NYT News Service
NEW YORK
In the 1980s, the most powerful serve in tennis belonged to Eric Korita. He never achieved the overall success of his big-serving predecessor Roscoe Tanner or successors like Mark Philippoussis or Ivo Karlovic.
Korita's highest world ranking was 30th in doubles and 46th in singles, but he regularly served over 140 mph in an era when that was unheard-of. He shared some thoughts on his biggest weapon.
How did you develop such a fast serve?
For me, it started with a lot of throwing — throwing footballs and baseballs. That was a key. I was taught good mechanics, too, but then I used my own creativity to develop my serve. I would toss balls way out to the side to work on kicks and twists. I have seven different tosses. That's not for everyone, but even four tosses would give different options. I think creativity is missing in sport today.
How old were you when you realised you had something special with your serve?
When I was playing junior tournaments I hit serves so hard sometimes my opponents didn't have time to react, and it would just hit them in the chest and knock them over.
When did you know just how fast your serve actually was?
I was signed to a sponsorship with Prince, and they wanted to say you could serve 140 miles per hour with the Prince Boron. So to document that they brought out the guns, and I served in the mid-to-high 140s and even broke 150.
What is the most important thing to keep in mind on a serve?
I'm 6-5, but power is not just size and strength. You can be 5-10 and add more speed to your serve. You need to stay really relaxed, and then at the top of your swing, you need to really have a good wrist snap. People would say to me,"You don't look like you're doing anything, you're so relaxed." Pancho Segura told me I reminded him of Pancho Gonzalez that way, that my body was so relaxed. That allowed me to stay loose.
If you maximize relaxation and there's no tension in your grip, wrist, elbow or shoulder, then you can really go up and fire. Without that, there's no free flow. And then you need to really snap your wrist. There's so much force in that snap.
Do you think that looseness would help pro players improve, too?
Even the biggest servers, whether it's John Isner or Serena Williams, could serve even harder and get more on their serves if they were loose with their wrist. People lose velocity and spin. There's more opportunity if you know what your wrist can do. I could serve 150 miles per hour with the rackets and strings we were using back then. My rackets were strung at 80 to 82 pounds, and when strings broke, they would just explode.
Someone now could hit 180 miles per hour. It could be a big difference for the women; their serve could be much, much harder. The game is so tough and so physically demanding now, who wouldn't want one or two free points per game?
How fast do you think you can serve now?
I'm 53, but if I worked my way up to it for a little while, I can still serve hard. I could probably get into the 130s.