In singles it was a different story, despite reaching a career high of world number eight, his lack of mobility and shot making was regularly exposed by the top players of the era.
Nearly 40 years on and things changed, six of the current top-15 Men’s singles players are 198cm (6’6 ) or more. Before 2007 there was only one player inside the top 50 who was taller than 198cm, former French Open semi-finalist Marc Rosset.
That’s a dramatic shift in the physical profile of the top players in men’s tennis, so what’s changed?
Brad Stine was the man that guided a precocious Jim Courier to world number one in the 1990’s. He now coaches Kevin Anderson, one of the 200cm plus club on the men’s tour.
“As the financial aspects of tennis continue to grow, bigger athletes are more likely to be drawn to tennis. Stine said. “You get better and better athletes getting involved with tennis, athletes who may have participated in other sports previously are playing tennis more than they did say ten years ago”
Assisting the growing army of tall players is the area of sports science and the understanding of how to better prepare taller athletes for the professional tennis circuit.
“There’s no doubt, knowledge about the physical impact of professional tennis on the bigger athlete’s has improved out of sight," Stine said. “With Kevin, I tailor his fitness program to minimise attrition on his body more than I would for a smaller player.
"When you are on the extreme end of height, he’s 6 foot 8, you tend to have more issues physically than players in the more normal height range. We work on more specific aspects of strength and conditioning so he is able to maintain a better base and stronger balanced positions as a taller athlete”
“As far as tactics are concerned, I am big on Kevin pushing into court off his big serve and finishing more points earlier at net."
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This approach is supported by the most recent state of the game data produced by the ITF (International Tennis Federation) on Davis Cup and Grand Slam competition.
Players above 1.98 metres (6 foot 6) served at least one ace for every 10 serves. Men who are 1.82m (6 foot) and under-recorded just one ace for every 20 serves. When the tallest 25 per cent of players serve, 57 per cent of their rallies are four or fewer shots. This figure is 10 per cent greater than for the shortest 25 per cent.
Anderson, 32, is playing in this weeks Kooyong classic as preparation for next week’s Australian Open. As a two-time Grand Slam finalist at the US Open and Wimbledon, the South African has struggled with a string of injuries in the past few years.
He says given his size getting the best out of his game has been a constant learning curve, "definitely it’s a factor being taller and heavier I have to manage things make smart decisions scheduling wise and travel it all fits into the picture, I feel like I have learned better to manage the process."
Stine, who works a lot on Anderson's movement on court said “I think for a guy his size Kevin moves exceptionally well as does Marin Cilic, also.
"As you get closer to tournaments you tend to focus more on your strengths which in Kevin’s case is a huge serve and getting into net and when you have time in training blocks you work more on areas you need to improve in such as movement and defensive skills."
Marin Cilic shares the record with fellow U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro of being the tallest-ever Grand Slam winners at 1.98cm (6’ 6) Cilic is also playing at the Kooyong Classic this week and says his focus has always been on movement.
“I always worked on that, exercises focussing on strength agility and endurance so I could feel flexible on court, my biggest improvement has come from understanding the process of how to get better and that has come with experience," he said.
But it’s not all doom and gloom for the shorter tennis player. Asked if a former French Open champion Michael Chang 1.75m (5’9) was playing in 2019? Stine said talent finds a way to be successful.
"We still have outliers, Michael at his size was considered an outlier to some degree, look at Diego Schwartzman for example who’s the same height if not shorter than Michael.
"Diego got to 11th in the world last year, he’s an outlier, statistically he was the best returner for most of last year so he’s finding a way to counter what the big guys are doing."
For the record, Schwartzman is five centimetres shorter than Chang at a pint-sized 1.7m. This makes the Argentinian an anomaly in men’s professional tennis, he’s a modern day David looking slay an increasing host of Goliath’s in the professional game.
