What is the single most ugliest shot in tennis?

cluckcluck

Hall of Fame
I think either of the Williams' backhands....the execution is fine it's the takeback that makes it ugly for me. Very mechanical and jerky. It's not fluid at all.
 

EasyGoing

Professional
Hm, loads of candidates. Chung’s serve is horrific. Nick’s BH really looks butt ugly to me. Kukushkin’s BH is more odd than ugly I guess. Tiafoe’s FH perhaps. Mischa’s FH is very unappealing but for obvious reasons.
 

Your Hero

Professional
Somewhere along the line Roddick watched Rafa beating Fed with the loopy
FH and decided to construct one of his own. It was cartoonish, ugly and
highly ineffective. He never won another slam. Rafa may have stuck a fork
in Roger many times but it was Roddick to whom he dealt a death blow.
 

Standaa

G.O.A.T.
I can't stand squatting shots, doesn't matter if it's forehand or backhand. Nice compilation here, Radwanska she was the queen of squatting shots.

I like how it says "Enjoy" at the start of the compilation. Nice little irony there.
 

davced1

Hall of Fame
Doesn't Kerber do that all the time as well?
Yes! Check out the beauty at 1:15 GOAT squatting right there! Check out the whole video, loads of squatting going on between the two. Kerbers squatting lob at 2:03 is probably the single ugliest shot I've ever seen.


Squatting half volley at 2:19. Her brain seems to be hard wired to squat whenever the ball comes close to her feet. Why didn't she take a step forward and played a volley or did a nice looking pick up half volley.

 
Last edited:

davced1

Hall of Fame
Not many players compare favorably to Roger, but Aga had great touch. But I won't divert the thread further; I found her a joy to watch.
I liked her game in general but that video of squatting shots with her happened to be the first one I found to give an example, I just find that one shot very ugly, doesn't matter who the player is.
 

Standaa

G.O.A.T.
don't we have enough nadal threads already ? :unsure:

I know you won’t take this question seriously (and even if you will, I probably know the answer), but if you leave his face, his grunts, his expression out of consideration when he plays his shots and try to imagine it’s a completely different player playing the same strokes, someone who you think is likeable, you would still think it honestly looks worse than ANY, literally ANY of the horrendous examples that’s listed above? If yes, is it because you truly believe his strokes (again, without his face, grunts, basically without Nadal) are visually the ugliest thing (even if Fed started to play his strokes like that) or is it because it’s connected to Nadal?

I for one think his FH (not the lasso version, but when he hits through it and really goes for it) look actually quite alright and people get distracted by other things like his kick-in-the-nuts expression and grunting. But take all that away and you actually have a pretty nice FH. What do you think?
 
Last edited:

donquijote

G.O.A.T.
Obviously Surezsh forehand.
W727VE.gif
 

Heuristic

Hall of Fame
Somewhere along the line Roddick watched Rafa beating Fed with the loopy
FH and decided to construct one of his own. It was cartoonish, ugly and
highly ineffective. .

low penetration, low on power.. I agree it's in the major leagues in every department of ugliness and uselessness.
 
Top