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Just watched Wawrinka against Roddick. Wawrinka served 3 times as many aces as Roddick. I remember many years ago when Roddick first came up on the radar screen, that he would serve tons of aces. 
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Roddick's always had days when he can't quite dominate on serve. He bludgeons his serve and some opponents have the knack of reading players who bludgeon more than place. I've always felt Federer serves better despite not being as quick because he is so consistent and places it better - once in its groove he becomes unplayable. Their most recent epic 5 set Wimbledon final highlighted this.
I only saw a handful of games of Wawrinka/Roddick but I suspect Wawrinka is a player that can read Roddick's serve - I'm guessing, though, as I saw so little of the game....maybe R just served bad.Stotty -
Roddick's Changes & Tennis has changed
I think there are a handful of reasons why Roddick's serve is less effective than it was when he reached number one in the world. .
1) When Roddick came up he was the only, regular tour player hitting serves at over 140 MPH. People weren't used to it. They didn't practice against it. Now, you see that kind of speed, if not routinely at least you see it. Also, people have learned how to play Roddick; happens when you're on the tour for a decade. Since Roddick doesn't come to the net much, you see guys simply blocking his serve deep.
2) The courts are getting far, far slower. BBC Did a video showing two Fed serves at Wimbledon, hit years apart. Both were 120 MPH when they started out, the more recent one was going 10 MPH slower after it bounced and nearly a foot higher. They're turning everything into clay court grinder tennis, sadly.
3) Roddick is not going for max speed very often any more. He's usually going for good speed, but a heavy ball that he can get in 70% of the time.
4) Lux strings and mid-sized racquets with large sweet spots are helping returners get more balls back.Comment
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The pht/vs hybrid is not very powerful.Comment
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