners. What sounds more exciting? If you look at those four they all had big serves but in the women’s game 6 out of those 11 had average serves.

So that proves that the slower the serve the more chance of an upset which makes everything more fun.

Let’s have a look at Ivo Karlovic. The 6 foot 8, huge serving Croatian is starting to get a bit older now (32) but no-one believes he is anywhere near retiring and why should he. As long as his shoulder keeps going he can keep serving himself into the top 100 easily.

Karlovic, no disrespect to him, has no other assets apart from his serve. But because nobody can break him he will almost always hold his serve.

Now surely that’s just boring. Thanks to the development of the rackets they are feeding this type of playing meaning a lack of exciting tennis in some people’s opinion.

On the other hand the Serve is a skill in tennis and if you have mastered it then why shouldn’t you be rewarded? Karlovic has mastered the serve and should now get the rewards. 

People have different solutions to this “problem”. Some say change the rules. John McEnroe a few years ago said to make the service box smaller others say change the foot fault law, make sure the players have one foot on the ground at all times during the serve and others even going to the extent of bringing the game back to small wooden rackets! What’s your view on it?