The Evolution of Tennis | Thebigtip

As 2010 draws to a close, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at how the game of Tennis has changed from the 1990s to today in terms of technology and strategy.
 
If you take a very simplistic view of the game of Tennis (many people do, unfortunately, including certain sections of the media), then you can say the 1990s was the decade of the big serve and the 2000s was the decade of the big ground strokes and staying away from the net.

It’s a bit more complex than that but one thing is for sure: the change in technology and surfaces has meant Tennis is now a different game to 15 years ago and even 10 years ago.  Tennis, ten-to-fiteen years back, was a more diverse game with different styles of play in the top 10 and the surfaces varying quite a lot throughout the year.

Throughout the 1990s the top 10 revolved around the names  of – Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Jim Courier, Stefan Edberg, Michael Chang, Patrick Rafter, Richard Krajicek, Yfevgeny Kafelnikov, Gustavo Kuerten, Alex Corretja, Sergei Brugera, Michael Stich, Marcelo Rios, Tim Henman, Goran Ivanesivic, Thomas Muster, Carlos Moya. It was the era of fast grass, indoor carpet, rebound ace, medium paced hard courts and slow red clay.  The top of the rankings reflected the fact that there was a lot of diversity in styles of play with the battle lines very much drawn between attackers and baseliners. It was also the case that during the era it was the all-court players who gravitated towards attacking net play.

There was also the attempt to slow the game down as early as 1994 when the Wimbledon final was contested on a very hot day between Pete Sampras and Goran Ivanesivic, a match which had zero rallies and serves consistently between 125 – 135mph.  I remember back in 1995 there were reports that Wimbledon had changed the composition of the grass to slow down the game and blunt the big servers somewhat.

During that period, the Australian Open was played on a slow, high bouncing rebound ace, which was introduced in 1988 and definitely favoured the baseliners as winners included Ivan Lendl in 1991, Jim Courier in 1992 and 1993, Andre Agassi in 1995,  Petr Korda in 1998 and Yfevgeny Kafelnokov in 1999. Pete  Sampras won the event twice in 1994 and 1997 but served and volleyed nowhere near as much as he did at Wimbledon.  The same can be said of Boris Becker, who won the event in 1991 beating Ivan Lendl in a baseline bash.  Becker also won in 1996, defeating Michael Chang in 4 sets.

Red Clay during the 1990s was very much the domain of the European and South American players.  Jim Courier won the event twice in 1991 and 1992 with his great forehand and Andre Agassi made the final 3 times, finally winning in 1999 but it was primarily dominated by Europeans and South Americans from Andres Gomez in 1990 to Carlos Moya in 1998. Brugera  in 1993 and 1994, Muster in 1995 and Kafelnikov in 1996 make up the list of winners.  In the 1990's it was virtually impossible for an attacking player to win the French Open.   Sampras, Krajicek, Becker, Rafter all made semifinals but could go no further.  Michael Stich got to the final in 1996 but lost to Kafelnikov.  The interesting thing is that it’s reported the balls used were much heavier back then compared to today.

Meanwhile, at Wimbledon, it was the opposite.  Only three baseliners made it to the finals in 10 years.  Andre Agassi beat Goran Ivanesivic in 1992 in 5 sets, Jim Courier lost to Sampras in 1993 and Malavai Washington lost to Richard Krajicek in 1996.  Cedric Pioline got to the final in 1997, losing to Sampras, but Cedric is in the Todd Martin camp of all court player who could play from net and baseline with equal aplomb.  Sampras won the tournament six out of 10 years (1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998 and 1999) whilst Edberg won in 1990, Michael Stich in 1991 and Richard Krajicek in 1996.

The US Open was seen as the leveller, the surface that offered all types of players an equal chance to succeed and it is said, both then and now,  that only the best players win the US Open.  It was certainly true that in the other three major tournaments you could have a winner who would never win another major tournament anywhere else. That wasn’t true of the US Open.  The tournament was primarily dominated by attacking players with Sampras winning in 1990, 1993, 1995 and 1996, Edberg in 1991 and 1992 and Rafter in 1997 and 1998.  Andre Agassi bucked that trend winning in 1994 and 1999.

Looking at the list of winners at major championships in the 1990s you clearly see that attacking players dominated Wimbledon and US Open whilst baseliners dominated the Australian and French opens.  Becker and Sampras were the only two attacking players to win at the Australian Open due to the fact that both players were also good from the baseline, which is always needed on a higher bouncing surface.

In the womens game, the pattern of the 1990s really followed the pattern of the 1980s where very few players dominated the rest of the field with Steffi Graf and Monica Seles leading in the first half of the decade and Martina Hingis the clear best from 1997 to 1999.  By the end of 1997, however, a new type of power player was emerging on the womens tour with players like Mary Pierce, Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport and Serena Williams coming to the fore.  Those players made it much harder for Martina Hingis to dominate after 1997 and it set the way womens Tennis would be played in the 2000s, where power and athleticism became the most important aspects of womens Tennis

Other key developments of the 1990s included the advancements in racquet and string technology.  By the end of the decade, many of the top players were playing with vastly different racquets and strings which were much more flexible and strung at lower tensions.  Remarkably, Sampras bucked that trend with a remarkably heavy racquet loaded with lead tape.  Incidentally, the racquet he used (Wilson Pro Staff 85) ceased production in St Vincent in 1988!  And Sampras bought a huge stash.  So its incredible Sampras stayed ahead so long with that racquet using natural gut strings and strung very tightly.  Needless to say, his skill level was exceptional.

One last thing I would like to cover about the 1990s is the many exceptionally skilled servers that were around.  It’s as if all the greatest serves in tennis history were crammed into one ten year period.  Servers included Sampras, Mark Phillippoussis, Greg Rudeski, Richard Krajicek, Michael Stich, Boris Becker, Goran Ivanesivic.  Even the likes of Todd Martin, Andre Agassi and Jim Courier had very good serves as well.  The one thing that all these players possessed was the ability to combine slice and topspin at pace.  It was all part of the skills set – applying slice to volleys to keep the ball low, plus the slice backhand strategy.  But as far as I’m concerned, the ability to swing the ball with slice away from the returner on the ad court at pace is one of the most vital skills these guys and Sampras in particular possessed, allowing them to hit big 2nd serves, including aces and therefore staying ahead of the pack. Its the one serve which is almost impossible to return and one skill that diminished in the 2000s.

Stay tuned for the follow up article where I will cover the Noughties (2000s).  I will discuss how Tennis has changed further still in terms of surfaces and playing styles.