Why do people praise Federer for his variety if he never hits flat?

FatHead250

FatHead250

Professional
Federer's gameplan - forehand forehand forehand topspin topspin topspin to one corner to antoher, get to the net finish the point. Occasionally, when leading 4-1 30-0 he hits a dropshot from the baseline. Best ever forehand and serve technique, but that doesn't mean variety. Outstanding athelte, but that doesnt mean variety. Raw forehand power, but that doesn't mean variety

Murray has way more variety than Federer - fact. Stupid forehand, serve and slice technique, yet has an equal head to head with Fed. What does that mean?

Coming from a Roger fan
 
Zebrev

Zebrev

Hall of Fame
If Federer wants to win in 2021 hes going to have to change this - fact.

Coming from a Roger fan.
 
Bobby Jr

Bobby Jr

G.O.A.T.
But of the big 4 Federer is the only one who does regularly hit flat when he needs to.

Murray has more variety than Federer... :-D

BTW, Federer is 14-11 vs Murray, including winning their last 5 matches. You have to go back 7 and a half years to get to a Murray win over Federer.
FatHead250 said:
Federer's gameplan - forehand forehand forehand topspin topspin topspin to one corner to antoher, get to the net finish the point. Occasionally, when leading 4-1 30-0 he hits a dropshot from the baseline. Best ever forehand and serve technique, but that doesn't mean variety. Outstanding athelte, but that doesnt mean variety. Raw forehand power, but that doesn't mean variety

Murray has way more variety than Federer - fact. Stupid forehand, serve and slice technique, yet has an equal head to head with Fed. What does that mean?

Coming from a Roger fan
Click to expand...
 
B

blablavla

G.O.A.T.
FatHead250 said:
Federer's gameplan - forehand forehand forehand topspin topspin topspin to one corner to antoher, get to the net finish the point. Occasionally, when leading 4-1 30-0 he hits a dropshot from the baseline. Best ever forehand and serve technique, but that doesn't mean variety. Outstanding athelte, but that doesnt mean variety. Raw forehand power, but that doesn't mean variety

Murray has way more variety than Federer - fact. Stupid forehand, serve and slice technique, yet has an equal head to head with Fed. What does that mean?

Coming from a Roger fan
Click to expand...

if by "flat" you mean a shot with close to zero RPM, then please enlighten us with which pro player hits "flat"
 
K-H

K-H

Hall of Fame
Bobby Jr said:
But of the big 4 Federer is the only one who does regularly hit flat when he needs to.

Murray has more variety than Federer... :-D

BTW, Federer is 14-11 vs Murray, including winning their last 5 matches. You have to go back 7 and a half years to get to a Murray win over Federer.
Click to expand...
Tbf Andy Murray has a lot of variety in his game. One of the reasons he's so successful whilst not have a huge groundstrokes.
Whether its slice, drop shot, flat or topspin stroke, he can pretty much do it all effectively and does so. And its not like he cant volley either, when he goes to the net, he's got an effective volley, which you can see in his doubles success.
 
beard

beard

Legend
Against Novak at Wimbledon it's mostly slice, slice, slice, slice, run, run, run... It doesn't work...
 
Lleytonstation

Lleytonstation

Talk Tennis Guru
FatHead250 said:
Please find me a video where Federer hits a flat forehand.
Click to expand...
As @blablavla mentioned, he might not hit pure flat shots, but if you look pre 2010 he "flattens" (which is what I said) pretty often. Of course there is still spin.

I would say flattening the ball out is variety. Even if you say he does not hit "flat" I don't see how this shows lack of variety? He has about the most shots in his Arsenal and uses them all.
 
beard

beard

Legend
MeatTornado said:
His gameplan wasn't the reason he lost. That plan of attack got him to match point last time, and he didn't lose those 40-15 or 40-30 points by slicing.
Click to expand...
His plan, what ever it was, worked. But, mainly because of Novak's melancholic play. Off course Fed played good but nothing spectacular. Luckily Novak played well when it mattered.

My sentence that you quoted was more about Fed style of play against Novak... It's full of slicing. It's reasonable tactics, but slice is far of aggressive play Fed fans are proud of... Fed regularly run more than Novak in their matches too...
 
MeatTornado

MeatTornado

Talk Tennis Guru
beard said:
His plan, what ever it was, worked. But, mainly because of Novak's melancholic play. Off course Fed played good but nothing spectacular. Luckily Novak played well when it mattered.

My sentence that you quoted was more about Fed style of play against Novak... It's full of slicing. It's reasonable tactics, but slice is far of aggressive play Fed fans are proud of... Fed regularly run more than Novak in their matches too...
Click to expand...
It's a credit to Novak's defensive skills. Roger knows he can't really hit through him, even on a grass court. So all he can do is slice a lot to make sure Novak doesn't get into a comfortable rhythm where he's just redirecting his opponents shots to whatever corner he wants.
 
Drob

Drob

Hall of Fame
FatHead250 said:
Federer's gameplan - forehand forehand forehand topspin topspin topspin to one corner to antoher, get to the net finish the point. Occasionally, when leading 4-1 30-0 he hits a dropshot from the baseline. Best ever forehand and serve technique, but that doesn't mean variety. Outstanding athelte, but that doesnt mean variety. Raw forehand power, but that doesn't mean variety

Murray has way more variety than Federer - fact. Stupid forehand, serve and slice technique, yet has an equal head to head with Fed. What does that mean?

Coming from a Roger fan
Click to expand...

Federer's flat BH winners won him the 2017 AO final. Surely he used the shot to great effect on a few other occasions.
 
mbm0912

mbm0912

Hall of Fame
770636.jpg
 
Mike Sams

Mike Sams

G.O.A.T.
beard said:
His plan, what ever it was, worked. But, mainly because of Novak's melancholic play. Off course Fed played good but nothing spectacular. Luckily Novak played well when it mattered.

My sentence that you quoted was more about Fed style of play against Novak... It's full of slicing. It's reasonable tactics, but slice is far of aggressive play Fed fans are proud of... Fed regularly run more than Novak in their matches too...
Click to expand...
Agreed. Djokovic can move players around the court because of his incredible ground skills and variety. Unless it's against Stan in a best of 5. Then Djokovic just does dropshot...dropshot...dropshot... :-D
 
Mike Sams

Mike Sams

G.O.A.T.
beard said:
Against Novak at Wimbledon it's mostly slice, slice, slice, slice, run, run, run... It doesn't work...
Click to expand...
Slice works but Federer overly relies on it. And many times his slice sits up in the service box and puts him back in a heavily defensive position instead of neutralizing the point. But then again, Federer doesn't have the power BH of Stan and Thiem. So he relies more on the slice.
 
FatHead250

FatHead250

Professional
Lleytonstation said:
As @blablavla mentioned, he might not hit pure flat shots, but if you look pre 2010 he "flattens" (which is what I said) pretty often. Of course there is still spin.

I would say flattening the ball out is variety. Even if you say he does not hit "flat" I don't see how this shows lack of variety? He has about the most shots in his Arsenal and uses them all.
Click to expand...
You can't flatten out the ball for it to still have spin on it. I don't understand you. Murray hits plenty of completely flat backhands - 0 rpm.
BeatlesFan said:
Stop being so modest. Obviously this is coming from a genius! Your analysis is so multi-faceted and brilliant, we weep with gratitude having read it.
tenor.gif
Click to expand...
Doctors of sciences have told me im very smart numerous times
 
HazBeen18

HazBeen18

Rookie
Every time Fed hits a running squash shot... every time Fed picks up a shoelace forehand half-volley... every time he does a punch volley into the open court and every time he slaps at a wide forehand serve return. In other words.. he's hit many, many, flat forehand shots in his career. His typical baseline forehand has tons of action on it. So what? It should have plenty of action on it. This forum thread has made me stupider.
 
FatHead250

FatHead250

Professional
6august said:
Who hits flatter: Federer or Djokovic?

This question will reaveal your tennis knowledge.

:alien:
Click to expand...
Djokovic, obviously.
Firepandas said:
Don't worry guys, it is just another dumb take from @FatHead250. I don't think the dude has watched or played tennis ever.
Click to expand...
The fact that you put "watch" along with "play" tells a lot how little you must know about tennis, since watching it doesn't tell you anything about how the sport is played really
 
D

Deleted member 768841

Guest
FatHead250 said:
Federer's gameplan - forehand forehand forehand topspin topspin topspin to one corner to antoher, get to the net finish the point. Occasionally, when leading 4-1 30-0 he hits a dropshot from the baseline. Best ever forehand and serve technique, but that doesn't mean variety. Outstanding athelte, but that doesnt mean variety. Raw forehand power, but that doesn't mean variety

Murray has way more variety than Federer - fact. Stupid forehand, serve and slice technique, yet has an equal head to head with Fed. What does that mean?

Coming from a Roger fan
Click to expand...
Federer’s forehand, like most, has some topspin. Hitting Sampras style full eastern or even continental grip styles can’t work in a game where your opponent uses topspin. If he didn’t use topspin, he would not have imo won those first 12 slams. He was able to capitalize on opponents using eastern grips and very little rotations.
 
Bender

Bender

G.O.A.T.
MeatTornado said:
In all seriousness, he truly should have. That awkward run-around forehand was one of the worst decisions he could have made in that spot.
Click to expand...
Dunno what @travlerajm thinks but I still think the decision to run around the backhand was fine. The execution wasn't great, but his main mistake was to come into the net behind that I/I forehand.

He could've gone I/O if he wanted to reduce the amount of running he has to do though, and maybe hope for a short ball off the backhand to hit an approach off of.
Bender said:
for RPM Rough mains and RPM Blast crosses at 55 lbs, mainly beca
Click to expand...
Tennis sprew said:
Federer’s forehand, like most, has some topspin. Hitting Sampras style full eastern or even continental grip styles can’t work in a game where your opponent uses topspin. If he didn’t use topspin, he would not have imo won those first 12 slams. He was able to capitalize on opponents using eastern grips and very little rotations.
Click to expand...

Look at these charts. Federer hits more than "some topspin" on both wings.
IMG_2153-768x778.jpg

IMG_2154.jpg

Source: https://www.ubitennis.net/2020/02/topspin-rate-2019-stats-tell-us/
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Standaa
Why do the pros seem to hit rather flat?
Replies
38
Views
2K
Wurm
Wurm
2
If Federer had not abandoned his pre 2003 backhand...........
2
Replies
60
Views
4K
West Coast Ace
West Coast Ace
Q
Why Federer Lost Wimbledon (he can fix this)
Replies
14
Views
2K
qwanta
Q
B
Replacement for Pure Aero VS
Replies
39
Views
3K
Moveforwardalways
Moveforwardalways
W
Duel Match Stats/Reports - Murray vs Federer, Canadian Open & Shanghai finals, 2010
Replies
5
Views
837
Mainad
Mainad
Top