Artwork for podcast Tennis: Beyond the Court
The Best Servers
10th January 2023 • Tennis: Beyond the Court • Hopewell Valley Student Publications Network
00:00:00 00:05:43

Share Episode

Shownotes

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network 

Show Name: Tennis Beyond The Court

Episode Title: The Best World 

You are listening to Tennis Beyond The Court, the podcast with your host __Bradley Deeds.

In this episode of _Tennis Beyond The Court the Podcast we discuss: The Top five people who held the world number one spot the longest, The top 5 best servers of all time and One epic match of the century!.

Segment 1: History

World Number 1 Spots the longest:

  • Roger Federer - Back in 2008, Federer remained world number 1 for the longest time which was 316 weeks straight until Novak Djockivic won the US Open at the end of the year which bumped him down to world number 2. 
  • Rafael Nadal - In 2010, he had the highest world number one rank for a total of 308 weeks and he had won 5 titles back to back until the Paris Masters one thousand tournament came along and he ended up losing the second round to David Nalbandian and he got bumped to 3 behind Federer and Nalbandian. 
  • Novak Djokivic - In 2019, he had the highest world number 1 rank for a total of 325 weeks winning 12 titles during the year and he held it even after the U.S. Open. He ended up losing his world number 1 spot to Nadal when Nadal won the Nitto ATP FInals at the very end of the year and took his spot.
  • Andre Agassi - In 1994, he held the world number 1 spot the longest for a total of 295 weeks in a row. He was undefeated coming off of a 49 match win streak meaning he won 16 tournaments in a row.
  • Pete Sampras - in 1997 he took over Agassi’s world number one spot after winning the Australian Open and after winning both Miami Open and the Indian wells tournament completing what is known as the Sunshine Double. 

Segment 2: The Best Servers of All Time

  • John Isner - John holds the record on the tour for the most aces in history and is known as the most powerful server on tour. He stands at 6 feet 11 inches and bombs serves like no other human to ever play the game
  • Ivo Karlovic - Karlovic also stands at 6 feet 11 inches and could beat the top players back then in tiebreaks each set just because of his serve. His serve completed his whole game and that is why he made it into the top 5 in the world in 2011. 
  • Reily Opelka - a current player now on the tour, who stands at 7 feet tall is the best server on the tour right now and it is nearly impossible to break his serve unless you simply guess the right side and you poke the return back at his tall feet. 
  • Ivan Gorsanvenic - not only was he the best server back then, but he was the best lefty server who could hit any serve with the same ball toss. His serve you could not guess where it was going and he would win so many free points just with his serve and volley technique and strategy back then. 
  • Nick Kyrgios - the best and most talented player on the tour right now with the absolute most raw talent up there with Roger Federer. He has simply the best flick of the wrist and can hit any serve and his ball toss is known as the best on the tour right now. 

Segment 3: Epic Matches

Pick 1 Epic Match - Kyrgios vs Federer

Who - Nick Kyrgios vs Roger Federer

What - Semi finals of a master 1000

Where - Indian Wells California

When - 2020

How - They both advanced to the semi finals after winning 5 matches a piece and we all knew this was going to be a battle. Roger ended up winning the first set 7-6 in a brutal tiebreak which finished as 13-11 and in the second set, Nick was serving even better than he was and he took the second set 7-6 saving 2 match points in the tiebreaker with 2 ridiculous passing shots to clinch the tiebreak. In the final set it also went to a tiebreak and Nick was up 5-4 2 points away from victory and ended up losing 7-5 in the final set tiebreak!

Follow

Links

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube