Perhaps the most misleading feature of any ATP match are the digital boards that report the speeds of serves. Often crowds ooh and ah at the high numbers, but never do you hear as much about an impressive return of serve (and certainly no one gasps over consistency.) But as detailed in the August issue of Tennis magazine by Jon Levey in an article headlined “Where Are the Big Guns?”, the return of serve has become a more critical shot in the men’s game than the serve itself.

Servers no longer dominate like they did ten years of so ago when Sampras, and other big bombers like Ivanisevic and Krajicek owned Wimbledon, and Philippoussis and Rafter reached the final at the U.S. Open. Consider that four of today’s top five — Nadal, Davydenko, Ferrer and Federer — are in the top five in serve return statistics. (No. 3 Djokovic is an excellent returner despite not being in the top five statistically.) In the top five in aces, however, only one top five player — Federer — is among the top five on that list. Ivo Karlovic, the tour leader in aces, is ranked 20.

Nowhere was the importance of the return more evident in this past weekend’s Indianapolis stop where Gilles Simon in the semifinals outlasted big-serving American Sam Querrey in three sets. Simon, a speedy and consistent player, even outaced Querry, and went on to the win the tournament. With the big man’s weapon neutralized, the returner, not the big gun, won the match. I expect we’ll see more of this as the hard court season moves on to Toronto this week where all of the ATP top ten players are in the draw.