General / Barry Millns / 12 June 2008 /

Tennis commentator Barry Millns considers the disdain and indifference that certain players and the ATP continue to show towards grass court tennis and wonders whether the serve/volley approach will ever be seen again on Centre Court

At the start of 'Open' tennis 40 years ago, three of the four grand slams and many tournaments leading up to them, were played on grass. In 1969, when Rod Laver won all four majors in a season for the second time in his career he played no less than 30 of his 50 singles matches (60%) on grass - a stark contrast to the 7 of 77 (10%) Roger Federer played on the game's original surface last year.

With the US Open and more recently the Australian Open switching to synthetic hard courts of one variety or another, the grass court season has been dramatically reduced as a result and with Wimbledon starting just a fortnight after the end of the French Open, it is now squeezed into little more than a month.

It is no surprise, therefore, that these days very few players have experience of the grass court game prior to turning professional and while some still relish it there are others who treat it with suspicion and even disdain. Only this week when former world No.1 Marat Safin was asked to assess the game of young British qualifier James Ward after dropping a first set to him at Queen's, the Russian responded: "It was hard to tell, really - a nice game but this was a match on grass, so it is not real tennis."

So how many current natural serve and volleyers can you think of on the pro tours compared to 20 years ago? Very few I would venture.

Part of the problem is that the huge improvements in racket and string technology have cut both ways against that type of play. A decade ago the huge serves of players like Pete Sampras, Goran Ivanisevic and Richard Krajicek became so dominant on fast grass, many observers viewed their tennis as boring.

Consequently, Wimbledon and others decided to 'slow down' their courts with the use of a different type of grass seed in order to encourage more rallies and improve the overall spectacle. But that then meant that for players like Tim Henman and Pat Rafter, who continued to come in and volley behind their serves, their opponents had more time to hit back more aggressive returns.

You only have to look back at last year's epic Wimbledon final between Federer (currently trading at [1.24] to regain the title in Halle) and Rafael Nadal (currently trading at [4.1] to win Queen's) and compare it with the 1997 one-sided version between Sampras and Cedric Pioline to see how times have changed.

Aside from Queen's and Halle, the lead-up tournaments to Wimbledon, such as Edgbaston and Nottingham, have also suffered from the reduction of the grass court season as many top players prefer to practise or play exhibition matches rather than compete in the weeks immediately before The Championships. The Lawn Tennis Association's recent decision to move Nottingham's men's event to Eastbourne and combine it with the women's event there from next season is a further consequence of that.

Yet for those who still love to play and watch grass court tennis it seems unfair that there is no grass court Masters Series in the build up to Wimbledon when there are currently four Masters Series tournaments played on hard courts, three on clay and two indoors. But that is only a small part of a far bigger issue with the global calendar now threatening to throw pro tennis into disarray.

Despite his best efforts to streamline the schedule ATP Tour Chairman Etienne de Villiers has alienated many of the world's leading players in the process, as well as tournament organisers. Due to be downgraded from 2009, the Hamburg Masters filed a lawsuit last year against the ATP and with the two sides still at loggerheads it will be heard in court next month.

Its outcome could have a huge bearing on the future of the sport.

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