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This is the first in a four-part series of articles about the abundance of power-baseliners in professional tennis today, the absence of other styles of play, and what this means for the game...

The Decline of the Power Player in Men's Tennis

by Rob York (Columnist)

11

818 reads

Opinion

July 28, 2008


This is the first in a four-part series of articles about the abundance of power-baseliners in professional tennis today, the absence of other styles of play, and what this means for the game.

Boris Becker’s victory in the 1985 Wimbledon championships was remarkable in many ways. He was the first unseeded player to win the title, the first German, and at 17 years and 7 months, he was at the time the youngest-ever Grand Slam champion.

More than any of this, Becker’s win ushered in a style of play that was seemingly destined to take over the game. Players of this style were repeatedly referred to (and often derisively) as “big servers,” the implication being that they could do little else; that serving alone took them to the top of the sport.

Truly, for most of these players, the serve was the biggest gun in their arsenal: Becker’s huge first service

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11 comments Last one added 11 months ago — Leave a Comment

  1. Long John Silver 11 months ago

    absolutely loved this one mate ..... loved it

    did you forget Jim - he defined power play (and hence a short shelf life at the top) in the 1990's

    Jim's inside out forehand zings off the court .... 5 stars -

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  2. Katelyn Grabarek 11 months ago

    Nice article! Can't wait to read the rest of the series.

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  3. Burton DeWitt 11 months ago

    Very nice job. Chris Guccione is another PPP to look out for. He models his game very much after Wayne Arthurs. He's been hovering in the top 100 for the past year and a half.

    My favorite stat ever (well, one of my favorites):

    In the 2000 Australian Open Round of 128, Pete Sampras met Wayne Arthurs. In the match, there was not a single ground stroke hit with the exclusion of service returns over the four-set match.

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    • Rob York 11 months ago

      Guccione certainly is a PPP, but I guess I overlooked him because he has yet to make much progress at the majors. I saw that Arthurs-Sampras match too; Arthurs had the neatest, most compact service motion, and it may have been more effective than even Goran's.

      But he relied on his serve even more than anyone, except maybe Ivo.

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    • Burton DeWitt 11 months ago

      Haha, no argument there. Wayne Arthurs is my hero, but even I cannot deny that he is one of the most one-dimensional players in the history of the game. It's too bad, because god that serve was beautiful. 111 consecutive service games held in 1999 and 109 in 2005. Remarkable.

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  4. Fabrice Santoro 11 months ago

    Wayne Arthurs was an absolute champ! He certainly got the most out of himself given he was not blessed with raw talent. It was a shame his game only really started to come together so late in his career... that serve was on fire in his last wimbledon. Guccione is certainly one to watch, he is very young and according to Nadal a while back (when Guccione defeated him) he said he had the best serve in the game. Chris just needs more consistency which will come with age and matches.

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  5. Rob York 11 months ago

    Sorry guys, but Guccione's 23 (as of yesterday), never won an ATP tournament (only Futures and Challenger events), only won two main draw Grand Slam matches and has a career win-loss record under .500. There's certainly room for improvement, but he hardly looks like Australia's next great hope.

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  6. Steven Ho 11 months ago

    Interesting point of view Rob. This has never occurred to me but now I think about it seems true.

    But when you say power player, do you really mean one-dimensional players? I see Federer, and certainly Nadal, as power players but have a more well rounded game than those players mentioned above.

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  7. Rob York 11 months ago

    PPP's weren't really one-dimensional; they could all serve great, volley well and had dangerous groundstrokes. When they played one another they racked up huge numbers of winners and very few errors. What they lacked was defense, which of course Federer adds, making him more balanced than those players (and pretty much every other kind).

    Nadal doesn't fit this mold at all, as he doesn't serve or volley especially well but plays out-of-this-world defense.

    Perhaps my classification system will make more sense after I've written more entries in this series.

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