The name jumped out from the draw sheet for the Irish Open Championships which take place at Templeogue LTC this week: Roscoe Tanner. Remember him. Colossal serve, so big it had its own zip code.

Won the 1977 Australian Open, beating Guillermo Villas in the final, and two years later lost to Bjorn Borg in the Wimbledon singles final. Took the 'iceman' to the wire before being run down 6-4 in the fifth. Tanner may be 50 in a couple of months but he's in town, ostensibly to coach his protΘgΘ Simon Dawson who competes in the Irish Open.

The American from Lookout Mountain, Chatanooga, Tennessee was prevailed upon to lend his name to the draw. He played in the Seniors event at Wimbledon during the summer, the first time that he had played in a wrinklies tournament for a while.

"About December or January past, I thought it would be nice to get back in shape and so I started working out in Nick's (Bollitieri) and training myself. I got to the stage where I felt really good about playing tennis again."

He smiles when he considers how he might fare this week (he lost yesterday). It's not quite a case of it doesn't matter but he's more concerned with Dawson's progress, a 20 year old whom he considers to have "unlimited potential." Still Tanner's presence should tantalise a curious public.

In 1977 at Mission Hills, Palm Springs, Tanner, a left hander with a whip action delivery, had a serve clocked at 153 miles per hour. He was playing Raul Ramirez in the final. The Guinness Book of Records credits Britain's Greg Rusedski with the fastest ever serve recorded, 149mph at Indian Wells.

Tanner explains: "It was in the American Airlines tournament. At that point the ATP wasn't putting radar guns regularly at courtside. This (reading) was organised by a tennis magazine. In order for Guinness to put it in their book you have to do it for Guinness. Maybe I should have but I didn't see the point in going out and serving balls for Guinness, they didn't pay me.

"I remember the beginning section of that match. I won the first 16 points, to lead 4-0, playing perfect tennis, before he managed to win a point. Ramirez always gave me fits so it was very pleasing. He used to beat me quite a bit."

So how does he view the advancement in technological terms of the playing equipment? "The old balls used to be faster, a little bit lighter and faster. I had a metal racquet. The old technology, purely from a serving perspective, was better than the present day stuff. The metal graphite combination allied to the small head permitted the racquet to travel faster through the air. These racquets today are definitely more powerful for ground strokes.

"I have gotten out some old racquets and can hit it harder than I could with a new one. I can still hit it at about 70-75 per cent. I used to serve regularly in the 140's but now it would be somewhere near 120 or 115." The man who developed Tanner's distinctive serving action was Gerry Evert, an uncle of women's tennis icon, Chris.

Evert adopted a simple method. He would take a young Tanner to the woods and get him to hit leaves off trees. "He would then ask me to toss the ball in the air where the leaf used to be so I would have an imaginary target. The principle of serving is tossing it in the right place and knowing where it is."

During his career Tanner won 11 singles titles and three doubles with a singles record of 448-214. An elbow injury brought the curtain down in 1994. His highlights were the Australian Open success, the Wimbledon final, winning the Davis Cup with the USA and playing doubles with Arthur Ashe for five years.

He has stayed involved in tennis in various guises, his latest goal an ambition to set up an academy in Europe. No site has been confirmed nor the players who would attend on a year round basis. He is looking at one or two Irish youngsters.

His inspiration to take up the game and the best player he ever competed against was the Australian legend, Rod Laver. "He could play you from the baseline or he could play you from the net. It didn't matter to him. Whatever was necessary to beat you that day. McEnroe has to serve and volley, Borg is really going to beat you from the baseline. Those two may be the best at what they did, but Laver could do both."

He believes that men's tennis has greater depth than the women's game. "The women do a great job promoting personalities. Sure Anna Kournikova is good looking but she's not unbelievable looking. If you go to model status, she's just a good looking girl. She hasn't won an event and yet she's making more money than anyone else; she's probably their biggest draw."

He dismissed the suggestion that the men's game is less colourful, lacking charisma. "Sitting around a table the guys are pretty funny, they're good company. When they're on court they are all business. People sometimes like to watch men compete at games and this is business. They are all nice guys and that's a problem.

"I am a great believer that in sports, not matter which one, if you don't care who wins, it's boring. You have to be pulling for someone to win or someone to lose."

What changes would he make to the sport? "Lighter not heavier balls that demand more control to keep them in place and raising the height of the net. When tennis started the average guy was about five foot 10 iches. They're now six foot four. That'd be positive."