Smartest Tennis Players?

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DefensiveTennis

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This thread is a discussion of the smartest tennis players who use their talents to the max.

The former GOAT is this regard is from what I have heard Brad Gilbert but I have only seen a few clips of him.

I would like to nominate Gilles Simon. The guy is so smart. He plays the percentages so well, going crosscourt a lot and then all of a sudden nailing the line with a backhand. He only needs one surprise shot to win a rally rather than ball bashing hard for 5 or 6 shots. He serves and volleys and approaches the net rarely but nearly every time he is effective with it. Just a very smart guy who plays the percentages all the time.

I also think Feliciano Lopez is a very intelligent player. He has a good serve and decent forehand but nothing special. He cant hit a backhand with topspin and yet still can trouble and beat guys with much more complete games. Congrats to him making such a solid career for himself with such a serious weakness in his game.
 
Ironically, you've posted the "Smartest Players" discussion in the wrong forum. It belongs in the Pro Player section. To answer your question though, there's always Marion Bartoli. Supposedly she has an IQ of 175.
 
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I also like the Roddick's, Gorans, Marat's, and Krieks of the tennis world.
Smart is great, but so is instinct, natural ability, and ad lib abilities.
It's all good if it works.
 
Topspin Shot said:
Ironically, you've posted the "Smartest Players" discussion in the wrong forum. It belongs in the Pro Player section. To answer your question though, there's always Marion Bartoli. Supposedly she has an IQ of 175.
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Smartest in tennis terms, not IQ as you mentioned. That was the idea of the thread. Also, i would like some serious discussion and posters in general section dont provide that unfortunately.
 
I'll add Wilander. Hi brain was his biggest weapon.

Watch the 88 Us Open final against Lendl. Genius.
 
Shroud said:
I'll add Wilander. Hi brain was his biggest weapon.

Watch the 88 Us Open final against Lendl. Genius.
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Good one, I heard he took off loads of pace on his first serve and got an amazing 86% first serve percentage in.
 
DefensiveTennis said:
I also think Feliciano Lopez is a very intelligent player. He has a good serve and decent forehand but nothing special. He cant hit a backhand with topspin and yet still can trouble and beat guys with much more complete games. Congrats to him making such a solid career for himself with such a serious weakness in his game.
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Lopez can hit flat and topspin backhands. His height and leftiness helps in the serve. I don't see any exceptional intelligence aspect to his game - being an effective slicer is not about intelligence just because others hit with topspin. It just means that he is a good slicer.
 
I think the smartest tennis players I have ever watched (some on video, some live and/or in-person) are:

(in no particular order)

Ilie Nastase
Fabrice Santoro
Ken Rosewall
John McEnroe
Brad Gilbert

My reasoning is this. All of these guys had highly unorthodox aspects to their game, yet were able to find incredible success against fundamentally solid professional players. There are probably more than this... but this is all I can think of.

Basically, I think the "smartest" tennis players are those who have highly unorthodox styles (which means no "mold" to follow) yet are able to win grand slams or beat loads of world #1 players. You have to be incredibly smart to achieve such a feat, IMHO.
 
sureshs said:
Lopez can hit flat and topspin backhands. His height and leftiness helps in the serve. I don't see any exceptional intelligence aspect to his game - being an effective slicer is not about intelligence just because others hit with topspin. It just means that he is a good slicer.
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I think he is intelligent. He has a terrible topspin and flat backhand, both suck tremendously. His forehand is ok. He just plays smart for his talents, he maximises his potential. He always approaches with these lefty cc groundies and cuts off the angles at the net. There are guys with much more weapons and complete games that cant come near him in terms of consistently being a top 40ish player.
 
can we put mecir in there for his feel of the game. knew when to play what shots against people. agassi also even though he bashed the ball, he read his opponents well and could pick apart habits pretty effectively
 
mightyrick said:
I think the smartest tennis players I have ever watched (some on video, some live and/or in-person) are:

(in no particular order)

Ilie Nastase
Fabrice Santoro
Ken Rosewall
John McEnroe
Brad Gilbert

My reasoning is this. All of these guys had highly unorthodox aspects to their game, yet were able to find incredible success against fundamentally solid professional players. There are probably more than this... but this is all I can think of.

Basically, I think the "smartest" tennis players are those who have highly unorthodox styles (which means no "mold" to follow) yet are able to win grand slams or beat loads of world #1 players. You have to be incredibly smart to achieve such a feat, IMHO.
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Pity I have never properly seen any of these play :(

I also think someone like Ferrer is smart in how they play the percentages so often and play the most efficient brand of tennis suited for the modern game.
 
Nadal is genius, makes everything so simple. Hit heavy topspin cross court to a righty's backhand. He will serve wide and hit the next shot cross court. Just about everything he does is high percentage and effective. He also comes to the net on very good approaches and wins the majority of his points up there

I'm not a fan of him, but he's smart. I'll give him that
 
Ballinbob said:
Nadal is genius, makes everything so simple. Hit heavy topspin cross court to a righty's backhand. He will serve wide and hit the next shot cross court. Just about everything he does is high percentage and effective. He also comes to the net on very good approaches and wins the majority of his points up there

I'm not a fan of him, but he's smart. I'll give him that
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Total agree with you on Rafa! Not only does he win against all the tour level players but does so consistently through out the year! That why he is one of the GOAT in the sport! 13 Grand Slams! along with many Master series titles. Just think of how many consecutive matches in a week or two weeks time you have to win just to win a title! It mind blowing!
 
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Ctrl+F Hewitt.
"No matches were found".
Ctrl+F Lleyton.
"No matches were found".

26400-w4EYmgif-Dx96.gif
 
Hingis and Henin possessed considerable "tennis intelligence". Radwanska is one of the smartest of the current crop of WTA players.

Gotta agree with Lukhas -- Hewitt should be probably be on the short list of intelligent players. Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray and Ferrer all seem to posses a high degree of tennis intelligence as well. I'd also include Agassi. So many times I had seen Andre lose a first set and then figure out how to dominate in the 2nd and later sets.
 
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I wouldn't classify Nadal as smart because he has one pattern of play and is like "what are you gonna do about it?"

It's all up to the opponent to adjust to him, and he will never adjust to anyone. If tactic A doesn't work, he keeps grinding and grinding on with tactic A, forcing it to work by repetition. If, after that, tactic A still doesn't work, then he loses and it turns out he was tired or injured.

It's the same way with his on-court rituals - he does what he wants and makes people wait and adjust to him (even the officials).

Murray is a guy who seems to take into account the situation and the opponent. Federer is also like that but more instinctive and less cerebral.
 
Smartest player is kind of a tough category.

Probably Murray to be honest, as much as I hate to admit it. He has developed a very high percentage game which is based on placement rather than power. The way he adapts to different opponents is fairly impressive, both in a match (when he won by changing to Serve and Volleying in Paris) and in his training (building up bulk and hiring an aggressive baseliner as a coach when he realised he was being outgunned by Djokovic, Federer and Nadal).

I think what was holding him back for a while was thinking too much. As he always cracked under pressure, because he was too aware of the situation and would hold back at big moments, rather than losing himself in the point like Nadal, or taking risks knowing that the opponent gives up easier shots under pressure like Djokovic. But he has managed to conquer that somewhat as well.

The way Nadal mercilessly breaks down opponents weaknesses by hitting well placed heavy shots, and playing more consistently than his opponent, also make him a prime candidate.
 
Michel Youzhny must be the smartest tennis player currently.
Average forehand, cetainly not a big one, a below average first serve which he gets very few aces from, decent but pretty slow movement, an above average net game but in today's singles game you can't rely on that.

His real danger comes from a very fast but risky flat/ topspin BH accelarion (especially DTL) but he seems to perfect set it up with his his other shots , that's why he gets so much results from it. Plus he has a great BH slice, which he uses in a clever way, and overall great variety on that side. Uses angles very well.

That what got him two times in his career in the top 10 and a steady top twenty spot for along time, a couple of SF at the USO and at least a quarter in every slam. Plus, he won 9 singles tournaments and has been a Davis cup winner twice.
He might be an emotional character but it surely doesn't affect his stategic craftiness.
 
tennis_hack said:
I wouldn't classify Nadal as smart because he has one pattern of play and is like "what are you gonna do about it?"

It's all up to the opponent to adjust to him, and he will never adjust to anyone. If tactic A doesn't work, he keeps grinding and grinding on with tactic A, forcing it to work by repetition. If, after that, tactic A still doesn't work, then he loses and it turns out he was tired or injured.

It's the same way with his on-court rituals - he does what he wants and makes people wait and adjust to him (even the officials).

Murray is a guy who seems to take into account the situation and the opponent. Federer is also like that but more instinctive and less cerebral.
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True. Evident from his losses to lower ranked players like Darcis, Rosol, Youzhny, Ljubicic and Davydenko.
 
David Ferrer is easily the smartest tennis player on the tour. Does everything by percentages. He is the human calculator.

There are reasons why someone of his stature and athletic ability has done enough to become number 3 in the world in arguably the strongest era in tennis history.
 
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hawk eye said:
Michel Youzhny must be the smartest tennis player currently.
Average forehand, cetainly not a big one, a below average first serve which he gets very few aces from, decent but pretty slow movement, an above average net game but in today's singles game you can't rely on that.

His real danger comes from a very fast but risky flat/ topspin BH accelarion (especially DTL) but he seems to perfect set it up with his his other shots , that's why he gets so much results from it. Plus he has a great BH slice, which he uses in a clever way, and overall great variety on that side. Uses angles very well.

That what got him two times in his career in the top 10 and a steady top twenty spot for along time, a couple of SF at the USO and at least a quarter in every slam. Plus, he won 9 singles tournaments and has been a Davis cup winner twice.
He might be an emotional character but it surely doesn't affect his stategic craftiness.
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He may play smart, but he sure doesn't act it. :wink:
Sony-Ericsson-Open-in-Miami-Mikhail-Youzhny.jpg
 
Let's not forget Michael Chang, who figured out how to beat Sampras, Lendl and Edberg on his way to his 1989 French Open win and was one of the first to figure out the advantage of using an extended racquet.
 
Funny ding about life.....
Nobody get's it all.
You gotta live with what you were given.
Imagine Isner/Ivo with Ferrer like movement.
Oh, is that KevinDurant?
Nothing like paralysis by too much analysis.
 
Lots of intelligent tennis players..but personally I don't think its that critical for the players. Safin never struck me as a genius but he was pretty awesome on the court.

I think a ten year old kid is smart enough to play very smart tennis. Most don't have the skills to do it - and that's the real problem for rec players.
 
Tennis strategy is not rocket science. We've all mastered playing pong or some tennis video game.

On the court at the rec level egos take over as many try to play above their ability. And this is why pushers dominate.
 
It's probably more like Texas hold em at any serious level, meaning you clearly need some skills and a good idea what you are doing, but it's more about reading the table and knowing how to manipulate others subtly. Even though some of the antics may be obvious, that is more to hide the real moves underneath.
 
DefensiveTennis said:
Smartest in tennis terms, not IQ as you mentioned. That was the idea of the thread. Also, i would like some serious discussion and posters in general section dont provide that unfortunately.
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Hah, you are right. Have you been over to the Pro Player Discussion section recently? I have never seen a bigger collection of fanatical brain-dead fanboys and fangirls. "OMG NADAL IS GOAT 4EVER"

That being said, this is still the wrong forum :)
 
lots of smart players...chang, rafter, rios etc. but Wilander took it to another level. He is by far the most intelligent player in the history of the game IMO.
 
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