Greatest is just LMAO, man, watch some of Henman's incredible drop volleys and get back to me. And to address a post above, they all had great drive volleys too be it Edberg/Henman/Rafter/Sampras, so it's not like you take away the drop volley and they would be unable to make one at all at the net. FWIW Rafter did produce some delectable touch again at the IPTL so maybe the difference is less about racquets and about heavy handed technique at the net from modern players used to staying back most of the time.
Now why is MZ noticeably more effective than most others today at the net? For one, he has great footwork. Even Fed is guilty of getting too casual at the net once in a while, mostly to show off, and then it ends up costing him the point sometimes. Mischa is always in a solid position, alert and ready to pounce upon the attempted pass, just the way the old school volleyers used to be. Netgame is aggressive, not showboating (Fed cleaned up his netgame with Edberg, no surprises there). Mischa's footwork helps him compensate for how slow he actually is. He doesn't have great reflexes which is a must at the net but because he is so good at staying balanced even as he dives left, then right, he puts himself in a good position to make one more volley.
Another thing and this is the underrated aspect of his game: his approaches. He has these weird looking very flat approach shots. Go, imitate them, my fellow rec hacks. I tried and they are very effective. Today, players are so used to heavy topspin and the ball getting up to a nice hitting height that they are not very comfortable dealing with these flat approaches that keep low. These flat approaches also let you go shorter than you'd want to if you were applying topspin. Why? Because flat balls die on the counterpuncher and force him to step forward. This is where Murray got in trouble on a bad day for him (and on a fastish surface on a hot day). Players are so used to waiting for the approaches and volleys to get to them that they are not very effective in dealing with ones where they need to be more proactive. We saw how under lights (and therefore slower conditions) Fed nuked MZ by doing precisely that, taking those few steps forward into the court and preempt MZ. Fed always does this against MZ. His matches against MZ are usually very attractive and also very one sided.
