Incidentally Laver had the wrist strength of a man far larger than him. He could flick shots with his left arm that an ordinary player would dream of. Perhaps Nadal is faster and may bench more but like I wrote before he may bench more than Djokovic and may be (maybe not) faster than Djokovic but that didn't mean much in 2011 didn't it?
I think it's quite possible that Laver, with his huge left arm and wrist could do many things that Nadal can't do. Laver's wrist was bigger than the World Heavyweight Champion in boxing.
Laver was stronger imo than Newcombe or perhaps even Pancho Gonzalez, at least with a tennis racquet but Newcombe or Gonzalez were probably far stronger men. There is a big difference there.
Here's some info on Laver's left arm.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/31/sports/tennis/31anderson.html?_r=0
But I doubt if it will allow you to open your mind to the possibility that Laver was pretty good. Incidentally if Laver hit grandpa type backhands I would guess your backhand is superior to Laver's. It's pretty easy to hit grandpa backhands.
Check out Laver's "Grandpa" backhands here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f60jJTbEps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43csIDKmkMk
Please understand that especially in the first video at the West Side Tennis Club that the courts were so bad that the balls often took bad bounces and sometimes didn't bounce at all. You had to often slice the backhand which keeps the ball low on your opponent's side and makes it harder to drive the ball. Federer often slices the ball with his backhand so by your logic Federer uses a Grandpa backhand. The thing is that slices are often very effective whether as a change of pace or often as approach shots. Nadal often slices on his backhand side also but his slices tends to float more than Laver's in my opinion. Laver's was more of a heavy slice drive when he hit it.
