Laver vs Sampras on clay?

[corners]

Good one.IMO, Laver would keep Sampras far from the net, with those rolling semitopspin fh and greatly angled and deep sliced BH and would take the net first.The slow clay surface would take speed off Pete´s great first serve and Laver would come to the net on Sampras second serve.

Laver knew how to slide on the clay much better than Sampras, so he would play % backcourt tennis until the opening would come.The big forehand from Pete, which was so hard to deal with, would not be so fast on clay and Laver´s ability to reach any ball would make a difference at the passing shot.

I think Laver would win in 4 sets.

Thanks Kiki. Now we're getting somewhere.

 

[urban]

Those dream matchups are always speculative to rate. If i put in some conemporary players, who had similar styles, i would name Gonzalez for Laver and Korda (or Leconte) for Sampras. On clay, Laver hadn't the biggest of problems with Gonzalez, his topspin was working very well on clay (he learnt his game on antbed, which is similar to clay), his lobs and drop shots could change or break the rhythm of the opponent. Sampras had often difficulties with Korda, whose backhand was similar in execution und deception of direction to Laver's, but who was inferior in offensive play.

 

[TMF]

TMF,
I saw a statistic stating that Fed had won 871 matches.
Here: http://bleacherreport.com/tb/d8KmR?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=tennis

Do you know the total he has played, and what is the percentage won?

I don't follow bleacher report, but here's what I got...

WINNING PERCENTAGE


ALL SURFACES:
1. Björn Borg 83.07 638–130
2. Rafael Nadal 82.70 583–122
3. Jimmy Connors 82.29 1217–262
4. / Ivan Lendl 81.76 1071–239
5. Roger Federer 81.71 871–195
6. John McEnroe 81.55 875–198
7. Novak Djokovic 79.18 464–122
8. Pete Sampras 77.44 762–222
9. Boris Becker 76.91 713–214
10. Guillermo Vilas 76.81 921–278

HARDCOURT:
1. Roger Federer 83.23 526–106
2. Jimmy Connors 83.13 488–99
3. Ivan Lendl 82.60 394–83
4. John McEnroe 81.11 292–68
5. Novak Djokovic 80.89 292–69
6. Pete Sampras 80.41 427–104
7. Andre Agassi 79.00 598–159
8. Stefan Edberg 78.82 387–104
9. Andy Murray 78.31 260–72
10. Boris Becker 77.39 219–64

CLAY:
1. Rafael Nadal 93.04 254–19
2. Björn Borg 86.58 271–42
3. Ivan Lendl 81.44 329–75
4. Guillermo Vilas 79.97 631–158
5. Jimmy Connors 78.63 195–53
6. Jose Luis Clerc 77.38 301–88
7. Ilie Năstase 77.08 259–77
8. Manuel Orantes 77.08 454–135
9. Roger Federer 77.06 178–53
10. Thomas Muster 76.87 422–127

GRASS:
1. Roger Federer 87.31 117–17
2. John McEnroe 85.61 119–20
3. Björn Borg 84.72 61–11
4. Jimmy Connors 84.00 168-32
5. Pete Sampras 83.47 101–20
6. Boris Becker 82.27 116–25
7. Andy Murray 81.33 61–14
8. Rafael Nadal 80.65 50–12
9. Andy Roddick 79.63 86–22
10. Stefan Edberg 78.60 99–27

 

[kiki]

Now that here is a biassed poster that thinks tennis pool has never been so large and international, let´s show him through facts he is completely wrong.Comparing 80´s to 2000´s...

Stronger countries in 2000´s ( male ):

Brasil
Russia ( although not by much )
Serbia
Croatia
Spain
Britain ( but just one great player and that´s it)
Netherlands ( until Verkerk quit)

Even:

France (Noah,Leconte,Forget,Tulasne vs Simon,Monfils,Benetteau and Tsonga)and Argentina are even ( Clerc,Vilas,Mancini vs Nalbandian,Coria,Gaudio or Del Potro)
Australia, even at the top ( Cash vs Hewitt but a lot more of top 100 players in the 80´s)
Switzerland is also the same case (Gunthardt,Hlasek and Rosset vs Federer and Wavrinka)

Stronger countries in the 80´s:

USA (needless to say)
Czeckoslovakia ( needless to say)
Italy
Germany ( obvious)
Ecuador ( obvious)
Sweden ( soooo obvious)
New Zealand
Poland
Hungary
South Africa
Mexico
India
Israel
Peru

So, 80´s are more broaden and international...

 

[fed_rulz]

Obviously Laver..

But I think The Sampras hate gets ridiculous on here..

People talk as if Sampras had NO conquests on clay, and beat just a bunch of mugs and no talented clay courters.

NOT true at all. Under his old coach Gullickson, Sampras was a very competent clay court winning Davis Cup, Rome, getting far at the French, and posting big wins over guys like Muster, Courier, Bruguera, Agassi, Kafelnikov etc.

Sampras obviously wasn't clay court "elite" but under his old coach, he was capable of beating ANYONE on any given day on clay.

Hell prime for prime, Sampras beat more big names on clay then a lot of other all time greats did.

lol, nice try.

the "big names" Pete beat on clay weren't anywhere close to their primes.

 

[hoodjem]

I love how easy you change opinions.

Thank you.

The world is a complex, complicated, and subtle place full of rapidly changing or hitherto unknown layers of information. Plus I often learn something new every day, so one cannot hold too rigidly to opinions based on possibly incomplete, fallible, and finite knowledge.

I strive to be intellectually nimble.

 

[hoodjem]

I don't follow bleacher report, but here's what I got...

WINNING PERCENTAGE


ALL SURFACES:
1. Björn Borg 83.07 638–130
2. Rafael Nadal 82.70 583–122
3. Jimmy Connors 82.29 1217–262
4. Ivan Lendl 81.76 1071–239
5. Roger Federer 81.71 871–195
6. John McEnroe 81.55 875–198
7. Novak Djokovic 79.18 464–122
8. Pete Sampras 77.44 762–222
9. Boris Becker 76.91 713–214
10. Guillermo Vilas 76.81 921–278

Thanks. This is what I was looking for.

 

[BobbyOne]

Now that here is a biassed poster that thinks tennis pool has never been so large and international, let´s show him through facts he is completely wrong.Comparing 80´s to 2000´s...

Stronger countries in 2000´s ( male ):

Brasil
Russia ( although not by much )
Serbia
Croatia
Spain
Britain ( but just one great player and that´s it)
Netherlands ( until Verkerk quit)

Even:

France (Noah,Leconte,Forget,Tulasne vs Simon,Monfils,Benetteau and Tsonga)and Argentina are even ( Clerc,Vilas,Mancini vs Nalbandian,Coria,Gaudio or Del Potro)
Australia, even at the top ( Cash vs Hewitt but a lot more of top 100 players in the 80´s)
Switzerland is also the same case (Gunthardt,Hlasek and Rosset vs Federer and Wavrinka)

Stronger countries in the 80´s:

USA (needless to say)
Czeckoslovakia ( needless to say)
Italy
Germany ( obvious)
Ecuador ( obvious)
Sweden ( soooo obvious)
New Zealand
Poland
Hungary
South Africa
Mexico
India
Israel
Peru

So, 80´s are more broaden and international...

kiki, Thanks for these useful statistics.

 

[kiki]

kiki, Thanks for these useful statistics.

It is not a numerical argument but I think it is fair
I think it makes sense to make sense on that