By choosing grass, the hosts are banking on Denmark's general unfamiliarity with the surface, and the presence of serve-and-volleyers in the Indian contingent, chiefly Ramkumar Ramanathan. At the pre-draw press conference for the Davis Cup tie between India and Denmark, the two captains eulogised a dying art. Against the backdrop of the well-maintained grass courts at the Delhi Gymkhana Club, Denmark’s Frederik Nielsen and India’s non-playing captain Rohit Rajpal spoke of the lack of serve and volley in modern tennis. The familiar lament came with the hope that the tactic may come to the fore on the “old school grass” in the Capital.
“If you watch the Australian Open, the French Open, the US Open or Wimbledon, it all looks pretty much the same,” said Nielsen. “You can play the same tennis on every surface these days. Even me as a coach or as a captain, it’s tough to encourage serve and volley because the conditions are so clean for returners.”
Nielsen, who won the doubles crown at 2012 Wimbledon as a wildcard, elaborated how neither the conditions nor equipment is conducive to rushing to the net and killing off points.
“The balls are too big, they’re too slow. The conditions are too slow. The equipment is too good. The racquets are too good, the strings are too good,” Nielsen rattled away. “It’s too easy to return and hit passing shots and you don’t get enough benefit out of serve-and-volley these days. The players can hit the returns as big as they want and neutralise the server. So it encourages baseline players.”
Rajpal, who acknowledged home field gives an advantage in Davis Cup “unless they have a Federer or Nadal”, agreed on the fading relevance of serve and volley.
“Overall, the art of serve and volley is dying down since most of the tournaments around the world are on hard and clay,” says Rajpal. “The coaches are developing strong, athletic, stroking machines. These guys run down everything and hit the ball back very hard. The touch is gone. It is sad as that is the craft that you saw from a lot of Indian players. But over here, you’re gonna see a lot of serve and volley, at least from our side.”
Old-school grass
By choosing grass, the hosts are banking on Denmark’s general unfamiliarity with the surface, and the presence of serve-and-volleyers in the Indian contingent, chiefly Ramkumar Ramanathan. The 27-year-old — whose only singles final on the ATP Tour came on the Newport grasscourts in 2018 — volleys, chips and charges regardless of the surface.
“Grass is my favourite surface, as the ball keeps low and I serve and volley a lot,” Ramkumar tells The Indian Express. “I try to come in on the returns and put a lot of pressure. So it’s perfect conditions for us. The grass at the Delhi Gymkhana is great. Stays low, it’s quick, it goes through, the slice works.”
Nielsen calls it “old school grass”.
“It’s a little more old school grass, in the sense that it plays pretty fast with the serve. Unlike Wimbledon in recent years, this is not really suited for rallies. It being a little more old school might add an element of randomness to the proceedings,” said Nielsen.
The 38-year-old conceded that Denmark were the underdogs — “it’s needless to say that we need to cause some upsets to win this tie” — but Nielsen is happy at the prospect of witnessing some serve and volley action.
“It’s encouraging to see a few more guys play serve and volley. I watched Ramanathan play a lot of serve and volley at Adelaide. So there’s obviously a case for it if you can be effective doing that at a high quality. But like I said, it would be more of an exception than the rule.”
With a seating capacity for 3800 and “no priced tickets’’, those in town would also do well to catch a dying art hopefully come alive this Friday and Saturday.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
