Top 5 Best Tennis Servers Of All Time (My Bias Opinion)

Performance-Plus Tennis
22 Mar 202408:06

Summary

TLDRIn this insightful video, John Craig from Performance Plus Tennis shares his top five favorite servers in tennis history, excluding those over 6'3" due to their height advantage. He discusses the unique techniques and contributions of each player, including Poncho Gonzalez, Boris Becker, John McEnroe, Pete Sampras, and Roger Federer, highlighting their impact on the evolution of the serve. Craig ultimately names Pete Sampras as his all-time favorite server, praising his ability to combine all elements of great serving into one powerful package.

Takeaways

  • πŸ† John Craig's favorite serve in tennis is the topic of the video, discussing the best servers of all time.
  • 🎾 The discussion excludes servers taller than 6'3 to focus on those who had effective serves despite not having a height advantage.
  • πŸ‘΄ Poncho Gonzalez is highlighted for his feared serve and unique long axis pronation technique during his era.
  • 🦡 Boris Becker is noted for his leg drive and being a pioneer in modern serving techniques, despite using an Eastern forehand grip.
  • πŸ‘ˆ John MacEnroe, a left-handed server, is recognized for his unique style, accuracy, and effectiveness with a corkscrew motion.
  • 🀸 Pete Sampras is praised for his combination of motion, coil, leg drive, and confidence, making him a top server.
  • 🏐 Roger Federer, despite not being extremely tall, is admired for his beautiful technique and ability to hit various spots on the court.
  • πŸ₯‡ Pete Sampras is revealed as John Craig's all-time favorite server due to his comprehensive mastery of serving elements.
  • πŸ“ˆ Sampras' serve is considered a model for modern players, with his long axis pronation being particularly influential.
  • πŸ’Œ The video encourages viewer feedback on their favorite servers and promotes engagement through likes, shares, and comments.
  • πŸŽ“ The video is part of a series from Performance Plus Tennis, offering more content for tennis enthusiasts.

Q & A

  • Who is the speaker in the transcript and what is his area of expertise?

    -The speaker in the transcript is John Craig, and he is an expert in tennis, specifically known as the 'serve builder' in the online tennis world.

  • What criteria is the speaker using to exclude certain players from his list of favorite servers?

    -The speaker is excluding servers who are taller than 6'3 because they have a distinct advantage, and he wants to emphasize servers who are not as tall but had very effective serves.

  • Which player does the speaker mention as the most feared server of all time during his era?

    -Poncho Gonzalez is mentioned as the most feared server of all time during his era.

  • What unique technical aspect did Poncho Gonzalez have in his serve that was ahead of his time?

    -Poncho Gonzalez had a long arm pronation through the shoulder, a technical aspect that was not commonly discussed or known during his time.

  • Why does the speaker appreciate Boris Becker's serving technique?

    -The speaker appreciates Boris Becker's serving technique because he was one of the first players to use a leg drive technique, which has become a standard in modern tennis.

  • What makes John McEnroe's serve unique according to the speaker?

    -John McEnroe's serve is unique because of his corkscrew lefty style, which involved a tremendous rotation and coil, making his serve very accurate and difficult to read.

  • What is special about Pete Sampras's serving technique?

    -Pete Sampras's serving technique is special because he combined all the elements of a great serve, including leg drive, coil, and a unique tossing motion that made his serve very difficult to predict.

  • Why does the speaker rank Roger Federer so highly among his favorite servers?

    -The speaker ranks Roger Federer highly because, despite not being extremely tall, Federer had beautiful technique and could generate easy power, making him one of the greatest servers of all time.

  • Who does the speaker ultimately rank as the number one server of all time?

    -The speaker ultimately ranks Pete Sampras as the number one server of all time.

  • What is the speaker's rationale for ranking Pete Sampras above Roger Federer?

    -The speaker ranks Pete Sampras above Roger Federer because Sampras set the model for the modern serve and tied together all the elements and components of great servers into one tremendous package.

  • How does the speaker describe the evolution of the serve through the years?

    -The speaker describes the evolution of the serve through the years by highlighting the technical advancements and unique styles of different servers, from Poncho Gonzalez's arm pronation to Boris Becker's leg drive, and Pete Sampras's combination of all elements into a modern serve.

Outlines

00:00

🎾 Introduction to Favorite Servers

John Craig introduces the video by discussing his fondness for the serve shot and his reputation as the 'serve builder' in the online tennis community. He shares that he will be discussing his top five favorite servers of all time, excluding those taller than 6'3 to emphasize effective serves from less towering players. The video aims to highlight the technical aspects and evolution of the serve in tennis history.

05:00

πŸ† Historical Greats and Their Techniques

The paragraph delves into the details of John's top five favorite servers, starting with Poncho Gonzalez, known for his feared serve and unique long arm pronation. Boris Becker is noted for his leg drive and modern serve technique, while John McEnroe's left-handed serve and coil are highlighted. Pete Sampras is celebrated for his motion and leg drive, and Roger Federer's effortless technique and ability to hit various spots on the court are admired. The paragraph concludes with John revealing Pete Sampras as his all-time favorite server due to his comprehensive mastery of serving elements.

Mindmap

Keywords

πŸ’‘Serve

In tennis, a serve is a shot to start a point. It is the only shot where the server has full control over the play. In the video, the serve is highlighted as the favorite shot of the speaker, John Craig, who is known as the 'serve builder' in the online tennis world. He discusses the technical elements and evolution of the serve throughout tennis history.

πŸ’‘Poncho Gonzalez

Poncho Gonzalez was a professional tennis player known for his powerful serve. In the video, he is described as one of the most feared servers of all time during his era, with a serve characterized by long arm pronation through the shoulder, a technique that was ahead of its time.

πŸ’‘Boris Becker

Boris Becker is a retired German tennis player who is noted for his revolutionary serve technique. In the video, Becker is credited with being one of the first players to use leg drive effectively in serving, setting a standard for modern tennis serves.

πŸ’‘John MacEnroe

John MacEnroe is a retired American tennis player, known for his left-handed serve and overall game. In the context of the video, MacEnroe's serve is highlighted for its unique style and technical elements, such as the corkscrew motion and the coil in his serve, which made it difficult for opponents to predict.

πŸ’‘Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras, also known as Pete SAS, is a retired American tennis player who is widely regarded as one of the greatest servers in tennis history. In the video, Sampras's serve is praised for its combination of power, accuracy, and the ability to deliver under pressure, with a serve motion that incorporated elements from previous great servers.

πŸ’‘Roger Federer

Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player, often considered one of the greatest in the history of the sport. His serve is noted for its beauty and technique, allowing him to generate power seemingly effortlessly. In the video, Federer's serve is highlighted for its unique tossing motion and the ability to hit various spins and targets effectively.

πŸ’‘Technical Element

The technical element refers to the mechanics and specific techniques used in executing a tennis serve. In the video, the technical element is a central theme as John Craig analyzes the serves of different players, emphasizing how their unique technical aspects contributed to their effectiveness and the evolution of the serve.

πŸ’‘Long Axis Rotation

Long axis rotation refers to the rotational movement of the body, particularly the shoulders and arms, during a tennis serve. This movement is crucial for generating power and speed in the serve. In the video, long axis rotation is a key technical element discussed in relation to several players' serves, including Pete Sampras and Poncho Gonzalez.

πŸ’‘Leg Drive

Leg drive in tennis serve refers to the use of lower body strength, particularly the legs, to generate power and momentum for the serve. It is a fundamental aspect of modern serving techniques. In the video, leg drive is a common feature among the serves of the players discussed, indicating its importance in effective serving.

πŸ’‘Tossing Motion

The tossing motion in a tennis serve is the action of throwing the ball into the air before striking it. The consistency and placement of the toss are critical to the success of the serve. In the video, Roger Federer's unique tossing motion, where his arm moves parallel to the baseline, is discussed as a key component of his effective serve.

πŸ’‘Serve Evolution

Serve evolution refers to the changes and developments in the techniques and strategies used in tennis serves over time. The video discusses the historical progression of serving techniques and how certain players contributed to these changes, influencing the modern game.

Highlights

John Craig discusses his top five favorite tennis servers of all time, excluding those taller than 6'3 to emphasize effective serves from less-tall players.

Poncho Gonzalez is highlighted for his feared serve and unique long arm pronation through the shoulder, contributing to the understanding of serve technique.

Boris Becker is noted for his innovative leg drive and being a pioneer in modern tennis serving techniques with his powerful and effective serve.

John MacEnroe's unique left-handed serve with a corkscrew motion and his ability to generate tremendous rotation and coil is discussed.

Pete Sampras is praised for his combination of all elements of a great serve, including leg drive, motion, and confidence under pressure.

Roger Federer's serve is analyzed for its beautiful technique, effortless power generation, and unique tossing motion.

Pete Sampras is revealed as John Craig's favorite server of all time due to his perfect blend of serving elements into a powerful package.

The importance of long axis pronation in serving is emphasized, with many players today trying to mimic this technique.

Roger Federer's serve is recognized for its ability to hit spots on the court that are difficult for others to reach.

The video aims to explore the evolution of the serve through the years and the technical contributions of each server mentioned.

John Craig's reputation as the 'serve builder' in the online tennis world is mentioned, indicating his extensive knowledge and analysis of serves.

The video invites viewer feedback on their favorite server of all time, encouraging engagement and discussion.

The video is part of a series from Performance Plus Tennis, offering more content for tennis enthusiasts and learners.

John Craig's methodical approach to analyzing serves chronologically provides a historical perspective on the development of tennis serving techniques.

The video touches on the impact of equipment changes, such as the transition from wooden rackets, on serving effectiveness.

The unique serving styles of left-handed servers like John MacEnroe are explored, highlighting the variety in serving techniques.

The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to subscribe to the channel for more tennis insights and lessons.

Transcripts

play00:00

hello everybody John Craig here with

play00:01

Performance Plus tennis a little bit of

play00:03

a different video for you today and it

play00:04

comes from a lot of questions I get

play00:06

about you know who's your favorite

play00:08

server John who do you think are the

play00:09

best servers of all time and many of you

play00:11

know that the serve is my favorite uh

play00:13

shot to teach in tennis I'm known as the

play00:15

serve builder in the online tennis world

play00:17

I've looked at every serve of every

play00:19

player from way back in the early days

play00:22

so I'm going to go through my fa five

play00:24

favorite servers I'm going to do it

play00:26

chronologically and then I'm going to

play00:28

reveal in the end who my favorite

play00:30

alltime server is and um I'm not going

play00:34

to include servers that are taller than

play00:36

6'3 and the reason is is because they

play00:39

have a distinct Advantage John nner uh

play00:41

IO Carlovich those guys have amazing

play00:43

serves but I want I want to emphasize

play00:45

the servers that are not as tall that

play00:47

had very very effective serves um and

play00:50

also that maybe had technical things

play00:53

that are interesting that contributed to

play00:55

the development of the serve um as it

play00:57

evolved Through The Years so uh my first

play01:00

favorite that I'm going to talk about is

play01:02

um Poncho Gonzalez and Poncho Gonzalez

play01:06

was probably the most feared server of

play01:08

all time during his era and he had a

play01:11

phenomenal serve and there are great

play01:13

photos of Poncho serving that reveal the

play01:16

long AIS pronation through the shoulder

play01:19

that no one really talked about or

play01:20

really knew about back in those times

play01:23

but whether he did it with intention or

play01:25

it just happened to happen he had

play01:27

beautiful technique on his motion so he

play01:30

was in an era where you couldn't jump so

play01:32

his feet were on the ground when he made

play01:33

contact um but he had an amazingly

play01:36

powerful serve and I think his is worth

play01:38

noting as being one of the most

play01:39

effective serves in history certainly

play01:41

one of the most feared and he was a

play01:43

major contributor to understanding the

play01:44

technical element of the serve that

play01:46

really generated tremendous

play01:49

power moving forward my next favorite

play01:52

that I want to talk about is Boris

play01:54

Becker now Boris Becker the reason why I

play01:57

like Boris Becker is because he was

play02:00

really the first player that I remember

play02:02

who served with a technique in his legs

play02:05

like we have now in modern tennis that

play02:07

we see all the players doing he loaded

play02:10

his legs he had tremendous leg drive he

play02:12

got he had a beautiful trophy

play02:14

position really lifted himself up had

play02:17

tremendous lift power through the legs

play02:19

so he really kind of set the standard

play02:21

for what the modern serve became and his

play02:24

serve was very powerful and very

play02:26

effective one quick note about Boris

play02:28

though that was really unique

play02:30

is I had think he is the only big server

play02:32

great server in history who actually

play02:34

served with with an Eastern forhand grip

play02:37

which is really unique because he was

play02:39

able to still execute a full range of

play02:42

long axis rotation through his motion

play02:45

and through contact even though he had

play02:47

an Eastern grip which is quite unique

play02:49

but he was a enormous had enormous serve

play02:53

big server uh very fear during his time

play02:55

so he's really my number two pick for

play02:59

what my five best servers of all time

play03:02

next up is John mackenro and I had to

play03:04

include a lefty server in my list and

play03:08

and John mackenro had a tremendous serve

play03:11

cork screw Lefty um he had a very unique

play03:14

style where he really had tremendous

play03:16

rotation it really started with his

play03:17

stance where both feet were literally

play03:20

lined up on the Baseline and when he

play03:22

coiled into his trophy position he was

play03:24

literally exposing his back to you he

play03:27

had a tremendous coil in his serve and

play03:29

when he coiled you couldn't really tell

play03:31

where he was going with the serf so even

play03:33

though he played in an era where wooden

play03:35

rackets were were the predominant racket

play03:37

certainly in his early part of his

play03:39

career he had a tremendously effective

play03:41

serve he could pull off Ace's Left Right

play03:44

Center he had tremendous accuracy it was

play03:47

very difficult to read to serve um I

play03:50

think he really brought the the rotation

play03:53

and coil to the game he also used his

play03:55

legs quite well and drove up with the

play03:57

with his legs so I'm going to say that

play03:59

John mackenro is my favorite left-handed

play04:01

server of all time now some of you are

play04:04

thinking well what about Goran Ivanovich

play04:06

or Rosco Tanner yeah those guys had

play04:09

really good serves as well obviously

play04:10

very good serves but um John macko

play04:13

stands out as a unique server had a

play04:15

unique style uh didn't have the biggest

play04:18

serve but it was very very accurate very

play04:20

effective and very difficult to read so

play04:23

John macenroe is my next pick as one of

play04:25

my all-time favorite servers next up

play04:28

Pete SAS how could we not have Pete SAS

play04:31

on any list of the great servers of all

play04:33

time and what I loved about Pete was

play04:35

almost everything we talked about with

play04:37

the other servers so far he had a

play04:39

tremendous motion great motion very much

play04:42

like a poncho Gonzalez where he had the

play04:44

best long access pration tremendous

play04:47

Motion in his serve he had a great coil

play04:50

very much like John mackenro where his

play04:52

back was exposed to the opponent so he

play04:54

could really rotate and coil around it

play04:56

was very difficult to read where his

play04:57

serve was going and he also had great

play05:00

leg drive he had a great position great

play05:02

leg drive like Boris Becker so he had a

play05:04

every element of the serve was there and

play05:07

the thing that's fascinating about Pete

play05:09

SAS is he could put the ball on a dime

play05:12

easily on his first or second serve and

play05:14

when he was under pressure and had to

play05:16

get a serve in even a second serve he

play05:19

came up with second serves that were

play05:21

really like first serves he had

play05:23

tremendous confidence in his in his

play05:25

serve under the greatest amounts of

play05:26

pressure and won so many key points in

play05:29

his career so I think Pete SAS

play05:33

tremendous server he's definitely in my

play05:35

top five list of all time should be in

play05:37

everyone's and Pete sess is in the list

play05:40

for sure and finally my favorite server

play05:43

one of my favorite servers the top five

play05:45

is Roger Federer again Roger feder

play05:48

wasn't extremely tall at 6'1 but he had

play05:51

beautiful technique he could generate

play05:53

easy power it looked like it was so

play05:55

effortless that it never looked like he

play05:57

was forcing a serve at all and then he

play05:59

could could pop that serve over 130 if

play06:01

he wanted to anytime he could hit the

play06:04

spots um he had again had great leg

play06:06

Drive Great coil great technique and he

play06:10

had a he had a different type of a of a

play06:12

a tossing motion where his his tossing

play06:14

arm moved parallel to the Baseline and

play06:17

the ball arked back and what made that

play06:20

so effective is that as the ball arked

play06:21

back he could take it either early and

play06:24

slice it a little bit later and flatten

play06:27

it or even a little bit later and Top

play06:29

Spin it but you really couldn't pick

play06:31

that up you couldn't see what spin he

play06:32

was going to hit or what Target he was

play06:34

aiming for until he made contact with

play06:37

the ball so he perfected this unique

play06:39

movement in his serve that made him one

play06:42

of the greatest servers of all time and

play06:44

I think he's second on the alltime list

play06:46

for Aces even though he was only 6' one

play06:49

and he could hit spots on the court that

play06:50

almost no one else could hit and he

play06:52

could do that without you seeing where

play06:53

the ball's going until it went there so

play06:56

Roger feder makes my top five and

play06:59

finally let me reveal my number one

play07:01

server of all time out the top five that

play07:04

I've mentioned that's Pete SAS because

play07:06

Pete SAS really did tie together all the

play07:09

elements and components of the great

play07:11

servers and and built it into one

play07:13

tremendous package and I think that even

play07:16

though Roger feder had more Aces because

play07:17

he had a longer career I think that

play07:19

Roger tried to emulate a lot of things

play07:21

that Pete did on his serve as well so

play07:24

Pete set the model for the for the

play07:26

modern serve and really the the empasis

play07:29

of the long AIS pronation through the

play07:31

serve uh was very unique a lot of

play07:33

players are trying to mimic that today

play07:36

and everyone would like to have Pete

play07:37

sanr serve so certainly he is my top

play07:41

server of all time on players that are

play07:43

below

play07:45

6'3 thanks so much for watching today's

play07:47

video and I'd love to hear your feedback

play07:50

and who you think your favorite player

play07:51

is of all time thanks for watching Once

play07:54

Again subscribe to the channel if you've

play07:56

not done so already leave your comments

play07:57

down below give us a like share this

play07:59

video with a friend stay tuned we've got

play08:01

a lot more coming here at Performance

play08:02

Plus tennis we'll see you in the next

play08:04

lesson

Rate This
β˜…
β˜…
β˜…
β˜…
β˜…

5.0 / 5 (0 votes)

Related Tags
TennisHistoryServeMasteryRogerFedererPeteSamprasTechniqueAnalysisLegendaryPlayersServeEvolutionPerformancePlusTennisCoachingTopServers