Throughout the 1990s, Agassi's serve-receiving skills were unrivaled in the world. Even now, compared to the two receiving masters, Djokovic and Murray, Agassi is still insurmountable.
Back then, Agassi was able to complete an excellent return of serve with his feet directly on the baseline. He relied on talent, outstanding reaction speed and coordinated hand-eye coordination to be unique in the world.
Now, players are using racket technology to stand further away from the baseline to relieve the pressure of the ball speed, and they can still hit the serve faster and more revolving than Agassi even two meters away from the baseline. Nadal He and Tim are representative players of this type of return of serve.
In other words, innovations in racket and string technology have given the receiving side a wider space. Naturally, the pressure on serving and netting has doubled.
From Edberg to Sampras to Federer, this is the evolution of the entire era, which is mainly reflected in the way of handling the opponent's return of serve after serving and on the way to the net:
Edberg used a volley, which is a standard serve and net.
Sampras used a half volley, which is a modified serve and net.
Federer uses a half-court pump, which is no longer a serve to the net, but at most just pressure from the net.
In other words, with the improvement of the quality of receiving the serve, the speed and rotation of the ball have accelerated. It has become difficult for the serving side to reach the net in one step immediately after finishing the serve to complete the volley. Even if it is barely in place, it is difficult to find the ball above the net mouth. Point to complete a top-down pressing volley.
The speed, power and spin of the return ball from the receiving side are no longer the same.
Of course, the only exception in the entire tour is Karlovic.
The height of 208 centimeters brings Karlovic a unique serving advantage. His use of the three-dimensional space of the entire court is different from others, which also makes his serve and net successful, but overall he is just a shell. There is no technical connotation or tactical combination. Even Karlovich himself admitted:
"I'm such a genius that I can win games with just one skill."
After British player Tim Henman retired, both traditional and non-traditional pure serve and net players have basically disappeared from the tour.
However, among the current players, there are still many players who cleverly use serving and netting to enrich their game tactical system.
The younger Zverev whom Gao Wen met in the previous challenge, his older brother Zverev is a serve and net player. It is conceivable that his performance is far inferior to that of his younger brother.
Among them, the most famous one is naturally Federer. However, for Federer, serving and netting are just one part of a comprehensive tactical library.
In addition, Fei Lopez can also be considered one of them.
"Tears of the Times", when people look back on the past in such a way, they inevitably seem light and simple, but the actual situation is often more complicated.
In the matter of "server and net players withdrawing from the stage of the times", the popularity of tennis, the promotion of business and the development of science and technology were intricately intertwined, and finally ended the glory of a playing style.
In fact, throughout the whole process, Wimbledon also faced a lot of pressure, and they also made the same choice.
The 1991 Wimbledon final, Michael Stich VS Boris Becker; the 1998 Wimbledon final, Sampras VS Ivanisevic, both games were considered It was an extremely boring service battle, with only a handful of shots lasting more than four rounds.
It's just a practice match.
In order to avoid a recurrence of this visual disaster - and avoid a heavy blow to the ratings, the All England Club has been working hard to improve the quality of the turf, replace the hard-wearing grass species, and build the turf shorter. These measures have made Wimbledon's The grass is firmer and the bounce of the return ball is more regular.
The end result is that Wimbledon's court is more like a natural hard court.
The pressure from ratings and sponsors has also made Wimbledon, which adheres to tradition, make concessions. This is also a result of the torrent of the times.
As of 2021, Federer is the eight-time champion at Wimbledon, while Djokovic is the six-time champion, but people just call Federer the "King of Grass", not because Federer has more championships, but mainly because he has more championships. Because Djokovic basically treats grass as a hard surface.
To this day, the "serve-and-net game style" is even dubbed the "suicide style" by commentators. For young people, this may be a harmless joke; but for players who really experienced the 1980s and 1990s As for the fans, they couldn't laugh.
Jiang Yanyun herself likes the serving and netting style very much. After all, she was also one of the fans in the 1990s.
From the perspective of playing style, Phil Lopez, Sampras and Federer are indeed in the same system, but specifically, they are different.
Felipe likes to attack and surf the net, but at the same time, his excellent hitting ability and mobility also give him good baseline stalemate ability. Watching his games, he is more between Sampras and Federer. During the period, serve and net made a technique that was used less frequently than Sampras but more than Federer.
It is precisely because of this that Fei Lopez can be said to be a top doubles player, but as a singles player, he still has not been able to reverse the trend of the times.
Looking at Fe Lopez's career performance, his results in the Grand Slams have always been mediocre. Wimbledon's three quarterfinals are his best record. The other three Grand Slam tournaments have entered the second week only three times in total. , two US Opens and one Australian Open, far less than expected.
This year is no exception. Wimbledon entered the fourth round and all other three Grand Slams were eliminated in the first week.
It can also be seen from the side that Fe Lopez's playing style does face many challenges in today's professional tennis world, but Fe Lopez's world ranking is still rising steadily and has become one of the top 20 in the world, which also proves His ability; moreover, Phil Lopez's number of consecutive Grand Slam main draw appearances ranks second only to Federer in history.
Among the top ten players in the world, he has defeated Berdych, Ferrer, Raonic, Davydenko, Soderling, Fognini, Safin, Del Potro, Roddick, Wawrinka and so on.
In addition, before Djokovic fully matured, Felipe also defeated him once.
Fei-Lopez's real opponents are Federer and Murray. He lost all 13 games against the former and failed to win 11 games against the latter.
This year, Fey Lopez has continued his upward trajectory.
In August in Toronto, Phil Lopez defeated Berdych and Raonic, who were in excellent form this season, to reach the semi-finals.
In Shanghai, Fei Lopez defeated compatriot Nadal to enter the third round.
For Gao Wen, although Fei Lopez is not Nadal, since Fei Lopez can defeat Nadal, it means that Fei Lopez is stronger than Nadal in terms of status in Shanghai this week; Moreover, the "serve and net style" was the first time Gao Wen encountered in his career.
Sampras is a little "disgusted" because in his opinion, even he himself is not a pure serve and net player, let alone these young players after him, all of them are full-court players. This method is slightly different from the baseline play method, the coverage area can extend to the front of the net——
That's all.
