Best S & V players in the game today?
- Thread starter Benjamin
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Kevin Patrick
Hall of Fame
Hell,
Dent, Mirnyi, & Henman are the ONLY s&v players in the game.
Dent, Mirnyi, & Henman are the ONLY s&v players in the game.
chad shaver
Semi-Pro
Rabbit said:
Very true. He's more like SERVE.....oh yeah, volley.
Would love to have his serve, though.
Kevin Patrick
Hall of Fame
Shaolin,
Forgot about Escude, I've always thought it strange when players with 2-handed backhands Serve&Volley.
Don't consider Fish a S&V, more of an allcourter who mixes it up.
Llodra? have only seen him play doubles, I'll take your word on him. What's he ranked in singles?
Personally, I think it will be quite a few years before a S&V player emerges to have the success of Rafter.
Forgot about Escude, I've always thought it strange when players with 2-handed backhands Serve&Volley.
Don't consider Fish a S&V, more of an allcourter who mixes it up.
Llodra? have only seen him play doubles, I'll take your word on him. What's he ranked in singles?
Personally, I think it will be quite a few years before a S&V player emerges to have the success of Rafter.
Shaolin
G.O.A.T.
Yeah one handers arent too common anymore but a 2 hander can s&v just as well as a one. I play s&v and have a 2 so I like players like Escude and Fish.
I thnk the days of guys rushing the net behind any random shot are over, nowadays you have to have a seriously good approach. Just a slice wont work out too well against a big hitter off the ground. I think s&v on first serves, and staying back waiting for the short ball on 2nd is the way of the future, with occasionally banging a big 2nd serve to come in on.
I thnk the days of guys rushing the net behind any random shot are over, nowadays you have to have a seriously good approach. Just a slice wont work out too well against a big hitter off the ground. I think s&v on first serves, and staying back waiting for the short ball on 2nd is the way of the future, with occasionally banging a big 2nd serve to come in on.
polakosaur
Rookie
fed isn't a serve and volley like edberg or dent or sampras, he doesn't live by it, but if he did s&v he would be pretty good at it
Kevin Patrick
Hall of Fame
Shaolin,
I agree with your points. In fact, I think pure serve & volleying(like Rafter) could prevent one from becoming an elite player nowadays. I don't Federer will ever change in that direction(like Sampras did in '99), and will continue to rack up slams in the future.
But it would be nice to see some 'old school' serve & volleyers contend for slams. Think Escude has a chance tonight?
I agree with your points. In fact, I think pure serve & volleying(like Rafter) could prevent one from becoming an elite player nowadays. I don't Federer will ever change in that direction(like Sampras did in '99), and will continue to rack up slams in the future.
But it would be nice to see some 'old school' serve & volleyers contend for slams. Think Escude has a chance tonight?
llorda
Llodra has always been around 80-100ish but I think he could be a lot better. His mother died last year I think so he did not play much singles for a long stretch of time. He's still young-ish so is still someone to keep an eye on.
There's another French guy named Gregory Carraz, late bloomer who plays a lot of serve-volley, 1 handed backhand classic strokes, nice player to watch now ranked about 60's I've seen a few times.
Another guy in the top 100 who does a lot of serve volley is Stepanek who has a 2 hander.
Escude is not pure serve and volley and I think the times when he mixes it up he is the most dangerous. If he mixes it up tonight I think he can win but a lot of it is whether or not he is truly healthy again.
Llodra has always been around 80-100ish but I think he could be a lot better. His mother died last year I think so he did not play much singles for a long stretch of time. He's still young-ish so is still someone to keep an eye on.
There's another French guy named Gregory Carraz, late bloomer who plays a lot of serve-volley, 1 handed backhand classic strokes, nice player to watch now ranked about 60's I've seen a few times.
Another guy in the top 100 who does a lot of serve volley is Stepanek who has a 2 hander.
Escude is not pure serve and volley and I think the times when he mixes it up he is the most dangerous. If he mixes it up tonight I think he can win but a lot of it is whether or not he is truly healthy again.
Kevin Patrick
Hall of Fame
Thanks for your post guernica. I'll keep an eye out for Llodra. I think I saw Carraz play Rusedski at the US Open last year. It seems like French players always have flair in their game.
alienhamster
Hall of Fame
Carraz is fun to watch, and I believe Wesley Moodie (from South Africa) is another up-and-comer to check out. He's primarily s & v, as far as I can tell. Saw him for a bit at Cincy last year, and he seemed to have a pretty solid game.
check out the dent interview on the pac life open website. evidently rod Dick didn't even mention dent as a serve and volley player "i'll give you a hundred dollars for every one you can name" was the quote. a reporter mentioned this to dent, who said "i can't believe he said that. that's very surprising"
boris becker 1
Semi-Pro
1 federer
2. henman
3. escude(when Healthy)
2. henman
3. escude(when Healthy)
S&V-not_dead_yet
Talk Tennis Guru
Dustin Brown [when he's on].
WarrenMP
Professional
I agree.
Rafa.the.Magnificent
G.O.A.T.
Me three.
Nadal. We've debated that before. He has the best winning percentage at the net.
skaj
Legend
And the person who debated that lost in that debate.
Does Murray have the ugliest game ever among ATGs?
This is how Bodo sized up an ATG in Courts of Babylon, speaking of Lendl: Ultimately, Lendl would win eight Grand Slam titles, one more than his lifelong tormentor, John McEnroe, and the same number as his other major rival, Jimmy Connors. He would contest nineteen Grand Slam finals, appearing...
tt.tennis-warehouse.com
skaj
Legend
Yes, we covered that in the other thread. The link is above.
S&V-not_dead_yet
Talk Tennis Guru
I like Townsend's game because of its variety.
Nope.And the person who debated that lost in that debate.
Does Murray have the ugliest game ever among ATGs?
This is how Bodo sized up an ATG in Courts of Babylon, speaking of Lendl: Ultimately, Lendl would win eight Grand Slam titles, one more than his lifelong tormentor, John McEnroe, and the same number as his other major rival, Jimmy Connors. He would contest nineteen Grand Slam finals, appearing...
skaj
Legend
Petchey, McEnroe, me and all Nadal fans plus some Fed fans except you.Does anyone think that but yourself?
S&V-not_dead_yet
Talk Tennis Guru
Nadal has great hands which is overlooked by his monster ground game.
% can be deceiving: if I only come to the net if I'm almost positive I'll win the point, I will have a very high % even though the total points won are relatively small. OTOH, someone like Sampras/Rafter/Henman/Edberg will have a much lower % because they come to the net under much broader circumstances [much less likely to win the point].
With these court conditions you can never be Sampras or Becker or Edberg or McEnroe. The OP asked about S&V in this era. It's clearly Nadal. He does not do traditional serve/volley but he's clearly capable as you can see from the video. Instead, he has a modified S&V - set up shot, pause, is that good?, move in and volley. He can do that with his foot speed. Others can't. So, he has the best net % and best volleyer of this generation.
skaj
Legend
Petchey, McEnroe, me and all Nadal fans plus some Fed fans except you.
That was a rhetorical question, not to mention that you can't except someone from somewhere they were not in the first place.
By the way, Nadal has already explained Petchey the obvious - why he was wrong. It's all in the thread above anyway. And as for Nadal's fans, it's self-explanatory.
skaj
Legend
Oh it gets worse, now it's "clearly Nadal". Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...
p.s. For the other readers, who didn't see it, the "set up shot, pause, is that good?, move in and volley" rubbish has been covered in another thread already, link you can find in the post #30.
skaj
Legend
Don't bother, the obvious has been explained to the poster already but they refuse to accept it.
socallefty
G.O.A.T.
Go watch doubles and you will see the only S/Vrs who are left in the game today.
S&V-not_dead_yet
Talk Tennis Guru
And that's only on the Men's side; pretty rare in Women's. And it's even becoming less rare to stay back in Men's.
S&V-not_dead_yet
Talk Tennis Guru
As I wrote before, I am not disputing his %, only how looking at that in isolation can be deceiving.
One of the major aspects of S&V is that one approaches the net before one knows how good the serve [approach] is; there's a certain amount of risk. What you're describing as Nadal's "modified S&V" is certainly effective; it's just not S&V in the spirit of what it used to be, IMO.
S&V-not_dead_yet
Talk Tennis Guru
Ever notice that Brown sometimes keeps a ball in his pocket when receiving?
It's called being modest.
Post is public. That's how he volleys mostly. Just because you don't like it, it does not stop being true.
Daniel Andrade
Hall of Fame
Nadal is clearly a good volleyer in the right conditions however he's nowhere near close to be the best in S&V. For reference there are many many players in the doubles section who do it better than him.
sredna42
Hall of Fame
Aabye5
G.O.A.T.
You can't dispute Rafa's winning percentage at the net. But he's not a serve-and-volleyer. It's that simple. A good volleyer does not a serve-and-volleyer make, and he's not often coming to the net after the serve.
Had he managed to sustain his 2010 level on serve, I think coming to the net would have been another tool in his tool chest. He has great instincts, an excellent overhead, and it would have helped him as he lost some footspeed to throw in a few surprises. Alas, that serve never stuck for a few a reasons, and he never embraced his inner s&v.
Had he managed to sustain his 2010 level on serve, I think coming to the net would have been another tool in his tool chest. He has great instincts, an excellent overhead, and it would have helped him as he lost some footspeed to throw in a few surprises. Alas, that serve never stuck for a few a reasons, and he never embraced his inner s&v.
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