Sir, The Wimbledon marathon tennis match highlights the damage done to the game by the modern service (“Like a pair of bare-knuckle battlers, Isner and Mahut fight to last”, Sport, June 24). There is no other ball sport in which the main object of putting the ball into play is, in fact, to prevent play from actually starting.
And as the public seem transfixed by aces and the speed of the service, why bother with an opponent at all? Just give the server a speed meter and a wall to aim at: fastest speed wins.
Michael Hayes
Stratford-upon-Avon