Greatest ball striker of all time

S

Seany

Banned
This is nothing to do with achievements or titles.

Who is the greatest ball striker of all time? Generally only players who hit the ball relatively flat fall into this discussion. So hopefully this will not turn into a FED/NAD thread, honestly this nothing to do with how well a player does or does not play.

I'm talking about those who made/make beautiful clean strikes of the ball, penetrate the court very quickly and make that beautiful "pop" sound off the racket that makes you sit up and pay attention.

My nomination, and my reason for making this thread, comes from thread a few days ago about best shot on match point and someone posted the Safin vs Federer highlights from a the AO in 2005.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpq5JNflfTk

And I just watched in awe thinking "this is how you are supposed to hit a tennis ball"....I hadn't seen the match in some time and it was just beautiful to watch.

So Safin would be my nomination, other that come to mind are Agassi, Soderling, Berdych and a lot of the guy from the 70's/80's who naturally hit the ball flatter.

Who in your opinion is/was the best striker of a tennis ball ?
 
I love at anyone who says Nalbandian. His forehand is just pretty good by pro standards, and there have been players who have had greater backhands and returns too.
 
Agassi is a good choice since there is probably no player with the combination of return of serve, forehand, and backhand to that high a level in history though there are some that come close. If he had a more dominant serve, better lateral movement along the baseline, and a better volley, or even just 1 or 2 of those 3 things, he would have won alot more slams.
 
Agassi was lethal off both wings and he had pin point accuracy, depth and pace. My god can he take the ball so early...so It would be him!
 
If achievements and titles are not a criteria, then Tennis_monk is THE greatest ball striker , the game has ever seen (or not seen).
 
Gotta agree with agassi. Even though I hate 2hbh, his was cool.
Jmac was the greatest anti ball striker of all time.
Also honorable mention to berdychs forehand, there is something awesome about how casually he bombs it.
 
Trillus said:
Agassi is a good choice since there is probably no player with the combination of return of serve, forehand, and backhand to that high a level in history though there are some that come close. If he had a more dominant serve, better lateral movement along the baseline, and a better volley, or even just 1 or 2 of those 3 things, he would have won alot more slams.
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Agreed! And any one of the 3 might have made him the best ever. Of those 3, I would have loved to see better lateral movement and hitting on the run.
 
For me Federer and Safin.

IMO I think it would be interesting to see everyone else on tour use either Fed or Safin's stick to see if they can generate the shots which they are known for: Agassi(107sq), Nadal (100sq), Roddick (100sq),

Just the fact each used demanding racquets in the game of tennis where their relative small head size on their sticks compared to everyone else on the tour. Fed the 90inch Wilson 6.1 and 9pt balance hl while Safin the 93inch Head Prestige 7pt balance hl with that dense string pattern.

Using those racquets, I think you would marvel how good their timing and power they generated when hitting the ball and it shows how good of a ball striker they are.

In Federer you can see the exquisite timing and accuracy he has with his demanding stick while with Safin you can truly see the raw power he possessed.
 
Trillus said:
I love at anyone who says Nalbandian. His forehand is just pretty good by pro standards, and there have been players who have had greater backhands and returns too.
Click to expand...

probably not...


But agree about Agassi being the best ball striker overall
 
I think that Yannick Noah deserves a nod in this category.
Have you seen video of him playing?
It was like he was harnessing the energies from the Gods of Thunder and Lightning when striking the ball. A sound not unlike that from howitzer fire would come off his Le Coq Sportif racquets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmvNpkdBMNE
 
YodaKnowsBest said:
Djokovic hands down. Nobody comes close to his talent.
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Maybe his talent in constantly trying to be 'cool' and forcing himself upon people by always trying to be funny. Your avatar is a great example, absolutely ridiculous.
 
Probably Agassi (of the players I watched). He had frightening consistency in spite of the depth and pace of his shots and the perfect timing they demanded. It could be monotonous, but he was so good at it and had so much success on the big stages and was such a big personality as well, that people adore(d) his style.

Funnily enough, it is exactly how Davydenko plays, and the guy moves far better, but of course he is a Slam and media duck, so he is labeled 'boring'.

WTA: Davenport for sure. She had such rhythmic strokes, with a perfect backswing and easy follow-through.
 
As far as being a very "pure" striker, Jimmy Connors is way up there on the all time list, in my opinion. Agassi is great as well, and I'd also consider Rod Laver.

0920_large.jpg
 
Raindogs said:
I think that Yannick Noah deserves a nod in this category.
Have you seen video of him playing?
It was like he was harnessing the energies from the Gods of Thunder and Lightning when striking the ball. A sound not unlike that from howitzer fire would come off his Le Coq Sportif racquets.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmvNpkdBMNE
Click to expand...

Ehh..no to Noah. I thought he was a terrible ball striker. He basically had one lucky tournament..so lucky in that final.

Anyway, I would put Hewitt in the discussion of great ball strikers.
 
i can't speak for much earlier than the 90's, but agassi has definitely got my vote. davydenko plays pretty similar too, and ive never understood why he gets called boring. maybe against lesser players he isn't someone you'd immediately think of in terms of shot making ability, but against the best players i love watching his matches. certainly against federer and nadal, he always seems to bring out the best in them. the match against fed in oz this year; the first set was just ridiculous tennis. even against nadal on clay in monte carlo 07, i remember that match was such high quality, and in particular, this half volley at about 8:00 was just impeccable:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgHaBv9kyas
 
star_of_death80 said:
For me Federer and Safin.

IMO I think it would be interesting to see everyone else on tour use either Fed or Safin's stick to see if they can generate the shots which they are known for: Agassi(107sq), Nadal (100sq), Roddick (100sq),

Just the fact each used demanding racquets in the game of tennis where their relative small head size on their sticks compared to everyone else on the tour. Fed the 90inch Wilson 6.1 and 9pt balance hl while Safin the 93inch Head Prestige 7pt balance hl with that dense string pattern.

Using those racquets, I think you would marvel how good their timing and power they generated when hitting the ball and it shows how good of a ball striker they are.

In Federer you can see the exquisite timing and accuracy he has with his demanding stick while with Safin you can truly see the raw power he possessed.
Click to expand...

I feel like equipment should not be a factor in this discussion. All players get to choose what racquet they want to play with to maximize their potential.

I will admit that Safin and Fed both have amazing talent timing etc, but Agassi has it as well. I don't care what is in your hands, it requires great timing to take the ball as early as Agassi did.
 
Dilettante said:
Has to be Agassi, although the Connors call is good.

What about Lendl?
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I was thinking lendl too. Agassi has to be up there ofcourse, but as agassi got into his late 20s his forehand lost some ground relative to the field imo, although agassi's bh was still one of the best. Lendl though never seemed to lose that, he was still cranking away on both sides as he got older. Lendl was also a better ballstriker on the run off both sides; matches up quite well with agassi overall in career stats.
 
drakulie said:
HUH? :shock: I suppose you didn't watch him play much.
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no I watched him quite a bit. He didn't hit as many winners, although still got some good location, power and precision. Overtime imo his bh held up better vs. the field than his forehand.
 
bolo said:
no I watched him quite a bit. He didn't hit as many winners, although still got some good location, power and precision. Overtime imo his bh held up better vs. the field than his forehand.
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The fact that he hit so many backhands should tell you how damn good his FH was. No one wanted to get in an exchange with him on the FH side. He absolutely crushed his FH, which went thru the court quickly and extremely flat.

What didn't "hold up" over time was his movement to the right.
 
bolo said:
no I watched him quite a bit. He didn't hit as many winners, although still got some good location, power and precision. Overtime imo his bh held up better vs. the field than his forehand.
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That's because he toned his power down. Watch Agassi vs Federer at the USO in 2005 and you'll see that Agassi could still rip it with the best of them.
 
NamRanger said:
That's because he toned his power down. Watch Agassi vs Federer at the USO in 2005 and you'll see that Agassi could still rip it with the best of them.
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I agree he toned down his power. But he toned it down on both sides. It's just a relative comparison.
 
^^Disagree. watch him hitting around 2005 vs 1995. He was hitting much harder in 2005. What he "toned down" was "going for broke" all the time.
 
drakulie said:
The fact that he hit so many backhands should tell you how damn good his FH was. No one wanted to get in an exchange with him on the FH side. He absolutely crushed his FH, which went thru the court quickly and extremely flat.

What didn't "hold up" over time was his movement to the right.
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That's not a bad line of thinking. But alternatively he was good enough on his bh side that he could dictate playing more backhands vs. his opponent. I would say that it was incredibly hard for his opponent to turn a rally to a point where they were trading forehands instead of backhands. Yeah he really lost a lot of ground on his movement to the right, that really hurt him in many matches including the federer USO final and the coria FO match.
 
drakulie said:
^^Disagree. watch him hitting around 2005 vs 1995. He was hitting much harder in 2005. What he "toned down" was "going for broke" all the time.
Click to expand...

but other guys were hitting harder too, that's PART of the reason why guys like agassi, becker and sampras feel like they are playing better when they get older. But the question is where are you in the relative rankings and imo relative to the field his fh moved down, whereas his bh was still near the top.
 
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