Players with the best package of shots

[laurie]

Which players do you think have the best package of shots in recent history of tennis? I'll give a few examples:

Pete Sampras:

A great first serve with pace and spin, either slice or topspin;
An incredible second serve hit with either slice or topspin, sometimes as fast as the first serve;
A great forehand;
An incredible running forehand when strectched out wide with the ability to hit clean winners at great angles;
A great smash;
A unique shot (slam dunk);
Great athletic ability;
Wonderful net play;
Great at passing shots (forehand and backhand)

Roger Federer:
A great serve with lots of spin
A great forehand with the ability to step in and hit winners at will
A lovely rolled backhand
A great defense, the ability to hit great forehand slices when stretched out wide;
Great athletic ability
Great return of serve
A great ability to turn defence to offence
A great ability to play at net (if he puts his mind to it)
Great passing shots

Steffi Graf:

A great serve;
An incredible forehand (thats the only description)
An astonishingly consistent slice backhand
Great athletic ability
Great mental power

Ivan Lendl:

A great first serve
Great groundstrokes
A magnificent forehand
Great power from the baseline
Excellent movement
Great topspin backhand

Boris Becker:

A great serve (similar to Sampras)
A great diving volley!
Reliable baseline power
Great athletic ability

Can anyone provide descriptions of Agassi, Navratilova, Connors, Edberg, Seles, Evert and any other greats you can think of. Anything to add as well?

 

[ATXtennisaddict]

Federer's shot variety are the best imo.

 

[urban]

One of the most complete players of the 90s - maybe the technically most gifted - was Michael Stich. He had a hard, excellent first and second serve with an easy service action, and could follow it up with great, deft and soft volleys from both flanks and deadly overheads. His backhand was a beauty - a bit like Edberg's. I saw him destroy cannon ball servers like Ivanisevic and Krajicek on fast indoor courts with that backhand. His forehand was a little suspect, until he trained it properly at the beginning of 1996 with his then new coach Nicola Pilic. Then it became immediatly a weapon. He could play on all courts, he could beat an inform Pete Sampras on a fast court (Masters 1993) and an inform Thomas Muster on clay (Paris 1996). Courier called him the most talented player of his generation. But he had mental lapses, and had - you could see it on his long, but thin legs -problems with the athletic building of his body. So he was a sort of underachiever in regard of his technical abilities.

 

[Shyyre]

most players have one or two strengths... the great one's have many more... but the treu legends of the game (think any sport here) are the one's that can literally do it all. Tennis is an exmaple of a sport where there are many variations on the same basic techniques (think golf), it's the consistency and the consitency of variation (changing pace, spin depth during a rally to throw opponents off) that defines the greatest of all.

borg was amazing, becker was great to watch, sampras changed the bar... but i think in 5 years federer will be the gold standard... it's not that he does anything better than any of the greats... but i think that time will show that his technique and mental game will elevate him above those others. even johnny mac had a hard time suggesting improvement areas after wimbledon (2nd serve was really all he said). but truth be told, i think only time will tell how great he really is...

until then i don't think that there is much arguemnt that amongst retired players sampras is at the top of the list.

 

[Thomas Tung]

I always thought a great talent who could do it all but put too much mental pressure on himself (thus getting tight and choking way too much) was Yevgeny Kafelnikov. I have a tape of him playing Kuerten in the 2001 Cincinatti QF -- in the first set, Yevgeny hits a forehand around the net post, and doesn't even seem too rushed. Maybe that's nothing in the age of Roger Federer, but it sure impressed me then, and still does now.

 

[Andres]

Players with the best package...

... sounds a little... gay hehehe!