Greatest return of serve of all time

[The Dark Knight]

What do you think? Poll is on its way

[tricky]

Marcelo Rios rates mentioning as well. Perhaps, peak Hewitt (though in terms of blocking back serves.)

Until last year, I think Andy Murray was viewed as a slightly better returner than Djokovic.

[dangalak]

Djokovic is a very overrated returner.

I'd say it's Hewitt.

[Russeljones]

I'd say Murray has been for a while a better returner than Djokovic, still I went for Agassi.

[BorisBeckerFan]

Novak and Andy are master returners for sure but I find them to be rather passive compared to Agassi. They can get to more balls than Andre but they aren't doing as much with them.

[rofl_copter3]

Andre would give up some aces because he was willing to guess on serves, but he was so offensive when he got a racket on the ball, it was a full blown weapon as opposed to a way to get the point to neutral

[Vcore89]

Andre is the man! It is quite amusing how people thought Novak or Andy has that great of a return of serve. Obviously, people only accounted for their most recent exploits which couldn't be that many years back...

[slickerthansleek]

Hewitt pretty much ruined Serve & Volley, he should at least be included on the list.

[Feña14]

Agassi, then Murray for me.

[dangalak]

Andre has the most legendary ROS (up there with Connors) but I'd day Lleyton's is BETTER. as in, more useful.

[NDFM]

Agassi all the way for me, then perhaps djokovic

[The Bawss]

Peak Hewitt. Made Pete look like Pablo Andujar.

[AnotherTennisProdigy]

I just watched Agassi take a 140 mph serve from Roddick for a clean, down the line return winner. I doubt anybody on the tour can reproduce that return of serve.

[dangalak]

Originally Posted by AnotherTennisProdigy

I just watched Agassi take a 140 mph serve from Roddick for a clean, down the line return winner. I doubt anybody on the tour can reproduce that return of serve.

Federer pwned him that one time.

Djokovic could fluke one as well. Also, James Blake did that as well IIRC.

[Roddick85]

In the current era, i'd go for either Djokovic.
However, best of all time? Agassi all the way. Agassi had much better hands and quicker reflexes than anyone on the return, even compared to Djokovic. When you take into account the fact that Agassi was playing grand slam back when the US Open/Wimbledon surfaces were a lot faster than now, you definitely had to have great skills to pull off the kind of returns he came with. Don't get me wrong, Djokovic is in my opinion the better returner of the top 4 right now, but the slower surface definitely help neutralizing a fast serve.

It's funny because I was recently watching some older matches of the 90's, like the 92 Wimbledon final between Agassi and Ivanesevic. The surface was so much faster than what it is now, and I was really blown away by the quality of Agassi's return. Not only were the surfaces back then faster, but he faced a lot of big servers back in the day which makes his return that much more impressive in my eyes.

[cc0509]

This topic again?

Agassi.

[Alchemy-Z]

if you look at statistics for this year Rafa leads in 3 categories and has played 23 less matches than Joker.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/MatchFacts.aspx

He is high on break point conversion as well.

had he still been playing these past few months his numbers would be way higher than the competition.

I see you have Joker in the poll...yet he's not even beating rafa in return of serve stats having played more than him.

[5555]

"Agassi...said Novak Djokovic's elastic ability to both attack and defend off the return makes the second-ranked Serbian the best returner tennis has seen. When Lleyton Hewitt came along I remember thinking, 'How does Hewitt's return game compare?' Because Hewitt has so much lateral coverage and he puts so many balls back in play," Agassi said. "The same with Federer—he gets so many balls back in play. Well, if you can take the best of me, the best of Hewitt, and the best of Federer and then you stick it in one guy, that's Djokovic. Because the truth is Djokovic can stay right up on the baseline and hurt you with the return if he chooses to, or he can stand back and defend if he needs to. "See, Hewitt really didn't have the ability to hurt you off the first serve. He could hurt you occasionally off the second serve. I had the ability to always hurt you, but I got aced a lot because I took educated chances. Djokovic has the ability to do both and his pocket is bigger than mine and the ball above his shoulder—he handles that better than I did.""
http://www.tennis.com/players/2012/0...-launch/37309/


"McEnroe, speaking to a tennis academy in New York this week, declared Djokovic the best returner of serve the game had seen -- better than Agassi..." http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...-1226262260411

[dangalak]

Originally Posted by 5555

"Agassi...said Novak Djokovic's elastic ability to both attack and defend off the return makes the second-ranked Serbian the best returner tennis has seen. When Lleyton Hewitt came along I remember thinking, 'How does Hewitt's return game compare?' Because Hewitt has so much lateral coverage and he puts so many balls back in play," Agassi said. "The same with Federer—he gets so many balls back in play. Well, if you can take the best of me, the best of Hewitt, and the best of Federer and then you stick it in one guy, that's Djokovic. Because the truth is Djokovic can stay right up on the baseline and hurt you with the return if he chooses to, or he can stand back and defend if he needs to. "See, Hewitt really didn't have the ability to hurt you off the first serve. He could hurt you occasionally off the second serve. I had the ability to always hurt you, but I got aced a lot because I took educated chances. Djokovic has the ability to do both and his pocket is bigger than mine and the ball above his shoulder—he handles that better than I did.""
http://www.tennis.com/players/2012/0...-launch/37309/


"McEnroe, speaking to a tennis academy in New York this week, declared Djokovic the best returner of serve the game had seen -- better than Agassi..." http://www.theaustralian.com.au/spor...-1226262260411

And this is exactly why he is by far the most overrated returner in history, even eclipsing Agassi himself.

Also, it's called "appeal to authority fallacy". Google it.

McEnroe is what we call a "prisoner of the moment". The moron actually claimed that Nadal is a better netplayer than Federer.

And Agassi deepthroats modern tennis harder than a hooker from his home city.

Originally Posted by Roddick85

In the current era, i'd go for either Djokovic.
However, best of all time? Agassi all the way. Agassi had much better hands and quicker reflexes than anyone on the return, even compared to Djokovic. When you take into account the fact that Agassi was playing grand slam back when the US Open/Wimbledon surfaces were a lot faster than now, you definitely had to have great skills to pull off the kind of returns he came with. Don't get me wrong, Djokovic is in my opinion the better returner of the top 4 right now, but the slower surface definitely help neutralizing a fast serve.

It's funny because I was recently watching some older matches of the 90's, like the 92 Wimbledon final between Agassi and Ivanesevic. The surface was so much faster than what it is now, and I was really blown away by the quality of Agassi's return. Not only were the surfaces back then faster, but he faced a lot of big servers back in the day which makes his return that much more impressive in my eyes.

Murray is clearly, I mean CLEARLY better than Djokovic. It's not even a debate. The past couple of years, Murray has always had the better return stats even with his terrible forehand and his passive tennis. Djokovic is hyped up cuz he regularly wins slams as opposed to Murray, who only won his slam recently.

Originally Posted by Alchemy-Z

if you look at statistics for this year Rafa leads in 3 categories and has played 23 less matches than Joker.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/MatchFacts.aspx

He is high on break point conversion as well.

had he still been playing these past few months his numbers would be way higher than the competition.

I see you have Joker in the poll...yet he's not even beating rafa in return of serve stats having played more than him.

Playing more often doesn't improve your ret- HAHAHAHAHA why am I even arguing with you.

Anyone who has watched them both hit a return of 2nd serve should blatantly realize how much superior Djokovic is in terms of returning.

People bringing up return or serving stats and taking them at face value is basically the litmus test oof intelligence. It's like the Americans would make people say "lollapalooza" on radio during WW2 and shoot them if they said "roraparooza" since they were Japanese.

[RoddickAce]

Originally Posted by Alchemy-Z

if you look at statistics for this year Rafa leads in 3 categories and has played 23 less matches than Joker.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings/MatchFacts.aspx

He is high on break point conversion as well.

had he still been playing these past few months his numbers would be way higher than the competition.

I see you have Joker in the poll...yet he's not even beating rafa in return of serve stats having played more than him.

You do realize that those are percentages, and it is less impressive to hold a high % over less matches than it is over more matches right?

ie. Federer held serve 70% of the time in 1 match vs. Federer held serve 70% of the time over 5 matches. Which is more impressive?

Also, based on past history Nadal has performed much better in the first half of the year, up until after Wimbledon, than in the latter half. So that probably translates into return game %'s as well.