{"id":18307,"date":"2026-09-02T16:44:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T15:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/serve-speed-season\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T16:44:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T15:44:38","slug":"serve-speed-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/serve-speed-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Serve speed is up four percent. Rally length is down nine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The balls changed in March. The tour has been arguing about it since. The data is less ambiguous than the arguing: serve speed is up four percent, rally length is down nine.<\/p>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-changed\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">What changed<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A lighter felt, which the manufacturer describes as a durability improvement and the players describe as a different sport.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"anps-statband wp-block-sportpulse-stat-band\"><div class=\"anps-sechead\"><p class=\"anps-sechead__kicker\">\/\/ The season in numbers<\/p><\/div><div class=\"anps-statband__grid anps-statband__grid--inline\" style=\"--anps-statband-cols:3\"><div class=\"anps-stat anps-stat--default\"><p class=\"anps-stat__value\">+4%<\/p><p class=\"anps-stat__label\">Average first-serve speed<\/p><\/div><div class=\"anps-stat anps-stat--default\"><p class=\"anps-stat__value\">\u22129%<\/p><p class=\"anps-stat__label\">Average rally length<\/p><\/div><div class=\"anps-stat anps-stat--default\"><p class=\"anps-stat__value\">+11%<\/p><p class=\"anps-stat__label\">Aces per match<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n<h2 id=\"who-benefits\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who benefits<\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tall servers, obviously. Less obviously, returners who stand deep \u2014 the ball arrives faster but sits up, and the players who have adjusted are winning return games at last year\u2019s rate.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"660\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/gym-1024x660.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18185\" srcset=\"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/gym-1024x660.webp 1024w, https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/gym-300x193.webp 300w, https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/gym-768x495.webp 768w, https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/gym-1536x990.webp 1536w, https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/gym.webp 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The tour\u2019s ball-testing rig, which measures bounce, not the argument.<\/figcaption><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The balls changed in March. The tour has been arguing about it since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_spx_person_id":0,"_spx_fixture_id":0,"_spx_pick_id":0,"_spx_eg_facts_label":"","_spx_eg_facts":"","_spx_figure_caption":"","_spx_news_feat":"","_spx_video_url":"","_spx_duration":"","_spx_views":"","_spx_presenter":"","_spx_media_state":"","_spx_start_at":"","_spx_media_status":"","_spx_episode":"","_spx_subject":"","_spx_subject_role":"","_spx_story_year":"","_spx_duration_seconds":0,"_spx_view_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[91,132,223],"spx_comp":[],"spx_fixture_ref":[],"spx_series":[],"spx_format":[],"spx_video_kind":[],"spx_show":[],"spx_sport":[],"spx_flag":[],"class_list":["post-18307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tennis","tag-analytics","tag-equipment","tag-serve"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18307"},{"taxonomy":"spx_comp","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_comp?post=18307"},{"taxonomy":"spx_fixture_ref","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_fixture_ref?post=18307"},{"taxonomy":"spx_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_series?post=18307"},{"taxonomy":"spx_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_format?post=18307"},{"taxonomy":"spx_video_kind","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_video_kind?post=18307"},{"taxonomy":"spx_show","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_show?post=18307"},{"taxonomy":"spx_sport","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_sport?post=18307"},{"taxonomy":"spx_flag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preview.sportpulse.anpsthemes.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spx_flag?post=18307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}