The Golden Age of: Serve and Volley

In the heyday of grass court tennis, players like Jack Kramer took the serve and volley style to a level that has never been equaled.

For several decades the world’s greatest men’s tennis players were, in effect, the world’s greatest grass court players. This is
due to the fact that three of the Grand Slam Championships, together with the vast majority of Davis Cup challenge rounds, were
contested on grass courts.

It was during this era the strategy of “serve and volley” was in it’s heyday, since it is, by far, the most effective technique
for success on grass. Great serve and volley players such as Jack Kramer, Lew Hoad, and Pancho Gonzales took the art to a level that
has not been equaled, before or since.

As the number of grass court tournaments steadily diminished, the number of serve and volleyers, unfortunately, followed suit.
Today we are faced with tournament fields populated by a plethora of baseliners who are forced to hit far more shots than are
necessary to win a single point.

Only at Wimbledon has the serve and volley more than held it’s own, as evidenced by the record of players such as John McEnroe, Stefan Edberg,…