Why Mr Muscles is the Near-faultless Child of New Technology

A professor of concrete structures may seem an unlikely person to discuss tennis with, but Nick Buenfeld, of Imperial College, London, is also a keen player and so brings a technical mind as well as a sporting one to precisely why traditional grass-court play is declining.

Serve-and-volley, the long-time staple of the Wimbledon specialist, was employed only once by Rafael Nadal last Sunday and that was right at the end. New technology is at the bottom of it, obviously. What aspects of it, though? Buenfeld says there are several, including changes to the ball that were brought in to reduce the impact of the big serve.

But the two most significant things are the bigger racket head, made possible by the composite materials that replaced wood, and the latest generation of strings. The one produces a larger sweet spot and the other, says Buenfeld, 'a higher coefficient of friction', which means the racket face can grip the ball better.

The combined effect is that players now have far greater control of their service returns, which makes following in behind a serve a very risky option. Also, the racket's grip on the ball is particularly effective when applied to the lob - it can be lifted higher and, with the extra spin, brought down more steeply - which makes players wary of rushing the net during rallies.

Buenfeld says it has taken time for a player to emerge who comes close to maximizing what new technology has to offer, but he has now arrived in the muscular form of the 2008 Wimbledon men's champion. It is not a form, says Bluenfeld, that would have been much good before this technology, which has transformed the biomechanics of strokes.

Buenfeld disagrees that tennis has become less interesting as a result. He believes that the angles Nadal creates through his strength and control to manoeuvre opponents out of position, often pushing them well wide of the tramlines, has brought a fascinating new dimension to the game.