2nd best FH of all time. Period!

[Incognito]

these are some Rafa fhs. Personally I don't think these are his fastest. Earlier in his career he hit many over 100 mph..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvGIX0l4ylU

 

[The_Order]

You Nadalfanboys are truly ridiculous. It's like the only Fed you remember is the one that isn't on form or the Fed in his matches lost. It's really hilarious.

LOL show me some Fed FHs like the one Nadal hit against Verdasco and Kohlschreiber.

No, he doesn't shank heaps of them. He shanks a few and Nadal fanboys like you make a big deal out of it. Let's see Nadal not shank balls with Fed's racquet and his level of explosiveness.

Fed chooses to use that racquet so stiff **** for him. He went with a bigger frame and shanked quite a few with that as well.

And what do you have to back this up?

My eyeballs.

Is this a joke? Federer was injured in 2010 but even so the difference between Fed-Nadal in those years was less of strokes and more of movement.

Fed was injured in 2010? Oh yeah, umm the left one, sorry I forgot.

Again, on what basis?

Show me a vid where Fed smacks a FH like that when the ball is behind him. He doesn't have the strength to, it needs to sit in his hit zone for him to have that power.

Honestly, I don't know when Courier said what he did but so what? That's what commentators like him do.

Yeah so what, Courier has no idea and is a Nadal turd. You on the other hand, know better. We should all listen to you.

 

[The_Order]

In what way? A running FH is a running FH period.

No, if you ever play tennis, you would realise there's different ways to hit it and Nadal has more strings to his bow when it comes to the running FH.

That's because you haven't seen Fed at all.

Yeah, you're right, who is this "Fed" anyway?

HAHA look who's talking. What have you done? You're judging him at a time his form as a whole is bad. Serve, return FH, everything. How convenient. His FH is the one weapon he still has. If he mis-times the ball it is because he cannot put himself in position due to movement. It has nothing to do with his stroke mechanics. God, you're idiotic.

Oooh did I pinch one of the few nerves of yours? Movement is part of the FH mechanics.

 

[mandy01]

LOL show me some Fed FHs like the one Nadal hit against Verdasco and Kohlschreiber.

Why would Federer hit forehands like Nadal? His whole technique is different. Actually, no, Nadal copied Federer's straight-arm usage. :wink:

Fed chooses to use that racquet so stiff **** for him. He went with a bigger frame and shanked quite a few with that as well.

Federer's racquet compliments his high risk tennis and those who play that type of tennis are prone to shanking relatively more. Nadal of course would know nothing about it. The racquet Federer tried was at a time he was injured. Even so, his FH is the least of his worries right now.

My eyeballs.

So nothing.

Fed was injured in 2010? Oh yeah, umm the left one, sorry I forgot.

Yes he was.

Show me a vid where Fed smacks a FH like that when the ball is behind him. He doesn't have the strength to, it needs to sit in his hit zone for him to have that power.

Go youtube the Federer FH. There is literally an entire repertoire. Why do you want Federer to emulate Nadal? The guy's taken opposition to cleaners with his own technique.
TBH i didn't even bother watching that video. I've seen so many goodies from Roger, that these direct comparisons with one specific shot hit one particular point just can't bother me.

Yeah so what, Courier has no idea and is a Nadal turd. You on the other hand, know better. We should all listen to you.

A number of players have said Fed has the best fh in history including Laver. I'll go with them.

 

[mandy01]

No, if you ever play tennis, you would realise there's different ways to hit it and Nadal has more strings to his bow when it comes to the running FH.

Well, you clearly don't play, so you have no room to talk at all. Federer does what he does and it's made him dominant on more surfaces than just clay, for sure.

Yeah, you're right, who is this "Fed" anyway?

HUH?

Oooh did I pinch one of the few nerves of yours? Movement is part of the FH mechanics.

Goodness gracious this guy has no clue. :lol:

 

[abmk]

Fed ends it in one shot all right, just doesn't mean he will win it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo_PvJ1Mu44&feature=player_detailpage&t=131

oh, what an example ! a match where both players came out sh*t nervous and fed whiffed the final fh because of a bad bounce ? :lol:

 

[The_Order]

he has hit them at times, just that you haven't seen it .

Not as good as the ones Rafa can hit.

oh, its not like nadal's fh was that good on HC before 2008 or so. he was absent from mid-12 till early 13 as well.

if by holding up, you just mean keeping it in, then maybe. I and most would include hitting it *effectively* as part of consistency. just hitting it short and keeping in doesn't work.

peak to peak , the difference is consistency is not vast at all. fed's fh at its peak was ridiculously consistent

That's because he wasn't playing Nadal and Novak in major finals, instead he had guys like Roddick who can't defend for **** and old Agassi who moved like a snail.

Hewitt had very good defence, but can't transition from defence to offence like Nadal and Novak can, in fact not even close.

There was way less pressure on it.

it was, but I was speaking about overall .... not just wimbledon.

Well 2010 USO Nadal's was better and 2011 imo was about even.

The place I give to Roger is WTF. I already said Fed could take it on the rise better than Nadal.

LOL, both have equal top end speeds with the fh. that's reality. its only in your la la land , where its not true.

As I said to your tag team partner, show me one vid where Fed can smack a FH when it's behind him like the way Rafa did against Novak in AO12 5th set.

Fed needs it in his hitting zone to generate that sort of power. I think it's pretty obvious Nadal is the stronger of the 2 individuals and yes I know technique also plays a massive part in it not just the size of the muscles, but Nadal's got the technique as well.

not at fed's peak. nadal avoided fed's FH a lot in federer's peak. even on clay, fed's FH was devastating vs nadal in rome 06 and hamburg 07 as well ( after 1st set )

novak actually had a lot of trouble with fed's I/O and DTL FH ...

like I said, its not just about the errors, but about the effectiveness.

novak wasn't breaking down nadal's FH in 11, but it wasn't that effective as it could be and you know it. that's a -ve.

only hitting errors is not a -ve

Hitting errors is a negative WTF are you on about lol.

And didn't I already say 2011 was when it wasn't working great against Novak? LOL still having problems reading?

And while Fed was peak, Nadal wasn't. It's not like Nadal won only rallies by attacking Fed's BH. Young Nadal put more pressure on Fed's FH than anyone else on tour at the time.

You know the truth is Nadal and Novak put Fed's FH under pressure way more than Roddick, Hewitt, Agassi etc. ever did.

 

[The_Order]

Why would Federer hit forehands like Nadal? His whole technique is different. Actually, no, Nadal copied Federer's straight-arm usage. :wink:




Federer's racquet compliments his high risk tennis and those who play that type of tennis are prone to shanking relatively more. Nadal of course would know nothing about it. The racquet Federer tried was at a time he was injured. Even so, his FH is the least of his worries right now.



So nothing.


Yes he was.



Go youtube the Federer FH. There is literally an entire repertoire. Why do you want Federer to emulate Nadal? The guy's taken opposition to cleaners with his own technique.
TBH i didn't even bother watching that video. I've seen so many goodies from Roger, that these direct comparisons with one specific shot hit one particular point just can't bother me.


A number of players have said Fed has the best fh in history including Laver. I'll go with them.

Sorry, but I'm done arguing with you two girls over this.

Nadal has a better FH.

 

[TMF]

LOL....Nadal fans are comparing Nadal's forehand to a 32 years old Fed. They totally forgot how great Fed's forehand during his prime. His forehand was one of the main reason for setting so many records.

 

[MichaelNadal]

LOL....Nadal fans are comparing Nadal's forehand to a 32 years old Fed. They totally forgot how great Fed's forehand during his prime. His forehand was one of the main reason for setting so many records.

You guys love to pull this nonsense. WE ARE talking about prime Fed, not current Fed and still prefer Rafa's. DEAL WITH IT ffs already. Some of you Federer fans are so sensitive and can't stand it even if someone thinks another player does one thing slightly better. Nadal's fh just has more to it, I find Fed's too plain in comparison. That said, he has hit some unbelievable winners with it and it's certainly in the top 2 with Rafa.

 

[abmk]

Not as good as the ones Rafa can hit.

never said as good as rafa's. Just that he has hit those shots when required and it is part of his arsenal.

That's because he wasn't playing Nadal and Novak in major finals, instead he had guys like Roddick who can't defend for **** and old Agassi who moved like a snail.

Hewitt had very good defence, but can't transition from defence to offence like Nadal and Novak can, in fact not even close.

There was way less pressure on it.

he played rafa 5 times in majors from 2004-07, he didn't play anyone more at majors in that time period...and overall 14 times in that time-period.

he was also playing nalbandian, davydenko who can transition very well from defence to offense.

hewitt didn't have as much defense to offense as rafa/novak of course, but he was still pretty good at that.

federer also dealt very well with big hitting like roddick on many occasions, safin, soderling etc, something that rafa is quite significantly behind at.

Well 2010 USO Nadal's was better and 2011 imo was about even.

The place I give to Roger is WTF. I already said Fed could take it on the rise better than Nadal.

like I've said, AO 10 , fed's was clearly better, AO 11, fed's a bit better ... only AO 12 , nadal's was clearly better.

how was USO 11 about even ? both were about even till they played djokovic. fed clearly caused more damage to djokovic with his fh.

what about places like cincy, dubai, rotterdam, other indoor events like paris ?

what about wimbledon 12 ?

As I said to your tag team partner, show me one vid where Fed can smack a FH when it's behind him like the way Rafa did against Novak in AO12 5th set.

Fed needs it in his hitting zone to generate that sort of power. I think it's pretty obvious Nadal is the stronger of the 2 individuals and yes I know technique also plays a massive part in it not just the size of the muscles, but Nadal's got the technique as well.

my point was about top end speeds with the fh. Both of them can and have hit 105-110 mph forehands.

what does only hitting it when way behind him have to do with it ? :roll:

Hitting errors is a negative WTF are you on about lol.

And didn't I already say 2011 was when it wasn't working great against Novak? LOL still having problems reading?

I said hitting errors is not the only -ve ... not able to hit it effectively, with depth, not able to go DTL that much also are -ves.

And while Fed was peak, Nadal wasn't. It's not like Nadal won only rallies by attacking Fed's BH. Young Nadal put more pressure on Fed's FH than anyone else on tour at the time.

You know the truth is Nadal and Novak put Fed's FH under pressure way more than Roddick, Hewitt, Agassi etc. ever did.

truth is they avoided fed's fh at its peak as much as they could ( rafa even more so ) . fed never had problems going to either of their wings, never avoided any wing ... its only when fed's movement to the right declined by quite a bit, they had success going to the fh wing.

 

[abmk]

Sorry, but I'm done arguing with you two girls over this.

wow, what a new way of insult :roll:

Nadal has a better FH.

looking at some of your stuff like nadal's fh at its peak is vastly more consistent etc .....

 

[MichaelNadal]

I'd like to see the people on this thread tell some of the players, including Djokovic that say Nadal has the best FH why they're wrong and how they know better :lol:

 

[abmk]

You guys love to pull this nonsense. WE ARE talking about prime Fed, not current Fed and still prefer Rafa's. DEAL WITH IT ffs already. Some of you Federer fans are so sensitive and can't stand it even if someone thinks another player does one thing slightly better. Nadal's fh just has more to it, I find Fed's too plain in comparison. That said, he has hit some unbelievable winners with it and it's certainly in the top 2 with Rafa.

LOL, wut ? no one here is claiming federer has better defense than rafa or federer has a better serve than sampras or karlovic or better BH than agassi or anything like that.

calling fed's FH plain, even relatively is total cr*p. Maybe when rafa crashes down to earth sometime soon, you'll realize it.

fed's fh was the most complete and devastating fh at its peak .

one thing to *prefer* rafa's because its more consistent, another to say BS like it is more complete or has more variety.

 

[abmk]

I'd like to see the people on this thread tell some of the players, including Djokovic that say Nadal has the best FH why they're wrong and how they know better :lol:

you do realise majority of the players pick/picked fed's fh over rafa's ? why don't you go and tell them ?

 

[droliver]

1. federer
2. Sampras
3. Nadal

Sampras does not belong in any discussion of GOAT forehand.

 

[MichaelNadal]

you do realise majority of the players pick/picked fed's fh over rafa's ? why don't you go and tell them ?

Because I can see why someone thinks his is the best. It's the second best ever for me so it's not a point id try to argue. That's the difference between someone objective with an opinion, and a troll. To some of you the notion of Nadal's fh being as good or better than Federer's is insane. That's where we differ, I'm not blinded with hate in every post.

 

[abmk]

Because I can see why someone thinks his is the best. It's the second best ever for me so it's not a point id try to argue. That's the difference between someone objective with an opinion, and a troll. To some of you the notion of Nadal's fh being as good or better than Federer's is insane. That's where we differ, I'm not blinded with hate in every post.

read post #165, the post above which you responded to.

 

[MichaelNadal]

read post #165, the post above which you responded to.

What about it?

 

[abmk]

What about it?

isn't that post self-explanatory ?

 

[TMF]

You guys love to pull this nonsense. WE ARE talking about prime Fed, not current Fed and still prefer Rafa's. DEAL WITH IT ffs already. Some of you Federer fans are so sensitive and can't stand it even if someone thinks another player does one thing slightly better. Nadal's fh just has more to it, I find Fed's too plain in comparison. That said, he has hit some unbelievable winners with it and it's certainly in the top 2 with Rafa.

Nadal's fh is great, but let's be serious. Roger has beaten many players with his lethal fh, and no player have ever dominate a player with a single shot(one might argue Karlovic's 1st serve). If Fed had Nadal's fh he wouldn't be as accomplished as he is now. See Davy for example, Fed's fh gave all sort of problem for Davy but Nadal's fh wasn't a problem, especially on fast surfaces.

 

[MichaelNadal]

isn't that post self-explanatory ?

I should clarify then. I think Roger's FH motion, though smooth, is plain. It's not an insult, I just like the fact that Rafa's is unique. Dimitrov's motion is almost identical to Federer's for example. I wasn't saying the actual shot or points with it are plain. If I was, I wouldn't think he had the second best FH ever. Rafa's is more exciting to me, he can hit it harder, the passes are sick, it's consistent and he paints lines. That's that.

 

[MichaelNadal]

Nadal's fh is great, but let's be serious. Roger has beaten many players with his lethal fh, and no player have ever dominate a player with a single shot(one might argue Karlovic's 1st serve). If Fed had Nadal's fh he wouldn't be as accomplished as he is now. See Davy for example, Fed's fh gave all sort of problem for Davy but Nadal's fh wasn't a problem, especially on fast surfaces.

If Rafa had Federer's FH he might be less successful as well so it's a moot point. Rafa dominated everyone with his FH as well, it certainly wasn't his serve or backhand so you're on about nothing. Federer's backhand is better than Rafa's prime for prime and his game is more well rounded. Therefore his game is less dependent on his FH.

 

[albatros_forehand]

Nadal has the best forehand in tennis. Fed's is just fancier..

 

[MichaelNadal]

Nadal has the best forehand in tennis. Fed's is just fancier..

Ya know? Amen.

 

[zagor]

At his peak I'd say Fed's FH was better overall (there was just so many ways he could hurt you from that side) but longevity wise IMO Nadal has a considerable edge, in some ways his FH is better than it has ever been right now while I feel Fed's lost some bite already in 2007 compared to 2003-2006 period.

 

[BorisBeckerFan]

Forehands in order.
1 Fed
2 Rafa
3 Pete

 

[President]

At his peak I'd say Fed's FH was better overall (there was just so many ways he could hurt you from that side) but longevity wise IMO Nadal has a considerable edge, in some ways his FH is better than it has ever been right now while I feel Fed's lost some bite already in 2007 compared to 2003-2006 period.

Totally agree with this, Nadal's forehand has been phenomenal since 2005. Federer's lost a huge amount after 2008 and as you said was already declining in 2007. It's a shame, but Roger improved his serve to compensate which still allowed him to be an unbelievable player.

 

[granddog29]

I would concur with some of the recent posts. At abo****e peak maybe Federer has the best forehand ever. Although even then Nadals at his peak is much better on clay, and maybe better on grass considering how he owned peak Federer from the baseline in their 2006 and 2007 Wimbledon matches. However factoring in longevity and consistency over a much longer time period Nadal easily has the best forehand of all time.

 

[dominikk1985]

People can "copy" nadal and federer just the same. Nobody in San Diego is hitting forehands anywhere near federer's level. To get as much spin as he does with such a conservative grip...THAT is revolutionary. Getting insane spin with an extreme grip, whoop de do, thats the point.

90% of the tour uses a grip as extreme or more as nadal.

both FHs of fed and nadal are a total new quality from everything what has been before.

 

[abmk]

If Rafa had Federer's FH he might be less successful as well so it's a moot point. Rafa dominated everyone with his FH as well, it certainly wasn't his serve or backhand so you're on about nothing. Federer's backhand is better than Rafa's prime for prime and his game is more well rounded. Therefore his game is less dependent on his FH.

disagree, in this era of slowed down, higher bouncing surfaces, nadal's BH is better than federer's.

in the 90s or before, it'd have been a different story.

 

[abmk]

I should clarify then. I think Roger's FH motion, though smooth, is plain. It's not an insult, I just like the fact that Rafa's is unique. Dimitrov's motion is almost identical to Federer's for example. I wasn't saying the actual shot or points with it are plain. If I was, I wouldn't think he had the second best FH ever. Rafa's is more exciting to me, he can hit it harder, the passes are sick, it's consistent and he paints lines. That's that.

this is just attempting to side-track. talk was never about how the fh looks . talk was about what the players could do with it. That is versatility/completeness. in that aspect, fed's fh is better .

and no, rafa's fh motion is not unique. ever heard of a certain thomas muster ?

If we're talking about looks, I find rafa's fh ugly many times and fed's fh very smooth and most easy on the eye, but that's my opinion. That doesn't have that much to do with what they can do with their forehands though

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

90% of the tour uses a grip as extreme or more as nadal.

both FHs of fed and nadal are a total new quality from everything what has been before.

While I'll agree with the latter statement, I seriously doubt that your 1st statement is true. Rafa's FH grip is a very extreme SW grip (nearly a full Western grip). While a very high % of clay court specialists might use a grip as extreme or more as Nadal, I believe that the de facto standard for current pro players is a more moderate (conservative) SW grip than the one that Nadal employs.

 

[MTF07]

I would concur with some of the recent posts. At abo****e peak maybe Federer has the best forehand ever. Although even then Nadals at his peak is much better on clay, and maybe better on grass considering how he owned peak Federer from the baseline in their 2006 and 2007 Wimbledon matches. However factoring in longevity and consistency over a much longer time period Nadal easily has the best forehand of all time.

Is that a joke? Federer bageled Nadal in 06 and led 5-1 in the 4th set. He crushed Nadal in 06 and people overstate Nadal out-playing Federer in 2007. In the 5th set, Federer clearly outplayed Nadal from the baseline.

 

[abmk]

Is that a joke? Federer bageled Nadal in 06 and led 5-1 in the 4th set. He crushed Nadal in 06 and people overstate Nadal out-playing Federer in 2007. In the 5th set, Federer clearly outplayed Nadal from the baseline.

its hilarious. nadal's fh actually coughed up error after error in the wimby 06 final because of fed's slice. it was his BH which was the clearly better wing in that match, not his fh

as far as wimbledon 07 is concerned, federer got quite a few more free points on his serve, hence majority of the rallies were on nadal's serve and he had the upper hand in those rallies

in wimbledon 08, federer returned considerably worse, hence the rallies seemed more 'even' ...

 

[THE FIGHTER]

If Rafa had Federer's FH he might be less successful as well so it's a moot point. Rafa dominated everyone with his FH as well, it certainly wasn't his serve or backhand so you're on about nothing. Federer's backhand is better than Rafa's prime for prime and his game is more well rounded. Therefore his game is less dependent on his FH.

what about rafa's incredible defense, movement, consistency and mental toughness? i think those aspects are just as important if not more so than his forehand.

 

[piece]

The most clean forehand winners I remember Federer hitting in a match was 25 against Roddick at the 2006 USO.

Fed had 28 fh winners as per Moose in Rome 2006 final

http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=383354

He also had 28 forehand winners when he beat Hanescu 6-2 6-3 6-2 at the AO in 2010. If he did that in 3 sets on a slow hardcourt you'd think he'd have hit more either in longer matches or in matches on faster courts (or both).

Here's my source for Fed's winner count

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=apprQ4Ob39lA

 

[BrooklynNY]

Looking like it is better at this point

Many people have went on record saying Nadal's forehand is better than Federer's.... including Richard Gasquet

 

[Magnetite]

I'm a fed fan, but it's pretty close between prime Fed and Nadal. I think it's practically even in all honesty, although Fed may have a slight advantage because his forehand is more adaptable (it's good both on fast and slow surfaces).