Who do you consider the 3 best baseliners of the last 25 years in their primes?

Who do you consider the 3 best baseliners of the last 25 years?

  • Total voters
    200
A

AndrewD

Legend
Moose Malloy said:
Connors(& Borg for that matter) came to net far more than Federer does, so not sure why he's a baseliner in your opinion & Federer is an all court player.

Was just watching Borg vs Connors, '77 Wimbledon final. They hit more volleys in that match than Federer does in an entire month. Guess the standards for what an "all court player" is have changed over the years.
Click to expand...

Very simple. Federer is equally effective up at net or on the baseline (name another baseliner who is). Federer is not merely a baseliner by inclination, as we saw during his early days on tour. Connors and Borg were baseliners by inclination, as we saw throughout their careers (at a time when playing up at net wasn't the suicide mission it is today).

If you don't believe me then read what John Newcombe says (second last answer)

http://www.tennis.com/features/wherearetheynow/wherearetheynow.aspx?id=58886
 
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T

TGV

Rookie
Best: Nadal, Federer, Agassi
Greatest: Federer, Lendl, Agassi

Connors(& Borg for that matter) came to net far more than Federer does, so not sure why he's a baseliner in your opinion & Federer is an all court player.

Was just watching Borg vs Connors, '77 Wimbledon final. They hit more volleys in that match than Federer does in an entire month. Guess the standards for what an "all court player" is have changed over the years.
Click to expand...

Very simple. Federer is equally effective up at net or on the baseline (name another baseliner who is). Federer is not merely a baseliner by inclination, as we saw during his early days on tour. Connors and Borg were baseliners by inclination, as we saw throughout their careers (at a time when playing up at net wasn't the suicide mission it is today).
Click to expand...

If you have to categorize or pigeonhole, Federer is obviously a baseliner. But I think of him as a shotmaker like Korda, Pioline etc.
 
B

Bagel_Territory

New User
This is a little unfair in terms of a pole.

It says " Who was the best baseliner in his prime "

yet, Federer is far from his prime...
However, I will say for sure ( being an agassi fan myself.. ) I saw Federer destroy agassi in the 2005 US open final 6-3 2-6 7-6(1) 6-1
and 2003 master cup housten TX 6-3 6-0 6-4

bear in mind.. 2003 for those who think agassi was old :
2003 :

Won: Aust open
WON San Jose
WON Miami
WON Housten ( master series not the cup )
Quarters of the French
Semis of queens.
Semis of washington
Semi's of US OPEN

So it was a fairly good year .. End of season cup. Federer Destroyed agassi, Agassi has said of federer. " There is nowhere on the court i could hit it.. and feel safe "


Long story short......

Federer by long way!
 
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Polaris

Polaris

Hall of Fame
BreakPoint said:
Borg, Nadal, Agassi
Click to expand...
Borg must make way for someone else here because, as Moose pointed out, he retired in 1981. The thread asks us to choose from the last 25 years. Oh wait, are you including Borg because of his awesome comeback many years later ;) ? Now, that is very bold choice, considering that he never cleared the first round.
 
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S

Steve Huff

G.O.A.T.
Borg (not on your list for some odd reason)
Lendl
Vilas (still holds the longest winning streak of all time)
then Agassi
then Muster
then Wilander
 
D

Deleted member 3771

Guest
Considering Borg had one of the worst forehands i've seen, i wouldnt consider him.
 
T

thejackal

Hall of Fame
i actaully voted agassi, lendl and nadal. i dont consider federer as a pure baseliner plus if volleys and serves did not count he wouldn't have as big an edge.
 
Lambsscroll

Lambsscroll

Hall of Fame
Why is Agassi leading? Federer was beating Agassi from the baseline when they played each other. Agassi's slice backhand doesn't even compare to Federer's.
 
G

Grimjack

Banned
Lambsscroll said:
Why is Agassi leading?
Click to expand...

Because no tennis player (and barely any other athlete, period) has ever had such extensive marketing efforts dedicated to promoting his talents.

Agassi was men's tennis's meal ticket for 2 decades. They were going to make damn good and sure that everybody knew he was the greatest baseliner in history -- whether it was true or not. Most people won't even recognize that they may've been manipulated by the media, much less see past it to the truth.


And in general: LOL @ "Masters Series titles" mattering.
 
S

Steve Huff

G.O.A.T.
Borg a weak forehand??? You must not have seen him until he tried to make a comeback. Plus, I never ever heard an announcer or player comment on him having a weak forehand (or even say it was weaker than his backhand). You couldn't win 6 straight French Opens and 5 straight Wimbledons with a weak side, especially if you weren't a serve and volleyer. Saying Borg had a weak forehand is like saying Nadal is too slow.
 
The Smiths

The Smiths

New User
Bagel_Territory said:
Nadal is too slow

he is.
thats why he plays 10 feet behind the baseline.
quick players like change and hewitt hover on the baseline.
Click to expand...

Too slow? LOL. He stands back because he doesn´t take it on the rise (due to his western grip) and he´s a defensive minded player. But too slow? That´s like saying Safin is a pusher. Speaking of Safin, why isn´t he on the list? :confused: I can´t think of many being better from the baseline than him. Hewitt hovers the line because he can take it on the rise better and he simply uses the pace of the other player to get it back. Nadal doesn´t feed on pace like Hewitt does, he generates his own. Therefore he needs more time to hit it, hence standing that far back.
 
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breakfast_of_champions

breakfast_of_champions

Banned
federer
lendl
agassi(nadal may be moving into top 3 someday)

if they were using 70's era equipment, and the poll was last 35 years, i'd go with connors/borg with lendl 3rd.
 
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federerfanatic

federerfanatic

Banned
Lambsscroll said:
Why is Agassi leading? Federer was beating Agassi from the baseline when they played each other. Agassi's slice backhand doesn't even compare to Federer's.
Click to expand...


I have no idea, I see Agassi only about the 5th best baseliner on this poll, when each of their players were in their primes, but that is just my opinion.

Here is how I compare Agassi to the ones I have ahead of him:

Federer vs Agassi

forehand-Federer
backhand-about equal
movement-Federer


Agassi vs Courier

forehand-Courier
backhand-Agassi
movement-Courier


Agassi vs Lendl

forehand-Lendl
backhand-Agassi
movement-Lendl


Agassi vs Connors-

forehand-Agassi
backhand-Connors
movement-Connors
 
federerfanatic

federerfanatic

Banned
Grimjack said:
Because no tennis player (and barely any other athlete, period) has ever had such extensive marketing efforts dedicated to promoting his talents.

Agassi was men's tennis's meal ticket for 2 decades. They were going to make damn good and sure that everybody knew he was the greatest baseliner in history -- whether it was true or not. Most people won't even recognize that they may've been manipulated by the media, much less see past it to the truth.

And in general: LOL @ "Masters Series titles" mattering.
Click to expand...

I agree, but I see past the marketing, I refuse to be manipulated, I enjoy mocking those who have been, and I see the truth. :p
 
rafa_prestige89

rafa_prestige89

Professional
Where is KUERTEN in this thread?
Kuerten is much better than Chang, for example.
After all
To win 3 Roland Garros you must be a good baseliner....
 
Butters!

Butters!

Semi-Pro
rafa_prestige89 said:
Where is KUERTEN in this thread?
Kuerten is much better than Chang, for example.
After all
To win 3 Roland Garros you must be a good baseliner....
Click to expand...

Yeah that´s right. Chang couldn´t hit out of a paper bag. He made Santoro look like a cannon blaster. The way he won the French is still to this day the most pathetic way to win a match. The Gamesmanship Anthem. Underhanded serves, moving back and forth in the return box to distract the server, moonballs (that literally touched the moon), lobs from the baseline (while Lendl was on the baseline) and junk galore. All this while supposedly ¨hurt¨or ¨fatigued¨. Somehow he still had enough in the tank to win 2 more matches to win it all. :roll: I wish he never won that lone slam. Santoro is an artiste while Chang was the cheesiest player of all time.
 
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lambielspins

lambielspins

Banned
To see Agassi with over twice the votes of Lendl is ridiculous. It makes me sick in fact. Apparently image is everything as his sneaker commerical says. :)
 
illkhiboy

illkhiboy

Hall of Fame
Butters! said:
Yeah that´s right. Chang couldn´t hit out of a paper bag. He made Santoro look like a cannon blaster. The way he won the French is still to this day the most pathetic way to win a match. The Gamesmanship Anthem. Underhanded serves, moving back and forth in the return box to distract the server, moonballs (that literally touched the moon), lobs from the baseline (while Lendl was on the baseline) and junk galore. All this while supposedly ¨hurt¨or ¨fatigued¨. Somehow he still had enough in the tank to win 2 more matches to win it all. :roll: I wish he never won that lone slam. Santoro is an artiste while Chang was the cheesiest player of all time.
Click to expand...

What's wrong with moonballing or serving underarm, both are perfectly legal tactics. Sure they are not pretty, but certainly no where close to cheating. A tennis player should be able to deal with all sorts of strokes. Too bad for Edberg, would have been great if he had a Career Slam.
 
JohnS

JohnS

Semi-Pro
1. Fed
Agassi
3. Nadal

Nadal's looking very impressive since the year started. His forehand isnt just a high heavy loopy shoot but also penetrating. I'm very impressed with his transitions from the past two or three years from counter puncher to aggressive baseliner (though his volleys are getting better).
 
S

Swingin Richard

Rookie
It looks like it is agreed for the most part that Agassi is the best baseliner ever. I find it interesting that Pete owned the greatest baseliner of all time, even blowing him off the baseline when he needed to, and Roger can't handle Nadal from the baseline. Sounds like Pete is better than Roger.
 
illkhiboy

illkhiboy

Hall of Fame
drakulie said:
Because he is the best baseliner in the history of the sport. That's why!

And federerfanatic, Agassi's backhand is far superior to federer's.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say "far superior." One of the reasons being, that Federer's down the line backhand is FAR superior to Agassi's. Agassi would rarely hit down the line. Federer did it all the time. However, Agassi would not make a lot of backhand erros, Federer can be a bit erratic with his at times.
 
zhan

zhan

Banned
i thought nadal wold get more votes
on clay (baseline only technically) he is a demi-god?
 
F

fastdunn

Legend
iplaybetter said:
is fed really a baseliner, he is fairley opertunistic about coming to net
Click to expand...

Borg is still considered the best baseliner of all time and he frequented
the net far more than Federer does.

If you see the stats, Federer's net approach often less frequent than
other players. Sometimes, when he has trouble, he approaches net
unusually high number of times.
Like the ones with Canas and Nadal. He loses fair share of those matches.
 
federerfanatic

federerfanatic

Banned
fastdunn said:
If you see the stats, Federer's net approach often less frequent than
other players. Sometimes, when he has trouble, he approaches net
unusually high number of times.
Like the ones with Canas and Nadal. He loses fair share of those matches.
Click to expand...

Federer beat Nadal the last 2 times they played, and won 5 out of 6 sets in those 2 matches. The last match was on hard courts and Roger won in straight sets, and despite choking serving for both sets, still managed to win both without even going to a tiebreak.
 
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