After a SHOCKING straight-set loss to Roger Federer in the first round, Devin Britton was clearly still a little overwhelmed as he spoke to reporters. He couldn’t have been more earnest and charming, though. Asked if he was going to have bad dreams about the Federer forehand, he answered, “No, I’m going to have great dreams about it. It’s so pretty, you know. Any dream about that would be good.”
We asked him about his use of an anachronistic serve-and-volley game, and how he developed that while training with Nick Bolletieri, the influential tennis coach who told the Times last year, when asked if serve-and-volley might be coming back, “No, it’s not coming back. It’s a different game now.”
Britton said, “You know, he always supported my serve-and-volley game. He knew that’s what I’ve been working on ever since I came to the academy. He always supported me. We always worked on the serve and volley. He never tried to get me to stray away from that. He’s been a great support, and it was good.”
But he doesn’t think he’s starting a trend. Asked if there are other young players coming up serving and volleying, Britton smiled and said, “No, there’s not. I can’t think of anybody else.”
