Players you loved to watch.

[Tshooter]

@Mustard "Tim Mayotte"

A nice guy. But he was among the most boring players I've ever watched and I've watched them all since Rosewall. Seriously this guy makes Jim Grabb seem exciting.

Former: Nastase

Current: Monfils

Thumbs up on the poster listing Krishnan.

[Nathaniel_Near]

Originally Posted by Limpinhitter

The Rocket - Unmatched intensity. Never seen anything like him before or since.

Federer - The most graceful, efficient, at ease, game I've ever seen.

Agassi - The way he punished balls from on top of, or inside, the baseline was unprecedented.

Rosewall - An aesthetically beautiful and deceptive game. Probably the most consistent execution ever, other than Borg.

Borg - The speed, athleticism, power and consistency were superhuman.

Connors - The ultimate tennis warrior. Amazing depth, power and consistency from the ground.

McEnroe - At his peak, it seemed like he could beat anyone with his left hand while eating a ham sandwitch with his right hand.

Hello. Could you tell us more about Rod's unmatched intensity? I'd like to hear about how it manifested itself and what sets him apart from all the other greatly intense players in the history of tennis such as Connors, Nadal, and the like.

[Paul Murphy]

Originally Posted by BTURNER

The artists: McEnroe, Leconte, Goolagong, Santoro, Federer,Mecir
The clinicians: Evert, Connors, Lendl, Wilander, Hingis
The athletes: Navatilova, Graf, Becker, Serena, sampras, edberg.

Elegantly put.

[Paul Murphy]

Of the women - Navratilova by far.
Aggressive, interesting game, lovely contrast to most on the tour.
She made women's tennis very interesting - her S/V versus baseliner battles with Evert were redolent of the Lendl/McEnroe match-up.

[egn]

Edberg is what made me fall in love with tennis. Today I love to watch Tsonga.

[BTURNER]

Originally Posted by Paul Murphy

Of the women - Navratilova by far.
Aggressive, interesting game, lovely contrast to most on the tour.
She made women's tennis very interesting - her S/V versus baseliner battles with Evert were redolent of the Lendl/McEnroe match-up.

No other player induced me to ask, "How did she ever get her racket on that and get the ball control to get it back?" nearly as often. She did Becker dives at the net, when Becker was studying his multiplication tables and kept on doing them after he retired. She had no right to steal those points from Evert. Bionic women do not belong in the main draw.

[Cesc Fabregas]

Originally Posted by Mustard

Players I love to watch:

Thomas Muster
Rafael Nadal
Goran Ivanisevic
Pancho Gonzales
Rod Laver
Jimmy Connors
Guillermo Vilas
Bjorn Borg
Roscoe Tanner
Vitas Gerulaitis
Tim Mayotte
Mats Wilander
Aaron Krickstein
Henri Leconte
Boris Becker
Jim Courier
Monica Seles
Jennifer Capriati
Aranxta Sanchez Vicario
Mary Pierce
Fabrice Santoro
Alberto Berasategui
Sergi Bruguera
Andrei Medvedev
Albert Costa
Yevgeny Kafelnikov
Petr Korda
Marcelo Rios
Gustavo Kuerten
Magnus Norman
Marat Safin
Alexander Popp
Juan Carlos Ferrero
David Nalbandian
Guillermo Coria
Kim Clijsters
Gilles Muller

Missed off Lleyton Hewitt.

[Xavier G]

Connors, McEnroe, Borg, Nastase, Rosewall, Federer.
Among the women, Navratilova, Evert, BJK, Goolagong, Mandlikova, Clijsters, Mauresmo, Sharapova.

[Mustard]

Originally Posted by Cesc Fabregas

Missed off Lleyton Hewitt.

Oops. So I did. I've edited my post

[Limpinhitter]

Originally Posted by Nathaniel_Near

Hello. Could you tell us more about Rod's unmatched intensity? I'd like to hear about how it manifested itself and what sets him apart from all the other greatly intense players in the history of tennis such as Connors, Nadal, and the like.

I guess one way to describe intensity is a combination of effort, talent and skill. Laver played with the highest level of effort, talent and skill that I've ever seen. He just played harder, and had more weapons, and more talent than anyone else. He ran faster, jumped higher, hit harder, never compromized, never temporized, and never gave less than 100%, ever. It was written that when watching Rod Laver play, it was easy to forget that he was human. And, that's a fact.

In tennis, the closest I've seen to the intensity that Laver played at were by Cliff Richey, Jimmy Connors, Thomas Muster, Llayton Hewitt and maybe Rafael Nadal.

I've written many times that I would compare Laver's intensity to that of Walter Payton and Michael Jordan. If you have ever seen them play live, you know what I'm talking about.

[Cesare]

Adriano Panatta at his best (year 1976)

[Iron Man]

Federer , Agassi , Becker , Mcenroe , Edberg , Borg

the first 3 are my favourite ones

[Nathaniel_Near]

Originally Posted by Limpinhitter

I guess one way to describe intensity is a combination of effort, talent and skill. Laver played with the highest level of effort, talent and skill that I've ever seen. He just played harder, and had more weapons, and more talent than anyone else. He ran faster, jumped higher, hit harder, never compromized, never temporized, and never gave less than 100%, ever. It was written that when watching Rod Laver play, it was easy to forget that he was human. And, that's a fact.

In tennis, the closest I've seen to the intensity that Laver played at were by Cliff Richey, Jimmy Connors, Thomas Muster, Llayton Hewitt and maybe Rafael Nadal.

I've written many times that I would compare Laver's intensity to that of Walter Payton and Michael Jordan. If you have ever seen them play live, you know what I'm talking about.

Of course. Thank you very much for the elaboration. In the footage I have seen of Laver, he does seem almost desperate to win the point and play with 100% effort, with how his limbs sprawl around the court, and it was matched with an unbelievable amount of talent and skill. By comparison, you won't catch Federer doing much with his body that could result in some sort of injury, such as a Boris Becker dive. In fact, he does often give off the vibe that he's churning along at 95% instead of 100%

[hoodjem]

Edberg and Mecir.

[JLyon]

Loved to watch Guga play he was just fun to watch.
Sampras and Edberg with their S&V game
Lendl and Graf with their ball bashing
Jim Courier with his baseball swing BH and huge FH
Finally loved Thomas Muster and his all out assault on the ball

[Limpinhitter]

Originally Posted by Nathaniel_Near

Of course. Thank you very much for the elaboration. In the footage I have seen of Laver, he does seem almost desperate to win the point and play with 100% effort, with how his limbs sprawl around the court, and it was matched with an unbelievable amount of talent and skill. By comparison, you won't catch Federer doing much with his body that could result in some sort of injury, such as a Boris Becker dive. In fact, he does often give off the vibe that he's churning along at 95% instead of 100%

Federer is the master of efficiency. He has the best, most efficient, footwork technique and movement I've ever seen. But, he doesn't have the flat out speed, acrobatics or explosiveness that Laver had. He is very similar to Nastase in that respect.

[Fuji]

I absolutely adored watching Safin growing up. The guy was such a monster when he won his first slam in 2000. It's one of the reasons I really got into tennis. Same goes for Sampras in the late 90's and early 2000's.

-Fuji

[Limpinhitter]

Originally Posted by Fuji

I absolutely adored watching Safin growing up. The guy was such a monster when he won his first slam in 2000. It's one of the reasons I really got into tennis. Same goes for Sampras in the late 90's and early 2000's.

-Fuji

Safin was a monster. Imagine if Safin had Borg's focus and competitiveness. 20 majors?

[Mustard]

Originally Posted by Limpinhitter

Safin was a monster. Imagine if Safin had Borg's focus and competitiveness. 20 majors?

Injuries slowed Safin down after 2005.

[Fuji]

Originally Posted by Limpinhitter

Safin was a monster. Imagine if Safin had Borg's focus and competitiveness. 20 majors?

Honestly if Safin did have the focus and competitiveness of Borg, I think we'd still be talking about him and Federer in the Head to Head for GOAT. I think they're rivalry would have been much like Nadal. As stated though after 2005 the injuries really piled up.

I think they should make a Fed-Safin hybrid. It would be unstoppable!

-Fuji