Serve and volley is a style of play in tennis where the player serving moves quickly towards the net after hitting a serve. The server then attempts to hit a volley (a shot where the ball is struck without allowing it to bounce), as opposed to the baseline style, where the server stays back following the serve and attempts to hit a groundstroke (a shot where the ball is allowed to bounce before contact is made). The serve style of play has diminished in recent years with the advances in racquet and string technolgies which allows player to generate great amount of topsin on ground strokes and passing shots. Pactrick Rafter was the last pure serve and volley player to win a grand slam. Also the slowing of court surfaces and deflation of the balls for greater rallies for the enjoyment of spectators has also put a dampener on the serve and volley style. People also cite the lack of teaching the serve and volley art to juniors who are to small to effectively employ this method in the juniors so it has become obsitle in grassroots tennis.

Mardy Simpson Fish (born December 9, 1981) is an American professional tennis player, and Olympic silver medalist. He is a hardcourt specialist. He is one of several American tennis players who rose to prominence in the early 2000s.

Fish has won six tournaments on the main ATP Tour, and has reached the final of four Masters Series events: Cincinnati in 2003 and 2010, Indian Wells in 2008, and Montreal in 2011. His best result at a Grand Slam tournament has been reaching the quarter final stage at the 2007 Australian Open, the 2008 US Open, and the 2011 Wimbledon Championships.

In April 2011, Fish overtook compatriot Andy Roddick to become the American No. 1 in the ATP rankings. As of 21 November 2011, he is ranked World No. 8. His current career-high singles ranking is World No. 7.

Fish is the son of a tennis teaching professional and a housewife, Tom and Sally Fish. He was born in Edina, Minnesota. In 1984 a Minneapolis TV station ran a profile of Fish, at the age of two, hitting tennis balls from the baseline over the net. In 1986, Fish's family moved to Vero Beach, Florida. He attended Vero Beach High School for tenth grade, then moved to Boca Prep in Boca Raton, Florida for his junior and senior years of high school. He, Andy Roddick, and Jesse Levine all attended Boca Prep International School. During 1999 he lived with Roddick's family, and the two played on the same tennis and basketball teams.

Roger Federer (German pronunciation: [ˈfeːdəʁɐ]) (born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP No. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks from 2 February 2004 to 18 August 2008. Federer has occupied the #1 ranking for 285 overall weeks, one week short of the record 286 weeks held by Pete Sampras. As of 28 May 2012, he is ranked World No. 3. Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles. He is one of seven male players to capture the career Grand Slam and one of three (with Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal) to do so on three different surfaces (clay, grass, and hard courts). He is the only male player in tennis history to have reached the title match of each Grand Slam tournament at least five times and also the final at each of the nine ATP Masters 1000 Tournaments. Many sports analysts, tennis critics, and former and current players consider Federer to be the greatest tennis player of all time.

Federer has appeared in an unprecedented 23 career Grand Slam tournament finals, including a men's record ten in a row, and appeared in 18 of 19 finals from the 2005 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open, the lone exception being the 2008 Australian Open. He holds the record of reaching the semifinals or better of 23 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments over five and a half years, from the 2004 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open. At the 2012 Australian Open, he reached a record 31st consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal. During the course of his run at the 2012 French Open in Roland Garros, Federer eclipsed Jimmy Connors long standing record of 233 match wins in Grand Slam tournaments when he defeated Adrian Ungur in a second round match.

Peter "Pete" Sampras (/ˈsæmprəs/; born August 12, 1971) is a retired Greek–American tennis player and former world number 1. During his 15-year tour career, he won 14 Grand Slam singles titles and became recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.

Sampras debuted on the professional tour in 1988 and played his last top-level tournament in 2002 when he won the US Open, defeating rival Andre Agassi in the final. He was the year-end world no. 1 for six consecutive years (1993–1998), a record for the open era. His seven Wimbledon singles championships are also an Open Era record. He spent 286 weeks at no. 1, the most of any male player. His five US Open singles titles is an Open Era record shared with former world no. 1 players Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer. Sampras is the last American male to win Wimbledon (2000) and the ATP World Tour Finals (1999).

Taylor Phillip Dent (born April 24, 1981) is a retired professional tennis player from the United States. He reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 21.

He won 4 ATP singles titles during his career: Newport (2002), Bangkok (2003), Memphis (2003), and Moscow (2003), and reached the finals of three other events on tour. His victory in Memphis is still often referred to as his most impressive victory, as he beat future World No. 1 Andy Roddick in the final.

Dent played with distinction at the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he made a push all the way to the semifinals, where he was defeated by eventual gold medalist Nicolás Massú of Chile. He went on to lose the bronze medal match 16-14 in the third set against Fernando González of Chile.

Dent, paired with Lisa Raymond, won the 2006 Hopman Cup, defeating the Netherlands two sets to one in the final.

In 2006 Dent did not play many competitive matches, due to a recurring back and groin problem. Dent had back surgery on March 19, 2007.

On May 26, 2008 Dent received a wild card and played at the Carson challenger in the United States. It was his first match since February 2006. He lost his first round match to Cecil Mamiit. In July 2008 Dent took a wild card into his first ATP tour event for two seasons at the Hall of Fame tennis tournament in Newport, Rhode Island. He lost in three sets to Canada's Frank Dancevic.