Pete Sampras was one of the best tennis servers if not the best I ever seen.

Through the years I have experienced hitting balls with some of the worlds finest players, Pete Sampras included.  One thing that became obvious to me from the first exchange, 'this kid has one of the heaviest shots I ever dealt with'! 

Sure enough that was Petes great weapon tennis balls that flew, crowded and manhandled his opponents like huge asteroids coming from outer space!

On his already extraordinary serve, this ball heaviness was accentuated especially in the second serve, were opponents were incapable of finding weaknesses or inner roads into it. Now with this kind of second delivery, you can imagine how confident he was with his first serve!

There are several reasons for Pete Sampras extraordinary almost galactic serve.

Pete Sampras' rackets were customized and one of the aspects of such customization was to place strips of lead tape between the grommets and the racket frame (picture below).

The use of added lead in between Wilson pro staff grommets strips and the frame greatly enhanced the mass of his already heavier than usual racket frames.

Pete Sampras rackets weighted 2 to 4 ounces more than most conventional racquets for a total weight of 15 or 16 ounces!

IMPORTANT: I do not suggest young developing players or anyone to do this to their rackets!! It can incur serious damage to the rotator cuffs and end careers very quickly.  Even seasoned adults (if they do it at their own risk) should be very cautious and go through the adding of lead to their rackets on a gradual basis. Very little at a time with extended periods of adaptation.

Pete Sampras who had a very strong body with very large bones (like the Greek Gods from his parents birth land) was able to make a fundamental thing, maintain the same swing speed with the added racket mass resulting in a more powerful serve.

NOTE: If your swing loses speed with added weight on your racket head, you will not benefit from heavier rackets!

- Pete Sampras at 6'1" (185 cm) 170 lbs (77 kg) frame, had the perfect tennis player build and on the serve his vertical jumping was translated into a up and forward leap toward the ball which gained him a reach of about another 3 feet besides the extended arm  and racket length.

- As you will see in the table below with a serve speed 132 Mph or 221.4Km/h Pete was not the fastest serve of all time, but his opponents often complained how heavy is ball was!

Pete Sampras had a mix of power, precision, spin variation/placement and disguise that only Federer comes close to these days.

Even tough the fastest first serve speed belongs to Andy Roddick 2004 Wimbledon final, 155 mph, both Pete Sampras and Roger Federer use their serve skills much better and here are some speed comparisons between both:

Fastest first serve speed of Roger Federer: 135 mph 2006 Australian Open
Fastest first serve speed of Pete Sampras: 135 mph 1998 US Open

Fastest 2nd serve speed of Federer: 126 mph 2004 Halle
Fastest 2nd serve of Sampras: 127 mph 2001 U.S Open

Average fist serve speed Federer: 114-121 mph
Average fist serve speed Pete Sampras: 114-123 mph

The fact that Roger Federer is so near Pete Sampras in these figures only demonstrates how good Roger Federer serves and how good of a server they both are!

In this video file you will see what made Pete Sampras so good and why Roger Federer emulated it for a few years!

- Perfect weight transfer

 - Typical 'lazy way to riches!' drop swing of the racket, while at the same time the ball is tossed in identical fashion!

- A a strong shoulder turn and lock of the right shoulder as the ball toss is rising and the forward racket motion begins.

- Big bend of the legs/knees pushing strongly against the ground to generate maximal elastic energy. 

- Strong hip rotation and lock

- Powerful leap onto the ball and reach-up for it

- The explosive release of all these forces in several segments of his body  using rotational force and transforming it into linear forces right up to the snap of the ball in the pronation movement at contact.

Pete Sampras uses is whole body in a fluid and integrated manner that dramatically improved the power of his tennis service.

As he so well demonstrates in this tennis video lesson, a perfect act of human bio-mechanics, where the serve stroke production begins at the feet, flows up his knees and legs, uses the hips and body weight and then allows the upper body and arms to stroke the ball.

This ultimately efficient use of all body segments/parts in the production of a stroke in this case the tennis serve is called kinetic chain.

Watch sweet Pete Serve - in 100 years from now, few will ever serve like he did!

Sergio Cruz

Support the TennisCruz website, use our search link partners and purchase from them. Anything you would like to find on this website or anywhere on the internet? Find it here:

Custom Search

 

Video Tennis Lessons - Tennis Service 1919!

Video Lessons - The Tennis Service Ball Toss!

Video Tennis Lessons - One Toss Several Serves!

Video Lessons - Tennis Service Pronation!

Tennis Serve - The leg Bend

Reach Up For Your Tennis Serve!