The grass court season kicked off this week on the ATP World Tour with events in Germany (Stuttgart), and Holland (S’Hertogenbosch), with the finals now upon us, it’s worth taking a look at the strong start ATP Serve and Volleyers have gotten off to, and the threat they should pose all the way through to Wimbledon.
Stuttgart
After posting his best ever ATP result last year on grass, a semifinal in Newport, and prior to this week, winning a challenger in the UK on grass, Sam Groth a serve and volleyer with a massive serve, reached the quarterfinals in Stuttgart, as he continues to rise up the rankings, having made a steady rise to the ATP level since 2013, and a breakthrough year in 2014. He’s known as the player who recorded the fastest ever serve, at a challenger, and as Jarmila Gajdosova’s (Groth) ex-husband. His game clicked against two other serve and volleyers, Sergiy Stakhovsky, and Feliciano Lopez, as he defeated both in three sets. Stako is nursing a back injury, while Lopez, a three time Wimbledon quarterfinalist, was red hot on grass last year, and still should pose a threat on the surface this year with his lefty slice serve and volley. He was baffled by Viktor Troicki in the quarters, and to get himself to the next level, the gruff Australian will need to improve his return game, as his backhand especially is quite weak, and he struggles when he is unable to get to the net. Still, I highly doubt anyone will want to face him early at Wimbledon, as his big serve guarantees he’s going to hold most of his service games and force a lot of tiebreaks.
Also in Stuttgart, Dustin Brown, who beat Nadal in Halle previously, made it through qualifying, coming up just short against Jerzy Janowicz, and Mischa Zverev, a bit of a grass court specialist, though he isn’t a pure serve and volleyer, reached the quarterfinals with wins over Dominic Thiem and Andreas Seppi, both upsets in terms of ranking. Both Brown and Zverev should feature in the rest of the grass court season as threats, Brown is streaky, while Zverev has always been a known talent, but very mentally weak.
Den Bosch
The Topshelf Open features a serve and volleyer in the final, Nicolas Mahut, who is seeking his second title at the Dutch grass court venue. The 33 year old Mahut is a throwback player, best known for losing the longest ever match against John Isner at Wimbledon. His best surface is grass, and though it seems he may retire soon, he’s been in-form this week as he qualified with three wins, and then beat opponents in the main draw who are all formidable on grass, Lleyton Hewitt, the two-time Wimbledon champion, Roberto Bautista Agut, the defending Topshelf Open champion, Adrian Mannarino, and Dutchman Robin Haase. He’ll face David Goffin, a baseliner, in the final, and he has yet to drop a set in the main draw. Mahut has two previous ATP titles on grass, though fatigue may player a factor over the next few weeks after playing so many matches in Den Bosch.
Along with Mahut, Gilles Muller, Ivo Karlovic, and wild card Marius Copil, a hybrid big server, all found success at the Topshelf Open. Muller, a 32 year old lefty, should be back in the top 50 this week after his heavy serve beat Marsel Ilhan, Vasek Pospisil, and Copil before he came up short against Goffin. Muller has twice qualified for Wimbledon, and beat a younger Rafael Nadal there in 2005, he’ll look to improve his results this time, and he’s a dark horse option for that grand slam.
Karlovic has twice reached the second week of Wimbledon, though the best server on the ATP tour has had spotty results there overall, and after falling to Robin Haase in the quarterfinals, we’ll see what the 36 year old Croatian can do on grass in the remaining tournaments. He may well be slowing down due to age at this point, his serve has always been remarkable, but not much else about his game is.
The 24 year old Copil, who is ranked just inside the top 200, will need to qualify for Wimbledon and with a limited history on grass, it’s hard to see him making much noise, but you never know.
Next week at London Queens and Halle, watch out for Muller, Lopez, Stakhovsky, Karlovic, Brown, and also Milos Raonic who will be back in action after surgery. Raonic has a great serve, and if he can turn into more of a talented serve and volleyer on grass, he should be more of a threat on the surface.
The serve and volley game has been supplanted by baseliners these days, but there is still a chance for ATP pros to find success with a style of play that led to such great results for the likes of Pete Sampras and John McEnroe.
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