*Lindsay Davenport: Best ball striker ever

[ferrari_827]

To me, Lindsay is the best natural ball striker there ever was in women's tennis. Better than Graf, Seles, Evert, Henin, the Williams, Hingis.

Even John McEnroe admitted as much, saying she is one of the best ball strikers in tennis period, "men's and women's".

The only thing that has kept her from completely dominating is she is a bit short on foot speed, and killer instinct. Increase her speed by about 10% and you have a *monster player*. In terms of tennis mechanics of serve/groundstrokes/volleys, she is just about perfect, much better than Williams, Henin, Capriati.

There have been days when she is "on", and she looks totally invincible, just like Serena Williams. Difference is, Lindsay has a much more beautiful game than Serena. Whereas Serena is brute strength and athleticism, Lindsay's style looks effortless, natural, yet powerful.

That being said, it is frustrating when I think how dominant and beautiful she would play if she was just a little quicker (physical training ?). But as a technician, shot for shot, there hasn't been a better woman player.

 

[Ronaldo]

Seles and Tracy Austin early in their careers were awesome too.

 

[Camilio Pascual]

To me, Lindsay is the best natural ball striker there ever was in women's tennis.

There have been days when she is "on", and she looks totally invincible, just like Serena Williams. Difference is, Lindsay has a much more beautiful game than Serena. Whereas Serena is brute strength and athleticism, Lindsay's style looks effortless, natural, yet powerful.

But as a technician, shot for shot, there hasn't been a better woman player.

I pretty much agree with what you said. Except for the effortless part. She frequently looks clumsy on the court and was frequently cited for having poor movement and footskills. Ya know what? That made me like her even more because of the tremendous effort she was making out there.

 

[bigserving]

Ball Striker, what on earth does that mean? Isn't the game of tennis a game of striking a ball? How does a person judge one player better at it than another?

Tennis is a game of results. There is no judging. There are no points for style.

If she is the BEST career ball striker, she would have the BEST career results. She does not. Based on that, I am not sure how can anyone say that she is the alll-time best?

 

[ferrari_827]

As Federer once said, "you can have a beautiful game, but it doesn't mean you'll win".

Even so, there is such a thing as stroke efficiency, and if one takes slow motion shots of the most efficient players, you can see it. Part of it is mechanics, and part is "feel" for directing energy. And the more efficient strokes almost always look better as well.

Contrary to what the poster Bigserving above thinks, tennis isn't just about winning and results, there's a large aesthetic component to watching tennis for those who really appreciate the game.

For example, if Federer hadn't emerged, how many of you would enjoy watching Roddick beat the field in all these tournament finals ?

 

[Camilio Pascual]

Tennis is a game of results. There is no judging. There are no points for style.

Totally agree with your style comments.

To answer your 1st question, my rough definition is confined to baseline players who hit groundstrokes with good power and accurate placement from baseline-to-baseline to a degree where they can dominate and win matches to consistently stay in the Top Ten. This would include everyone on Ferrari's list except all-courter Hingis, who won with versatility. Agassi would be an example on the men's side. Let's say someone is very adept at volleys, but not so good at groundstrokes (paging Wayne Arthurs!!!). Then we can talk about greatest volleyers as opposed to ball strikers. So, I think ball striker does not have the literal meaning it implies.

As to your 2nd question, tennis is that and so much more. Brad Gilbert's book, "Losing Pretty" sufficiently clears up the misperception that tennis is all about strokes.

 

[XCourtKid]

i wouldnt mind roddick winning all of these tournies... its just as good as federer winning all of them.. and hes american

 

[Excellounge]

What does it mean best ball striker ever. Of course every time there are coming new talented players. So it's quite relatively. It's funny because McEnroe said the same thing about Seles that she was the best ball striker ever when set, men's and women's. And that was only 2 years ago during the US Open. So every period has it's own best striker ever I guess.

 

[dander]

agassi has referred on more than one occasion that schalken is the best "ball striker" he has ever seen, and schalken hasn't come close to matching davenport's achievements. ball-striking in my opinion has mainly to do with stroke efficiency, not so much with aesthetic quality of the strokes, although davenport does combine efficiency with a relatively pleasing style (except for the slight hitch in her serve, which always annoyed me). as serena proves, there isn't necessarily a direct correlation between ball-striking and success as a champion

 

[dander]

schalken, by the way, has one of the ugliest serves and most awkward forehands I've ever seen, yet can still be deemed by none other than agassi as the best ball "striker"

 

[jaap deboeck]

Elena is now equal say I, but you are on target. That is her ace in the hole. A devastating groundstroker when give the chance to set up or when the ball is in her strike zone. None better, and as good as many men in this one area! Otherwise she' be another Alexandra Stevenson. Lindsay has a huge retunt and one of the better serves. So #1 in 2004 at age 28 is not surprising when the Williams sisters are not 100%. I place Linsday D #5 all time: Serena, Graf, Martina, Seles (I), then Lindsay D just a tad over a declining Venus. All in their prime would beat past legends Court, King and Evert.

 

[ferrari_827]

I do agree with a previous post that ball-striking ability is most correlated with efficiency, or in mathematical terms the highest ratio of power out/power in.

Schalken doesn't have a nice stroke but is remarkably efficient.

With the previous post, I disagree that Serena's stroke is very efficient compared to Lindsay, Graf, Seles, although it's harder to tell since she's using a large head racket. With Graf, you can clearly see a serious transfer of weight pummeling the ball, and she's using a small 200g Dunlop.