Fastest Male Tennis Player?

[Duzza]

Have they ever done tests on this? Like a 100m sprint? I would say that Ljubicic is very slow and Hewitt/Agassi are up at the fastest

[Grigollif1]

Two words :

J A M E S B L A KE



Rafael Nadal is pretty fast too but, his speed is different. James Blake is explosive speed getiing from point A to Point B. Where Nadal is good at recovering fast and endurance through out the match to counter punch.
In terms of sheer speed there is nobody close to the American...

[35ft6]

Wertheim said Rainier Schuettler is known to be pretty quick, too.

Agassi is really not that fast.

I would like to see Hewitt, Blake, Monfils, and Nadal race 40 yards. It would be very close.

[tennus]

Originally Posted by Duzza

Have they ever done tests on this? Like a 100m sprint? I would say that Ljubicic is very slow and Hewitt/Agassi are up at the fastest

100m sprint wouldn't reflect tennis court speed. 10/20m sprints, reaction speed, changes of direction etc would be interesting though.

[superman1]

Agassi? No, once upon a time he was. He's still good at getting drop shots, he's not as good at side-to-side motion.

Blake, Nadal, Coria, Federer, Hewitt. According to Blake, Monfils might be the fastest guy out there.

[nViATi]

Originally Posted by Duzza

Have they ever done tests on this? Like a 100m sprint? I would say that Ljubicic is very slow and Hewitt/Agassi are up at the fastest

Sprinting speed means nothing. You gotta see them on the court.

[drakulie]

Roddick is the fastest losing in the French, LOL.

[Duzza]

Originally Posted by nViATi

Sprinting speed means nothing. You gotta see them on the court.

Yer i didn't really mean 100m sprint but like from one court side to the other

BLAKE?? really?? i never noticed

[HyperHorse]

100m sprint should be good. they should do it @ every ATP event and have it on the highlights show.

[Mattle]

Originally Posted by HyperHorse

100m sprint should be good. they should do it @ every ATP event and have it on the highlights show.

Yea, and they could also have a "Who can eat the most icecream in five minutes" competition..:S

[Captain America]

There's a big difference between speed and quickness (ie, anticipation, first step to the ball, changing directions, etc). In tennis, speed is good but quickness is crucial. Federer may not be the fastest runner on the tour, but his quickness is huge advantage for him imo....

[Duzza]

ok and what do you define by quickness? Reaction to short balls? Or just fast footwork? it seems to be speed and quickness will result in the same thing

[Captain America]

Originally Posted by Duzza

ok and what do you define by quickness? Reaction to short balls? Or just fast footwork? it seems to be speed and quickness will result in the same thing

Good question, this is probably a pretty subjective thing. My point is that the ability to run fast is not as relevant to tennis as having fast reaction time, an explosive first step, and the ability to change direction forward/back and side/side in response to constantly changing stimuli (movement of the ball, position of opponent, etc).

Maybe its semantics, but rather than being fastest in a running race from Point A to Point B, I think it's a bigger advantage in tennis to be the quickest scrambler from Point A to B, then back to A, then up to C, then across to D, then diagonally up to E, diagonally back to F, etc.....

[LowProfile]

Federer has superior balance and this allows him to recover faster and move faster towards shots. This is where his speed comes from.

Blake is simply explosive and has a huge first step that propels him towards his target very quickly.

Nadal and Hewitt have that counterpuncher's speed that allows them to recover when way out of court position and the endurance maintain their speed during long matches.

Coria is a bit of a mix between Blake and Hewitt. He can run all day and very quickly too, but much of this comes from the explosiveness of his first step. His movement is even more tremendous on clay when you factor his incredible sliding skills.

Agassi moves foward as well as the best of them, but his sideways movement is relatively suspect (especially as he approaches 36). His style is to make the opponent move corner to corner, so this weakness doesn't really affect him as much as it would a counterpuncher.

Pat Rafter had incredibly quick feet, but he was never really on the run much because he was ALWAYS at the net.

[BaseLineBash]

My vote goes to Nadal on court. As for 100m or 200m, I say Blake.

[BaseLineBash]

Originally Posted by LowProfile

Agassi moves foward as well as the best of them, but his sideways movement is relatively suspect (especially as he approaches 36). His style is to make the opponent move corner to corner, so this weakness doesn't really affect him as much as it would a counterpuncher.

Just so you know, he turned 36 in April, so he now is approaching 37.

[TacoBellBorderBowl1946]

LLeyton Hewitt, then Coria

[travlerajm]

Back in the 80s, Rostagno issued a challenge to all other pros: he bet that he could beat anyone who dared face him in a 200m dash. That says something.

[travlerajm]

My vote goes to Monfils. Goldstein has inside info, and I gotta believe my Stanford boy.

[Kobble]

I think Nadal's footwork may be the best I have ever seen. Blake could be faster from point A to point B, but to cover everything in between, my vote goes to Nadal. Hewitt is also a rocket around the court. Very difficult to say for sure. No numbers to back anything up.