Women’s Tennis: A Historical Perspective

David W. Smith, Senior Editor TennisOne

When reviewing the historical perspective of tennis and how it has changed over time, we must not dismiss the women’s game. Perhaps even more apparent than the changes in the men’s game, the women’s game has evolved tremendously over the last three decades.

Some consider Billie Jean King the "mother of modern tennis." In my opinion, it was her more aggressive style of play that ushered in what could be considered the modern game for women. It isn’t that she was an all-court player who could serve and volley better than anyone else; the majority of women in her day played a serve and volley style game and many were good at it. in my opinion, it was more her aggressive footwork and mindset that paved the way for players like Martina Navratilova, Gabriella Sabatini, and Monica Seles.

And it influenced even the aggressive baseline players to come, who played a far different game than what Chris Evert, Tracy Austin, and Evonne Gooligong played years earlier. There is an image of these players—playing the the baseline game —with long, fluid strokes that were pretty to watch, but lacked the penetrating pace and forcing play that King and Navratilova demonstrated in their eras and which would eventually evolve further into the attacking baseline game played today.

It would seem that there was a transition time between King and the more aggressive players that came after Evert and Austin. And, it would make sense that young players and coaches who wanted to emulate King’s aggressive style would take time to emerge and master the game at the pro level. Evert’s ‘ice-queen’ mentality and pinpoint accuracy dethroned King as she moved past her prime. But, the stage was set and King established a strong, aggressive style that many young girls were beginning to emulate.

Similar to the question of how well a Laver, Hoad, Rosewall, or Gonzales would do against today’s top men, we could ask, “Would a Virginia Wade, Margaret Court, or even King be able to compete equally with Justine Henin-Hardenne, the Williams sisters, Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters or Amelie Mauresmo? Would they even be able to compete against today’s lower-ranked women?

Certainly, the ageless Navratilova has shown she was able to compete in today’s era (of doubles) but, as mentioned earlier, she was one who followed King with a game that was far more athletic and aggressive than we saw in previous generations. Like Ivan Lendl on the men’s tour, King and later Navratilova, brought a physical element to the women’s tour, with strength training and conditioning that was not even considered in previous eras.
To conjure up a response to this question of how well one era would compete with another, one would have to magically take a Billie Jean King (or any player in the era in question), while in their prime and have them play any one of today’s top players. Even though I actually am a magician, I can’t use any of my slight-of-hand skills or miss-direction to pull this off!

However, we can take a look at film and compare the shots, strategies, and skills used in a particular era and see how they would stack up against other players from another era. Shots and strategies can be somewhat objectively compared. Skills, on the other hand, are a bit more subjective in their determination. I personally believe that, like the men, the champion women of yesteryear, given the training, equipment, and perception of power of today, would be as competitive today as they were in their own era.

But if we compare the style of play that was predominantly used in previous eras and stack that style up against today’s power, speed, placement, and footwork, I think most people would agree that today’s game is far more advanced than the way tennis was played just a few decades ago.

Serve Power

Probably one of the most significant areas of change has been the serve in both the men’s and women’s game. I played on a court next to Tracy Austin when I was in high school. She was only a couple years younger than I was but she was the number one player in the country in her age group. I can still picture her serve; her diminutive stature with her little pinafore dress and Chrissie Evert woody (I think that was what she was using, not 100% sure about that!). Tracy would not generate much more than 40 or 50 mph on her serve. But, that was not uncommon. What was uncommon was a girl or woman who could serve 90 mph! It was a bit interesting to watch Tracy play a year or so later in Ojai, California where she demoralized UCLA’s Lea Annanopolis with the consistency of a human backboard; Annanopolis was a player who could serve near 90 mph. (Tracy was only about 14 at the time and still did not serve more than 60 mph.)

I sat next to Justine Henin-Hardenne at the U.S. Open a few years ago in the Players Lounge and can tell you that she certainly is no bigger than Tracy Austin was in her prime. Yet, i've seen Justine clock up to 110 mph and more on her serve. Let me tell you, she is one excellent conditioned woman!

One could argue that the racquet technology has contributed greatly to the difference in service speed. And, while this is certainly a major contributor to the power of today’s game in general, it would only be part of the bigger picture. Few players in Austin’s or King’s era were as physically conditioned or trained as today’s players are. Today, even a player such as Bethanie Mattek, a 115th ranked 21 year-old on the WTA tour, serves over 120 mph. Coached by a good friend of mine and terrific pro, Scott Adams, Mattek who stands at only 5’6”, can serve at nearly twice the speed Austin served in her prime! Racquet technology alone can not account for that.

The depth of women’s tennis is far deeper than it was thirty years ago. This is probably truer in the service department. 298th ranked Brenda Schultz-McCarthy has one of the fastest serves on tour at 123 mph (served at this year’s Wimbledon). She broke the 120 mph barrier in 1990 when she reached a career best 4th round at Wimbledon.

Obviously, the serve is not the sole criteria for success! However, compared to the service speeds of King’s era and before, we can safely say that this part of the game has changed dramatically!

Groundstroke Pace

I believe King is the equivalent to Rod Laver in terms of how one player can have an impact on the way tennis is played. Laver was one of the first champions to hit with significant topspin and I believe King hit with, not necessarily more topspin, but certainly with greater racquet head speed than most of her competitors.

However, even with Billie Jean King’s aggressive power, you seldom saw the kind of winners we see from heavy hitting pro women on the baseline today. While some claim the speed of today’s game is equipment-driven, I have to agree only to a point. The swing speed of top players has changed dramatically. The perception of potential speed has changed and evolved. Just like someone breaking a world-record of any kind, that record is destined to be broken again. And in tennis, developing the kind of swing speed used consistently has occurred, not necessarily due to racquet design, but due to training and stroke development among pros. Each generation of players learns and builds upon the players who came before them. Their eyes open up to what is possible.

I have my 8 year-old daughter hitting with a lot of racquet head speed, far more than I did when I was first introduced to the game. Why? Because I didn’t hit with the kind of topspin my daughter has been introduced to. Back then we hit flatter, continental grip forehands and backhands, a lot of slice, and we kept balls lower than players do now.

Strategy

Years ago, I wrote an article describing how the game has evolved in terms of strategy. You seldom see pros serve and volley exclusively (although their still are a few). The respect for the return and certainly the topspin passing shot has made coming to the net more of an exception than the rule.

In King’s day, the women, like the men, came into the net consistently. The slice was a common shot-of-choice for returns, especially on the backhand side. While Fabrice Santoro has shown that the slice can still be used as a stroke choice, few players have utilized the slice as it was used thirty years ago.

The slice was used as an approach, a return, a lob, and a volley. No wonder so many pros in that era used the continental grip almost exclusively! And not so long ago, Steffi Graff hit almost exclusively slice backhands while dominating women’s tennis for years. Of course, it was her potent and powerful forehand that was feared.

In terms of evolution of the game, the grip on both the topspin forehand and backhand has helped mold the tennis into what we see today. Many pros use full western forehand grips and many more use semi-westerns. I would have to say that McEnroe was the last man to use a continental grip almost exclusively. WTA tour players now use a strong eastern backhand grip on their one-handed topspin backhands along with the semi or full western grip on their forehands. Both grips promote big topspin swings and result in better ball rotation.

Two-handed Backhand

When Chris Evert demonstrated that the two-handed backhand could be used to generate topspin on the backhand side, she, like King, ushered in a wave of change that would affect tennis permanently. Today, well over 75% of the women and over 60% of men use the two-handed backhand. That is quite a change considering that there were but a few players in the 100 plus year history of tennis who used a two-handed stroke.

Today, pros like Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne hit backhands with significant power and topspin, a far different breed of backhand than those of yesteryear.

As I have said in other articles, I find this interesting since so many other sports used two-handed swings; namely golf, baseball, hockey, and cricket. Yet it wasn’t until Jimmy Connors and Evert, then a short time later Austin, showed that it was no fluke or exception that two hands could make it not only in the pros, but it could be taken to the top of the men’s and women’s game, that the juniors began following their lead.

Today, the one-handed backhand has evolved too, from a conservative slice, and occasionally hit topspin used decades ago, to a powerful, topspin weapon today. The grip is stronger, almost an extreme eastern backhand grip with full angular momentum and racquet speed that imparts not only pace but heavy topspin as needed.

Conclusion

Like the men’s game, the women too have evolved to include full-power groundstrokes, potent serves, and aggressive footwork. Even at the junior levels, we see more and more youngsters booming shots and serves with racquet head speed that no pro would have even considered three decades ago!

It is a lot of fun to evaluate and make suppositions regarding the comparison of the game from a few short decades ago to that of today’s game. It will be even more interesting to see just what we will be saying about today’s players thirty years from now!

Your comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about Dave Smith's article by emailing us here at TennisOne .

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