Tennis has come a long way over the years. In 1980, a long point with sharply angled shots and players racing around practically the entire court would seem impossible, yet today points like this are played in every match. Since court surfaces changed, racket technology evolved, and nutrition and fitness improved, tennis modernized. Today’s players are fitter, stronger and faster than their 20th century counterparts.
A tactic that many players practically left for dead is serving and volleying. This maneuver consists of racing up to the net after hitting a serve to strike the next shot before it bounces (hitting a ball out of the air is called a volley). From close to the net, a few angles open up that are not conceivable from the baseline (where a player serves from to start a point), some 39 feet back from the net. The problem is that successfully serving and volleying is somewhat contingent on the return being weak — a bullet near either sideline or low enough to force an awkward volley can rarely be poked away easily to end a point. With today’s rackets, it is far easier to hit returns with sharp angles or extreme pace than it was 30 or 40 years ago, making serving and volleying a risky proposition. Not only that, in the late 1900s grass courts were notoriously uneven, resulting in many bad bounces that serve-and-volley became a viable strategy almost out of necessity: let the ball bounce at your own peril.
Serve-and-volley is used sporadically in today’s game. A good enough serve can often lead to success, as can an unexpected charge to the net. But if a returner sees a server race up to the net, they are often able to pick a target and rip a return loaded with topspin that is nearly impossible to control with a volley.
There are many tennis traditionalists out there who believe serve-and-volley is still a viable tactic, beyond just coming to the net off good serves or at unexpected times. A recent example supported their theory. On Sunday, world number one Novak Djokovic served and volleyed 22 times in the final of the Rolex Paris Masters tournament, winning 19 points for his endeavors: a phenomenal success rate of 86%. Djokovic would win the match 4–6, 6–3, 6–3, with his serve-and-volleying a big reason for his victory. Craig O’Shannessy, a prominent strategy coach who writes analytical pieces for the ATP Tour website among other well-known publications, wrote an article after the final that argued that “the death of serve and volley in our sport is pure misconception” and referred to serve-and-volley’s decreased use as a “delusional fallacy.”
O’Shannessy knows tennis, and there is no denying that Djokovic’s use of net play in the Paris final was a pivotal tactic. But to draw the conclusion that serving and volleying is still a consistently viable strategy in today’s game is a stretch. It is important to note that the Paris final was a very particular matchup: Djokovic played Daniil Medvedev, who likes to play points from the back of the court and returns his opponents’ aggressive shots without fail, resulting in them eventually making a frustrated error. Many of Medvedev’s returns go down the middle of the court though, so opportune net play can result in some easy volleys that do not have to be hit on the stretch.
“Opportune net play” probably sums up Djokovic’s tactics best: Djokovic has built a career playing similarly to the way Medvedev plays now, but at 34 years of age, endlessly sprinting and sliding from the baseline to keep points alive does not always work. So Djokovic learned to sneak into the net when necessary to cut a point short. Djokovic’s net skills are far from revolutionary. Though a solid volleyer, Djokovic does not make eye-popping volleys like Roger Federer once did. But through coming to the net off good serves or approach shots, Djokovic can put himself in position to hit easy volleys.
Serve-and-volley still is not a sustainable, winning strategy; it’s more of a supplemental tool that can be instrumental in getting out of jams. Few players return serves from as far behind the baseline as Medvedev, making it easier to get angles on returns that can defeat a net rush. The tactic will probably work at times, but drawing a sweeping conclusion that serve-and-volley is not, and has never been, overshadowed by more modern winning techniques is probably buoyed by the temptation of nostalgia. Despite O’Shannessy’s correct observation that serve-and-volley was pivotal in the recent Paris final, Djokovic’s execution of the strategy was risky and may not work as well in the future. Serve-and-volley may be a relic that can still occasionally be very useful, but it is a relic nonetheless.
