'Serve and volley is completely fading': Rajeev Ram's blunt take on modern tennis

Bengaluru: Six-time Grand Slam champion across doubles and mixed doubles, Rajeev Ram, 42, called time on his career at the US Open earlier this month. The former doubles world No. 1 spoke to TOI about his career, the transition to doubles and the journey that followed. Excerpts...Tennis is a demanding sport. How were you able to keep going until 42?I was always going to play until my body would allow me to do it. More than the sport, the travel got really hard, changing time zones all the time. You have to be in peak physical shape to play. And I found that as I got older, it became harder to do that.How fitting was it to finish your career at the US Open?I don’t think I could have written it better. Maybe if I had won the US Open doubles again, it would have been (great). But to make the semis along with my longtime doubles partner (Salisbury), have my coaches, friends and family there, I don’t think I could have thought of a better way to end my career.Is the art of serve and volley fading?It’s completely fading. The technology, the strings, the rackets, the courts, the balls, nothing is conducive to that style of tennis. Basically, it feels there’s no court, or very few courts and conditions in the world, that are conducive to that style. If it was there, you would see it. You just don’t see it at the top of the game, or at any level.It’s a shame because I think that style really added contrast, which, for me, was the beautiful part of tennis when you had two players playing a different style against each other.Your take on mixed doubles being played a week before the US Open?I was happy with the fact that the US Open is trying to innovate. But I didn’t feel they included enough of the doubles players and people who specialise in that event to warrant it being called a Grand Slam. They gave a Grand Slam-winning trophy to the winner, but they didn’t include everybody that, I think, was at the best level, at the top of the game.Stay updated with the latest Asian Games 2026 news, check the Asian Games medal tally and complete Asian Games schedule.Get the latest Sports News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.