At a leadership summit in India, 1980s standout Boris Becker says the reason why the game is generally faster is because of improvements in equipment, but that doesn’t mean that this generation can hit serves faster.
“I was in London during the Tour Finals doing commentary,” Becker said. “The fastest serve was 133 M.P.H. I served at 139 M.P.H. 20 years back and I was not the fastest. Others were serving faster with bad rackets in those days. But today you have players using more spin and power three, four feet from behind the baseline, which wasn’t possible in my day.”