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Canceling Big Serves And Aces Is A Stupid Idea
9 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Bios
By Scoop Malinowski
There is a growing movement to cancel the most important and difficult shot in tennis – the big first serve.
Here is what Rafael Nadal recently said: “Tennis hasn’t changed practically anything in terms of rules throughout its history. People are getting taller and moving better. The serve has a decisive impact. If there aren’t any rule changes that can limit that power, someone over two meters tall and with good mobility will come along and you won’t be able to compete against him, you won’t be able to get a break. That day hasn’t arrived yet. Djokovic was in the Miami final, I was competing a year and a half ago… which leads me to think that the change hasn’t yet been that radical because we’ve still had a chance of success.”
Rafa wants tennis to cancel the big serve and cancel aces which is a ridiculous and stupid idea. If Rafa could have served as big and effectively as John Isner, he would have. But Rafa was not able to develop a dominant serve, due to his own physical, athletic and mental limitations and or because his coaches failed to instruct him how to produce a dominant serve.
For the 22 time Grand Slam champion to be complaining about big serving supremacy is as absurd as a legion of players uniting to complain that Rafa’s forehand was too strong and powerful.
Nobody complained when Rafa was winning all those tournaments with his monster forehand. Instead, every player worked harder and tried to overcome Rafa’s best weapon.
Rafa’s whining about big serving in pro tennis shows a weakness in his character and perhaps a laziness in his competitive spirit. Instead of moaning about big serves, he should have worked harder on building his own serving techniques – and he also should have worked harder on his own return game against big servers.
To try and take the easy way out and cancel big serves by limiting the server to only one serve or whatever silly rules change brainchild they are considering, has to be one of the most embarrassing ideas in tennis history.
John Isner and Ivo Karlovic created their monster serves and had the guts and courage to keep using it over and over and over again. They deserve credit, not shame, for mastering the most important shot weapon in the sport, the one that sets the tone for the point, the game and the match. And it’s not just the giants who dominated with big serves, little guys like Jeff Salzenstein also had overpowering serving ability.
Every single player on earth would love to serve like Isner, Sampras, Goran, McEnroe, etc. but most of us aren’t able to.
Leave tennis alone Rafa – and his supporters who like this pathetic tennis evolution-stunting idea to cancel big servers. It takes ultimate skills, courage, technique and pinpoint accuracy to be a successful big server. A beautiful, dominant serve is one of the best wonders of the game to admire and try to be inspired by. To cancel it out would be a monumental display of stupidity.
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Scoop Malinowski · April 4, 2025 at 2:13 pm
This Rafa idea is as bad as baseball putting a speed limit of 90mph on fastballs, golf eliminating holes in one, boxing banning knockouts, football eliminating long bomb touchdown catches, hockey forbidding slap shot goals from the blue line. Players need to problem solve and figure out a way to offset big servers – not cry for rule changes.
Steve · April 5, 2025 at 5:29 am
Since they already perverted the rules of ATP tennis by allowing coaching througout a match I would be for having one serve.
To put the focus on point building could be fantastic. You can get a taste of it in UTS and to my surprise it is excellent. Well rounded serve monsters like Kyrgios still do just fine.
I am also not convinced a big first serve if the most difficult shot for all players. For super tall players other shots might be more difficult to master.
Also, after reading the late, great John Yandell’s brilliant article on the varieties of the two handed backhand I’m starting to think the two hander his just as complex as the serve and more challenging for a large group of players.
Scoop Malinowski · April 5, 2025 at 7:59 am
Steve, you see where this is going? Then eliminate all serves and just start the point with a feed ball if you really only want to see point construction. The serve is the first punch and in a fight, “the first punch is the most important.” Stripping away the value of a huge serve is silly and unfair to those who build great serves. The sport is fine as it is in terms of shots and strokes and how the points are played. No reason to change it or punish serve bots. Everybody would be a serve bot if they could.
Sam · April 7, 2025 at 4:19 am
As for canceling big serves, does Rafa want that to happen before or after adding a menswear segment to the competition? 😹
catherine · April 7, 2025 at 5:01 am
This is just stupid. It would be like limiting the speed a fast bowler can bowl in cricket.
Over the years many people have fiddled around with the serve in tennis – none have succeeded.
Just imagine how many women would practically die to have the average men’s speed of serve.
Scoop Malinowski · April 7, 2025 at 8:02 am
Catherine, it’s disappointing Nadal and others wants to change the game. Every match is different, let the matches evolve how they do, let the sport evolve however it naturally does. To try to limit the creativity of play is insanely stupid.
Scoop Malinowski · April 7, 2025 at 8:12 am
Rafa should be fined for even making such an awful suggestion, or sentenced to community service. Didn’t he say not long ago that he preferred different ways of playing, naming himself, instead of monotonous baseline repititions?
Steve · April 7, 2025 at 8:34 am
Nothing worse than two serve bots playing each other. Watching that is prolly the worst viewing experience a fan of sports could ever endure.
I have to say I agree with Uncle Toni here. He’s the one I heard suggest it. I recently watched Machac vs. De Minaur in UTS and points featured unbelievable athleticism and creativity.
Scoop Malinowski · April 7, 2025 at 5:20 pm
There can be bad style matchups in boxing and tennis. Like today at Sarasota two grinders with no weapons were grinding it out forever, Dutra da Silva vs Kuzuhara were grinding it out every point a marathon, you just gotta appreciate it and see what happens. That’s tennis. You don’t punish the for how they play or steal their weapon of consistency, just let the match play out or watch another.