Serve and volley died because the returner moved in, not because grass slowed

The usual explanation blames slower courts, but the bigger change was returners standing on the baseline and taking the ball early.

Everybody has the same story about serve and volley. The courts got slower, the balls got heavier, the surface stopped rewarding the charge to the net. There is truth in it. I think it is second order.

The first order change is where the returner stands. Look at footage from thirty years back and returners are often a metre or two behind the baseline against a big server, taking the ball on the way down, hitting up on it. A serve volleyer against that returner gets a slow, rising ball to volley from around the service line, which is a comfortable shot. Now look at the modern return position. Many of the best returners take it from on or inside the baseline, blocking through the ball with a short swing and a poly string bed that lets them do it without spraying.

That single change destroys the economics of the play. The return arrives earlier, which means the server has covered less ground and is volleying from further back, often around the service line rather than inside it. It arrives lower, because it has been struck before it can rise. And it dips, because the returner can apply spin on a short block in a way that was much harder with softer strings. The volleyer is now playing a low ball from a bad position against an opponent who has recovered. That is not a winning pattern, and it does not become one on a faster court.

You can see the argument tested at Wimbledon every year. The grass there is still quick by any reasonable standard, the ball still stays low, and serve and volley remains rare even among players who are technically capable of it. If pure surface speed were the driver you would expect more of it there than anywhere.

What has survived is the selective version. Serve and volley on a second serve occasionally, to disrupt a returner who has settled into a rhythm. Serve plus one, where the server hits a big first ball and comes in behind an opponent already stretched. Those still work, because they attack a returner who is out of position rather than one who is set.

The all court charge is not coming back. The players did not lose the skill. The return moved, and the geometry stopped adding up.