Yes it is true, mostly baseliners. Back in the day guys like John McEnroe thrived with a serve and volley game, due to supreme placements of the serve and an ability to deftly and softly volley scorching returns. Nobody did that better than McEnroe. However, towards the end of McEnroe's era players became bigger, stronger, and fitter and guys who did not have McEnroe's talent, that played the same way, got overpowered. The beginning of this modern era of tennis was signalled when, down 2-0 to McEnroe in the 1984 French open final, Ivan Lendl rallied to win the final 3 sets and shock McEnroe, mostly using his superior fitness and power to win that match. Then Boris Becker came on the scene and later Pete Sampras. Sampras was a serve and volley player, a little different than McEnroe because he had a overpowering serve (McEnroe relied on placement) and he hit power volleys especially with his backhand. Roger Federer is the only modern player who assimilates all of these talents. Most of the rest of these guys are big hitters who play from the baseline.
On the women's side its more of the same, power baseline tennis. I used to think Martina Navratilova had great talent and hit a tremendous forehand from the baseline, but she could volley when she needed to. Serena has a two handed backhand that is great but also plays mostly from the baseline.
In terms of pure tennis talent, McEnroe was the best player I saw in my lifetime. There is nobody in the sport who plays like he did. You can't really get away playing like that with the big gorillas on the tour now, unless you have immense talent like McEnroe did, or some size and power.
