How the serve became key in modern tennis

LeMonde

2 days ago

His first serves were clocked at over 220 km/h. From the start of the French Open, French "serial server" Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard relied on his ultimate weapon: the serve. The shot has become an essential aspect of modern tennis, including on the clay courts of Roland-Garros, even though clay is the slowest surface.
With increasingly detailed data at their disposal, players and their coaches have scrutinized the serve with particular attention. Speed, targeted zones, the spin imparted on the ball – everything has been analyzed to optimize players' serves, and gain an advantage from the start of the game.
The serve's dominance, especially on the men's tour
This is what serving looked like in the 19 th century: With a delicate and sweeping underhand motion, the server would gently loft the ball over the net. On the other side, the opponent would have plenty of time to determine the perfect position for their return stroke.
Today, the serve is a quick, sharp movement. The ball rockets forward, hurtling ahead at speeds over 200 km/h, leaving the receiver barely any time to react.
Power has replaced the floating style of serve. In just a few decades, the professionalization of tennis has seen players definitively give up on wooden rackets in favor of stronger graphite models, and the rise of highly specialized, rigorously trained athletes, with physiques built for serving.
The men's tennis tour, in particular, has displayed this shift, with the serve now tending to dictate the rhythm of play. While the statistics can vary from match to match, especially depending on the level of the server's opponent, the overall trend is clear: In the last season, a player ranked in the top 100 of the men's Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) circuit won 80% of their service games, compared to just 20% of their return games, on average. Among women, the balance of games won was more even: They won 65% of their service games and 35% of their return games, on average.