British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Var · Challenger qualifying

Weeks 26 & 27 - The Championships, Wimbledon (grass) - main draw (singles)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Var wrote:
Isnt Leyton Hewitt 5 ft 10? An inch taller than Arthur. He managed to win two slams, including Wimbledon plus a doubles title at the US Open. Beat Sampras at the US Open which took some doing!

Of course - there are some smaller players - that was my point - it's not impossible - but it's far less likely - look at all the others

And also rackets have changed - Lleyton Hewitt and Michael Chang are 25 years and nearly 30 years ago now

Var · Challenger qualifying

Coup Droit wrote:
Var wrote:
Isnt Leyton Hewitt 5 ft 10? An inch taller than Arthur. He managed to win two slams, including Wimbledon plus a doubles title at the US Open. Beat Sampras at the US Open which took some doing!
Of course - there are some smaller players - that was my point - it's not impossible - but it's far less likely - look at all the others
And also rackets have changed - Lleyton Hewitt and Michael Chang are 25 years and nearly 30 years ago now

I think that is a really important point about racquets CD. Thank you for raising the topic. I wonder if the racquets are somehow behind some of the vagaries in the sport at present. Provide more power but less impact protection. Did we have a more level playing field when racquets were a simpler construction allowing height not to be such an issue? I dont know I am no expert but along with changes in surface etc to prolong rallies you could argue the whole game needs looking at. A bit like the cars in F1.

-- Edited by Var on Saturday 11th of July 2026 08:02:41 AM

Helen40 · Grand Slam Champion

I wondered too about different/better training for taller players. I remember when Isner first surfaced that they were saying that he was too tall and it was hard for him to move around.
I don't know enough about rackets to understand their impact wrt size of player. I am also a fan of the variety of serve and volley, and don't see why it's been slowed down so much. It was fun when you had grass court specialists, now it's alot more magnolia across the board in that respect.

Neil Gee · County player

They are calling it the Arthur Fery effect at my local tennis club. 21 kids turned up for the under 8's training session that I took my Grandson to this morning. The previous record is 12.

Sheddie · administrator

Var wrote:
Isnt Leyton Hewitt 5 ft 10? An inch taller than Arthur. He managed to win two slams, including Wimbledon plus a doubles title at the US Open. Beat Sampras at the US Open which took some doing!

Having met him in person about 10 years ago, Hewitt definitely isn't actually as short as commentators made him out to be. He's about 5'11, similar height to Agassi.

Not as big as some of the giants of the game back then (Phillippousis was 6'5, Rusedski and Ivanisevic were 6'4), but he wasn't really a short guy, which probably explained why at his very best, his serve was very much an underrated weapon. He was able to get some decent pop on it, and placed it incredibly well.

christ · Challenger qualifying

Mr Evans is (/was?) only 5 ft 9 in, and it was mentioned pretty much every single time he played or was discussed.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Neil Gee wrote:
They are calling it the Arthur Fery effect at my local tennis club. 21 kids turned up for the under 8's training session that I took my Grandson to this morning. The previous record is 12.

That's wonderful to hear smile

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

christ wrote:
Mr Evans is (/was?) only 5 ft 9 in, and it was mentioned pretty much every single time he played or was discussed.

Yes

I'm sure he'd have liked a couple more inches

But you make the most of what you've got

And tennis is one of those excellent sports with good depth - if you make top 20, you do really well, it's not win or nothing

There's no one under 6-foot in the top-10 at the moment

But three out of ten are exactly 6-foot, which isn't tall, certainly not by tennis standards