Does federer do any 1 thing better than anyone?

[Steve0904]

I would say he has the best FH even today. He has the best BH slice by a mile. Arguably the best footwork. I would put Nadal close on this score. He's also the best at returning huge serves. Djokovic is the best returner I've ever seen, but Federer is better at returning huge serves.

 

[jokinla]

He wins grand slams better than any 1.

 

[akv89]

Federer easily has the best forehand and as others mentioned, his movement during his prime was also the best.
What made him so dominant during his prime was that he held the most potent 1-2 punch in the game with his Serve+Forehand.

 

[purple-n-gold]

Win?

17majors

yep..







18s a coming

 

[db10s]

Slice backhand..........

 

[NadalAgassi]

Best man purses.

Indeed. Nobody challenges him in that category.

 

[NadalAgassi]

Federer easily has the best forehand and as others mentioned, his movement during his prime was also the best.

Federer was never a better mover than Nadal, especialy when both were in their prime.

 

[NadalDramaQueen]

Federer was never a better mover than Nadal, especialy when both were in their prime.

Federer was always a better mover than Nadal, especially when both were in their prime, as long as we speak of movement across all surfaces. Nadal is a better mover on clay, but not on hard courts and especially not on grass.

How is Nadal's movement right now? I hear he can walk the course with the best of them.

 

[Talker]

Fed handles pain very well, has never pulled out of a match IIRC.
Very much like Michael Jordan who played with bad knees for years.

Fed is tough as there is and no one is very close today.
Maybe Muster from the nineties is in the same league.

Djokovic pulled out of a match with a sore throat. Jesus. :shock:
Nadal is out with just sore knees, any little niggle he gets is big news, just no heart here.
Both of these are laughers for sure.

 

[underground]

Federer was always a better mover than Nadal, especially when both were in their prime, as long as we speak of movement across all surfaces. Nadal is a better mover on clay, but not on hard courts and especially not on grass.

How is Nadal's movement right now? I hear he can walk the course with the best of them.

Footwork hasn't really been great from Nadal. This is what I got from his recent private practise.

 

[TennisLovaLova]

Federer was never a better mover than Nadal, especialy when both were in their prime.

Typical fed hater post...
Dude you must be blind or something

 

[PeteD]

his interviews

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E4QdBhilgs

 

[Carsomyr]

Where did you get that idea? Don't put words into my mouth. The more likely scenario is you secretly think it's bad, and your response reflects that.

You never stop mentioning how much you hate Federer, and how gay you think he is. It's not hard to put two and two together to figure out that you're a homophobe.

 

[NadalAgassi]

Typical fed hater post...
Dude you must be blind or something

LOL more like a typical Planet TW lovesick jerk off to Federer posters 24/7 forum post to think that Nadal is not a better mover than Federer in his prime. NOWHERE but Planet General Tennis Player dicussion TW, the biggest collection of idiots on planet Earth, does anyone think Federer was a better mover than Nadal. John McEnroe, Bud Collins, Jimmy Connors, Patrick McEnroe, Cliff Drysdale have NEVER said prime Federer was a better mover than Nadal, in fact called Nadal the best mover many times over, and in fact generally regarded Hewitt and several others as better in that area too. I wouldnt have to be a Nadal fan to see the obvious, I just wouldnt have to be the total idiot blinded with Federer love and worship virtually all of you are.

It is funny how Federer fanatics seem to think he does everything better than Nadal despite that he loses 70% of their matches, and think he does everything better from the baseline on grass (forehand, backhand, movement), yet even in his prime in 2007 he lost about 80% of the baseline rallies in that Wimbledon final he barely won thanks to serving Nadal off the court.

 

[Steve0904]

I have to agree with NadalAgassi here. I'm a Federer fan, but you'd have to be nuts to say Federer is a better mover than Nadal. Everybody must've forgotten how fast Nadal is with him being out 6 months. Prime Nadal is much faster than prime Federer. He gets to a lot more shots, therefore he is a better mover is he not? It's also debateable who has better footwork because Nadal is perhaps the best at turning BH's into FH's especially off his serve.

 

[Prisoner of Birth]

I have to agree with NadalAgassi here. I'm a Federer fan, but you'd have to be nuts to say Federer is a better mover than Nadal. Everybody must've forgotten how fast Nadal is with him being out 6 months. Prime Nadal is much faster than prime Federer. He gets to a lot more shots, therefore he is a better mover is he not? It's also debateable who has better footwork because Nadal is perhaps the best at turning BH's into FH's especially off his serve.

Nadal's the better mover but Federer's got the better footwork. Federer in his prime was astonishingly good at turning backhands into forehands. Now he's often off-balance for a split second after the conversion and takes a touch longer to recover. I think that's the most noticeable decline in Federer.

 

[MurrayMyInspiration]

I have to agree with NadalAgassi here. I'm a Federer fan, but you'd have to be nuts to say Federer is a better mover than Nadal. Everybody must've forgotten how fast Nadal is with him being out 6 months. Prime Nadal is much faster than prime Federer. He gets to a lot more shots, therefore he is a better mover is he not? It's also debateable who has better footwork because Nadal is perhaps the best at turning BH's into FH's especially off his serve.

This people!! This. Federer sure federer looks graceful in movement but if you gave them both agility drills, sprints, etc Nadal would beat federer for speed.

 

[firepanda]

I have to agree with NadalAgassi here. I'm a Federer fan, but you'd have to be nuts to say Federer is a better mover than Nadal. Everybody must've forgotten how fast Nadal is with him being out 6 months. Prime Nadal is much faster than prime Federer. He gets to a lot more shots, therefore he is a better mover is he not? It's also debateable who has better footwork because Nadal is perhaps the best at turning BH's into FH's especially off his serve.

Agreed.

Federer's forehand is very very good, but it's not the most accurate shot on tour and can fall apart at times. I guess you can't have everything, but I wouldn't call it the best for that reason. Alternatively, one could attribute inconsistency to bad footwork, in which case Federer's forehand is indeed the best.

He has very good court-sense, much like Hingis. He knows exactly the right shot to play and how to play it. Related to this, he has a fantastic drop shot. It's probably possible to nominate someone who's better at these things than him, but off the top of my head, these are his standout qualities.

 

[Prisoner of Birth]

Agreed.

Federer's forehand is very very good, but it's not the most accurate shot on tour and can fall apart at times. I guess you can't have everything, but I wouldn't call it the best for that reason. Alternatively, one could attribute inconsistency to bad footwork, in which case Federer's forehand is indeed the best.

He has very good court-sense, much like Hingis. He knows exactly the right shot to play and how to play it. Related to this, he has a fantastic drop shot. It's probably possible to nominate someone who's better at these things than him, but off the top of my head, these are his standout qualities.

The Federer forehand of 2006 is the greatest shot in Tennis history, better even than the Sampras serve. It's less explosive, less consistent, less accurate, and less pacey now.

 

[Sid_Vicious]

I agree with some of the points posters have raised in the last few posts. It seems like on this forum, Nadal is the one who does not get the credit he deserves. Even when talking about footspeed, people claim that Federer is equal or superior to Nadal. A lot of times, the support for such statements is a youtube video with a badly distorted aspect ratio of Federer playing 8 years back. Those videos make Federer seem like an olympic sprinter. When you look at proper videos (ones in which Federer does not look short and fat), it is easy to see that Federer was not as fast as people claim he was (He was definitely faster though)

 

[absurdo]

federer forehand is the best i have ever seen. no doubt in my mind. his forehand nowadays is less of a weapon but still top 2.

about footwork... man, nadal is faster, i think, but also puts more effort into the running business. most of the times federer quits. different aproach. nadal thinks short term, federer thinks long term. this makes nadal footwork/speed more obvious to the observer.

but federer has, BY FAR, the best footwork, meaning that he is more efficient, more effortless and overall better at playing a shot from a good standing point. his balance is uncanny and the guy can adjust better than anyone else to anything. look at novak's movement on grass. look at nadal's movement on hardcourt (doing what he does on clay...). nadal and novak are so often unbalanced, almost falling (and sometimes actually falling)
, playing from some strange and body-wrecking position. kudos for them for the effort, but i just dont see it as good movement, only athleticism.

plus, its hard to put a guy like nadal next to a guy like federer, because federer moves side to side but also back to front and front to back. because he is an all courter, his movemente is also a reflection of this. nadal is basicly a side to side kind of mover.

said this, i think the 2 of them are, from this era, the best movers and have also the best forehands, what i think tells a lot.

 

[Steve0904]

Nadal's the better mover but Federer's got the better footwork. Federer in his prime was astonishingly good at turning backhands into forehands. Now he's often off-balance for a split second after the conversion and takes a touch longer to recover. I think that's the most noticeable decline in Federer.

You don't have to tell me how good he was. I seen every bit of his prime, and I don't mean on youtube. I also agree with what you said, but as I said Nadal's footwork is pretty amazing as well.

 

[Steve0904]

Agreed.

Federer's forehand is very very good, but it's not the most accurate shot on tour and can fall apart at times. I guess you can't have everything, but I wouldn't call it the best for that reason. Alternatively, one could attribute inconsistency to bad footwork, in which case Federer's forehand is indeed the best.

He has very good court-sense, much like Hingis. He knows exactly the right shot to play and how to play it. Related to this, he has a fantastic drop shot. It's probably possible to nominate someone who's better at these things than him, but off the top of my head, these are his standout qualities.

You're not going to get me to put any conventional groundstroke above Federer's prime FH. Nadal has gotten more aggressive with his FH, and his FH is great, but Nadal's FH is less aggressive than Federer's which is why he makes less errors because he gets more net clearence. Still, I think Federer's prime FH is the greatest groundstroke in tennis history, perhaps only matched by the Sampras serve, and I'm putting a serve and a groundstroke in different categories.

He does have great court sense, and since he started using the dropshot it's tough to find a better one. Djokovic's BH drop shot is pretty good, but I haven't seen him hit many off the FH, whereas I think Federer hits dropshots or short slices off both wings pretty well.

 

[Prisoner of Birth]

You don't have to tell me how good he was. I seen every bit of his prime, and I don't mean on youtube. I also agree with what you said, but as I said Nadal's footwork is pretty amazing as well.

You seemed to suggest Nadal had the better footwork, which is simply not true.

 

[dominikk1985]

his FH is the best ever by far.

there were some guys who could put a few more mph on their FH (although feds FH is extremely hard too) but if you consider the combination of spin, power, angles and precision no one comes even close to his FH.

 

[Steve0904]

You seemed to suggest Nadal had the better footwork, which is simply not true.

I said it was debatable. You say it's simply not true, but I think you're either underrating Nadal or overrating Federer.

 

[Prisoner of Birth]

I said it was debatable. You say it's simply not true, but I think you're either underrating Nadal or overrating Federer.

I would be if I had said Federer's footwork was far better. I'm only saying it's definitely better. Nadal simply does not have Federer's balance or economy of movement.

 

[Steve0904]

I would be if I had said Federer's footwork was far better. I'm only saying it's definitely better. Nadal simply does not have Federer's balance or economy of movement.

I agree, but we have already said that Nadal is the better mover, although Federer is definitely more economical, and he has better balance, so if you put balance in the same category as footwork then Federer has better footwork yes.

 

[Prisoner of Birth]

I agree, but we have already said that Nadal is the better mover, although Federer is definitely more economical, and he has better balance, so if you put balance in the same category as footwork then Federer has better footwork yes.

Balance has to come under footwork, right? Can't be anywhere else.

Movement involves footwork, anticipation, raw speed and tenacity.

 

[smoledman]

I guess Federer has to settle for "best tennis player".

 

[hoodjem]

Best forehand, and tweener.

 

[smoledman]

Shots Fed owns outright(with no debate):

FH/BH dropshot
overhead backhand smash
slice
tweener

top 5 in serve/forehand
top 10 in backhand
top 5 in movement

 

[Prisoner of Birth]

Shots Fed owns outright(with no debate):

FH/BH dropshot
overhead backhand smash
slice
tweener

top 5 in serve/forehand
top 10 in backhand
top 5 in movement

You mean right now?

 

[Steve0904]

Shots Fed owns outright(with no debate):

FH/BH dropshot
overhead backhand smash
slice
tweener

top 5 in serve/forehand
top 10 in backhand
top 5 in movement

I would modify that a bit, and say he has without question the best FH ever, but Djokovic has a good BH drop shot so Federer doesn't own that one outright IMO.

 

[The-Champ]

Peak Federer had the greatest FH of all time.


I'm exaggerating, I've never seen the fhs of people prior to 1985.

 

[Prisoner of Birth]

Peak Federer had the greatest FH of all time.


I'm exaggerating, I've never seen the fhs of people prior to 1985.

You haven't seen mine, either

 

[ZMaster]

If it has not been said already, Fed is the complete package.

 

[single_handed_champion]

very nice. although cross court is a higher percentage than down the line.

Which means the opponents would have covered the shot. It ended up being too good anyway. Stunning.

On topic, forehand, footwork, slice for sure. Back in his glory days, his serve (the whole package) was the best. I agree with % of 1st serve returns made.

 

[Paullaconte1]

He has the best all-court tennis and the best dropshot.

Maybe he has also the best 1HBH because of the variety.

 

[The-Champ]

You haven't seen mine, either

Well, hopefully Fed's fh is only second to yours

 

[Prisoner of Birth]

Well, hopefully Fed's fh is only second to yours

A distant second.

 

[adil1972]

the only thing that fed is good at is winning 17 grand slams and no. 1 ranking that make nadal, djokovic and murray better at winning the rest of tourneys

 

[paulorenzo]

Which means the opponents would have covered the shot. It ended up being too good anyway. Stunning.

On topic, forehand, footwork, slice for sure. Back in his glory days, his serve (the whole package) was the best. I agree with % of 1st serve returns made.

it was a sick shot, that's for sure. dipping tweener crosscourt to the doubles alley.

 

[Deleted member 21996]

he does nothing better than The Mighty GO Nads...

 

[ductrung3993]

tweener, running dropshot, smash off the smash, backhand slice lob, backhand flick

 

[TennisLovaLova]

LOL more like a typical Planet TW lovesick jerk off to Federer posters 24/7 forum post to think that Nadal is not a better mover than Federer in his prime. NOWHERE but Planet General Tennis Player dicussion TW, the biggest collection of idiots on planet Earth, does anyone think Federer was a better mover than Nadal. John McEnroe, Bud Collins, Jimmy Connors, Patrick McEnroe, Cliff Drysdale have NEVER said prime Federer was a better mover than Nadal, in fact called Nadal the best mover many times ove

Well
In his book, Agassin said Fed was the best mover he ever saw play tennis.
IMO his opinion surpasses the losers you quoted (except McENroe, who is just jealous of federer's achievement). And Connors wouldnt know anything about moving or footwork so his opinion doesnt really count.

 

[Magnus]

Fed has declined. His FH isn't the best anymore, and his BH slice even isn't the best. He went on from having the best service game on tour to just a good one. His anticipation on court is still great but his movement is slow. The thing, however, that declined most is his mindset when he is behind in the score. He just gives up at times, giving away cheap points with poor errors and the match is over quickly. Fed is still great, but nowdays there are quite a few players that have caught up and surpassed him, Murray the most recent

 

[TheFifthSet]

It is funny how Federer fanatics seem to think he does everything better than Nadal despite that he loses 70% of their matches, and think he does everything better from the baseline on grass (forehand, backhand, movement), yet even in his prime in 2007 he lost about 80% of the baseline rallies in that Wimbledon final he barely won thanks to serving Nadal off the court.

Way to exaggerate. Nadal won 60.8% of the baseline rallies in the 2007 final . . . NOT 80%. "Lost about 80%". Yeah, totally the same thing. And a majority of those rallies were on Nadal's serve - a distinct advantage. And Federer has lost 64% of their matches, not 70%. Obfuscatory post.

I could see why Federer would be regarded as a better mover in a sense. How many times has Nadal been sidelined as a result of his movement? Nadals movement might win him more matches, but it also loses him more (and causes more DNPs).

 

[Steve0904]

Fed has declined. His FH isn't the best anymore, and his BH slice even isn't the best. He went on from having the best service game on tour to just a good one. His anticipation on court is still great but his movement is slow. The thing, however, that declined most is his mindset when he is behind in the score. He just gives up at times, giving away cheap points with poor errors and the match is over quickly. Fed is still great, but nowdays there are quite a few players that have caught up and surpassed him, Murray the most recent

I strongly disagree with the bolded part. No FH is better than Federer's, even today.

 

[TennisLovaLova]

Fed has declined. His FH isn't the best anymore, and his BH slice even isn't the best. He went on from having the best service game on tour to just a good one. His anticipation on court is still great but his movement is slow. The thing, however, that declined most is his mindset when he is behind in the score. He just gives up at times, giving away cheap points with poor errors and the match is over quickly. Fed is still great, but nowdays there are quite a few players that have caught up and surpassed him, Murray the most recent

Yeah right
like murray surpassed federer in wimbledon...

look
the federer is human
sometimes he wins, sometimes he loses
and only GS count
and the guy at 31 bageled Nadal and Djokovic the same year
etc
etc