How Big is Big Enough?

Jay Margolies

Step aside Venus, there’s a new Sheriff in town. In case you haven’t heard, Germany's Sabine Lisicki hit the fastest recorded serve in the history of women's tennis on Tuesday at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford. The new mark of 131 mph eclipsed the mark of 129 mph set by Venus Williams at the 2007 US Open. Lisicki, the 2013 Wimbledon finalist, hit the serve in the 11th game of the first set against Ana Ivanovic, but then went on to lose the match 6-7 (2-7) 1-6.

A big serve is a handy weapon and when those numbers flash on the screen it certainly draw oohs and aahs from the fans. But as was the case with Lisicki, even the biggest serves do not ensure victory.

When 51 Aces aren't Enough

At the 2005 Us Open, Thomas Johansson overwhelmed arguably the greatest returner of all time, Andre Agassi, with raw power.  Johansson served up 51 aces leaving Agassi, by his own admission, somewhat dazed and confused. However, even that did not add up to a win as Johansson went down in four tight sets 7-6, 6-7, 6-7, 4-6.

So how big is big enough?

All this got me to thinking about one of the great servers in tennis history, John McEnroe. Mac dominated men’s tennis with his serve-and-volley game. In 1984 McEnroe compiled an 82–3 record and won a career-high 13 singles tournaments, including Wimbledon and the US Open. But for all his success, McEnroe struggled to break 110 mph with his serve, and many of his contemporaries had much bigger serves. However, Mac’s corkscrew left-handed delivery pushed opponents so far off the court, they needed a 10 dollar cab ride to get back into the point. By that time McEnroe was standing at the net with a smile on his face waiting to dump the return into the open court. (Okay, so McEnroe never really smiled on the court, or anywhere else as far as I can tell, but I’m sure he must have been feeling it.) So clearly it’s not speed alone that makes for a great server.

Roger Federer, who many consider the greatest player of all time, has one of the best serves in the game, but it is far from the biggest. In his classic 2009 Wimbledon final against former fast serve king (155 mph), Andy Roddick, match statistics below show Federer won the battle of Aces, serving up 50 but the average speed of his first serve was almost 10 mph less than Roddick’s.

Clearly then it’s not speed alone that makes for a great server. To truly understand what separates players like Federer from the rest of the field, we only have to go back a few years and examine the serve of Pete Sampras, still the gold standard for excellence. Pete could routinely crack serves at 130 mph and higher; however, on today’s ATP tour there are a number of players who bring it faster than that.

Radar guns measure the speed of a serve as close to the server as possible. Friction slows the ball down somewhat and the bounce of the ball slows it down even more (it can lose up to half of its speed or more by the time it reaches the returner. The amount of speed a ball loses is affected by the amount of forward spin put on the ball by the server. Sampras had the highest combination of air speed and forward rotation of anyone before him (upwards of 2500 rpm). Consequently, his serve would slow down less than balls hit much harder. In a match played against Lleyton Hewett, Both Pete and Lleyton hit their second serves at about the same speed; however, after the bounce, Pete’s serve was traveling 10 mph faster than Lleyton’s due to the much higher forward rpm.

But even that does not explain fully what makes for a great server. Other factors like accuracy and deception are also extremely important.

Many viewers have seen the William Tell like stunt where Roger Federer, not once, but twice knocked a bottle off a guy’s head with his serve, and he did this wearing a suit and tie! Not surprisingly some howled that the video was obviously fake. So is this stunt possible?

Years before I saw a similar stunt performed by the great Jack Kramer (and it was much more difficult to fake that kind of thing back then). In this stunt Kramer had to knock a cigar out of a person’s mouth with his serve. He took three cracks at it, each one moving closer, and the third hit the target. So was the Federer stunt real? You decide, but Roger Federer himself appears to have confirmed that it was.

Speed, spin, and accuracy all contribute to a great serve, but there is another component, deception. The story goes (and I can’t confirm this but it makes for a nice read) that Sampras’ coach would have Pete toss the ball in the air and before he made contact, the coach would call out one of 6 commands — wide, body, T and Pete would have to deliver the ball to that spot. He might also call out slice, flat or kick and Pete would have to adjust to the call, and he did this while in the middle of the service motion. The result was that Pete could hit every serve and every corner of the court with exactly the same motion. All of this made Pete’s serve almost impossible to read. Speed, spin, accuracy and deception made Pete Sampras the greatest server of all time.

So what does this all mean for the club player? A big serve is a handy weapon, but just as important (if not more) are the other components and even that does not ensure victory. Tennis is much more complicated than that. But, if you can consistently get your serve in and purposely move different combinations of speed and spin around the box, you are well on your way.

So, who has the fastest recorded serve on the men’s tour? Surprisingly, it’s a little known player from down under. The fastest recorded serve in professional tennis is 163.4 mph by Australian Sam Groth at a Challenger event in South Korea in 2012. Incidentally, Groth lost that match to Uladzimir Ignatik of Belarus, 4-6, 3-6. Go figure.