Best 'slice' serve of open era?

[Tenny]

Let's try one more thing. Who do you think had/has the best slice serve of open era?

1. Performance of Slice serve itself (angle, curve, speed).
2. Effectiveness of its use for his/her game

For me, John McEnroe's slice serve to the Ad court comes to my mind. And... Dementieva's too cause it's the only serve she uses (Kidding...). What's your opinion?

 

[Datacipher]

Let's try one more thing. Who do you think had/has the best slice serve of open era?

1. Performance of Slice serve itself (angle, curve, speed).
2. Effectiveness of its use for his/her game

For me, John McEnroe's slice serve to the Ad court comes to my mind. And... Dementieva's too cause it's the only serve she uses (Kidding...). What's your opinion?

Mcenroe and Yannick Noah....no contest....

 

[Jet Rink]

Mac without any doubt.

 

[thejackal]

Right now Federer's is pretty darn good. Remeber Wimbledon 2004 finals vs Roddick where he held after trailing 0-40?

 

[AndrewD]

Im afraid I have to disagree guys.

Best slice serve to the deuce court in the Open era has to be Kevin Curren.

Best slice to the ad court would be McEnroe.

 

[Kobble]

The best is tough to say, but I would give Ivanisevic's a good rating.

 

[Datacipher]

Kobble and Andrew D, those are also good picks!

Curren's slice was great, it had a sweet skid. It didnt' have the speed of Noah's...but the diguise on his motion made it so lethal.

Ivanisevic still probably had the biggest 1st serve weapon in tennis history when he was in his prime.

 

[MARK ANDERS]

Mcendork and Wayne Arthurs

 

[daniel_rst]

The new Young Gun - Joachim Johansson - also hits a really nice slice to the duece court. I was marvelling at it because he can get it to bounce so far up the sideline due to his height. It's a great compliment to his powerful flat serve down the middle and more or less unreturnable when he hits it well.

It may not be the best of the open era, but it's certainly one of the best current ones.

 

[jpsigchi]

Not a big fan of womens tennis, but Steffi Graf had a pretty good slice backhand.

 

[Steve Huff]

McEnroes was good, but probably looked better than it was because he was an excellent volleyer. As for the serve itself, the 2 lefties I've seen that could really slice the ball were Ivanivanich and Rusedski. For a rightie, it may have been Curren, but he got most of his aces up the middle on the deuce side.

 

[Metzler]

Arthur Ashe. Watch the Wimbledon '75 final against Connors and see for yourselves - into the deuce court unreturnable for righty or lefty.

 

[swedechris]

slice serve

another kinda crafty slice was ol adriano panattas.. he certainly open up the court pretty wide in the deuce court. manuel orantes could do the same but in the ad court...

overall i would go for johnny mac though.

thick slices without topping ..

 

[Rabbit]

Gotto go with McEnroe.....

His slice out in the ad court was a thing of beauty. His volley technique did make it look better, but how much better could it be? He's still using it today, saw a charity event where he lost 6-4 to Roddick and hit a couple of those out wide for winners.

 

[laurie]

Hello. I would like to get a bit technical and extend this a bit further. Sampras and Becker had the best slices in recent times. I'm talking about serving down the centre in the advantage court. Both guys stand close to the centre line and swing the ball with slice down the centre with speeds ranging from 110 to 135mph. Thats great variation! Also, unlike conventional servers who stand further from the centre line, the serves down the middle of these guys angle into the returners forehand making it easier to return. They also use little spin. Like a good seam fast bowler in cricket, the serves of Sampras and Becker slide away from the returner after pitching making it harder to return.

Now the reason why this serve is more important than the slice on the deuce court; this is the court where break points are saved. Its technically and mentally more difficult of the two courts. This is one of the reasons Sampras was so good at saving break points at 30/40. He could swing it down the middle away from the returner. Its also why he's so good at 40/30 or advantage - again he could slide the ball away from the returner.

As for Goran speaking last year at Wimbledon, this is one of the things he meant when he said that guys are hitting the ball hard but the technical level has gone down a bit. Its the reason why Roddick's serve despite being so fast seems relatively easy to return against good players.

I hope you guys can form a mental image of what I'm explaining. Maybe someone can find an image somewhere over the internet. I'll try and have a look so you can see what I mean.

 

[Kaptain Karl]

laurie - "Nah...!"

Andrew is right with post #5. Mac - Ad Court; Curren - Duece Court. (Curren's slice had such wicked slide/skid to it, it seemed like a baseball pitcher's spitball ... shoulda been illegal.)

- KK

 

[drakulie]

Laurie, I am in complete agreement.Sampras and Becker have the best slice serves I have ever seen. As you said, especially on the Ad side where it is so important.

 

[laurie]

Drakulie, thank you. The advantage court is ultra important.

I'm trying to get videos over the web but its not easy to find.

 

[Datacipher]

Laurie, Sampras and Becker are masters of the serve, variety, diguise, power. It's also very astute to note how big a weapon the ad court slice down the middle can be. Sampras/Becker did it as well or better than any current player I can think of. Still, I wish you had seen Noah's. That particular serve is the reason I pick him over most of the other servers. I've never seen an ad court slice break as much with as much speed as Noah's. His toss was different than Becker/Sampras etc. So, it made that particular serve better for him.

 

[tandayu]

Mc Enroe, Sampras, Becker, Goran have great slice serve. I might add Arthur Ashe.

And there is a guy who only lives by one type of slice service: Victor Pecci, the FO finalist. He uses it as 1st & 2nd service.

 

[laurie]

Hi Datacipher, you have mentioned Noah's serve before. I wish I did see it. I've been watching tennis since the mid 1980s but he's one guy I've hardly seen at all. I have a few contacts in Italy. I'll see if I can get a DVD of one of his matches. Thanks.

 

[Serve-And-Volley]

I always thought that McEnroe had the best slice serve to the ad court. I also think that Sampras had a good slice serve. But I give the best to McEnroe, as I watch old clips I am amazed at how heavily sliced that serve was.

 

[joehight]

slice serve vs slice ground stroke

Shouldn't we separate the slice on ground strokes from slice on the serve to rate these things? Slice is quite different when used in the ground strokes from when it is used on the serve.

If we do that, I think Steffi's slice backhand has to rate way up there in the ground stroke category. It was deep and to the corner, set her up to use her great forehand winners, and the slice backhand often won her the point. Her slice backhand was so good that she never resorted to the backhand drive in a match, though she could hit one, and often did in practice sessions.