"I always liked serve-and-volley players and big athletes"
About this Quote
Krajicek’s line reads like a simple preference, but it’s really a quiet manifesto about what tennis should feel like: bold, physical, and decided in real time at the net. Coming from a Wimbledon champion built like a throwback (6'5", big serve, forward instincts), “serve-and-volley” isn’t just a style he admires; it’s an identity he’s defending. He’s signaling allegiance to a version of the sport where points are shorter, courage is visible, and the body matters as much as the brain.
The phrasing does two things at once. “Always liked” softens what is essentially a critique of the direction modern tennis took as courts slowed, strings got livelier, and baseline grinding became the default. He doesn’t say he dislikes retrievers or counterpunchers; he simply elevates “big athletes,” implying that certain physiques and risk profiles deserve more cultural respect. It’s nostalgia without the rant.
There’s also a subtle aesthetic claim: serve-and-volley is tennis as spectacle. It rewards commitment (you can’t half-rush the net), creates drama (pass or be passed), and turns each point into a miniature duel. By pairing the tactic with “big athletes,” Krajicek links style to embodiment: not just smart patterns, but imposing presence.
Context matters: Krajicek’s era sat on the fault line between net-rushing tradition and the baseline future. The quote works because it’s less about taste than about mourning a vanishing archetype, delivered with the plainspoken certainty of someone who lived it.
The phrasing does two things at once. “Always liked” softens what is essentially a critique of the direction modern tennis took as courts slowed, strings got livelier, and baseline grinding became the default. He doesn’t say he dislikes retrievers or counterpunchers; he simply elevates “big athletes,” implying that certain physiques and risk profiles deserve more cultural respect. It’s nostalgia without the rant.
There’s also a subtle aesthetic claim: serve-and-volley is tennis as spectacle. It rewards commitment (you can’t half-rush the net), creates drama (pass or be passed), and turns each point into a miniature duel. By pairing the tactic with “big athletes,” Krajicek links style to embodiment: not just smart patterns, but imposing presence.
Context matters: Krajicek’s era sat on the fault line between net-rushing tradition and the baseline future. The quote works because it’s less about taste than about mourning a vanishing archetype, delivered with the plainspoken certainty of someone who lived it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
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