Who Has The Best Passing Shot of All-Time?

NatF said:
Agassi had arguably the best forehand/backhand combination of all time so his passing shots were unquestionably extremely good.
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Lendl also arguably has that combination but you didn't list him in your chronological order earlier, instead choosing to leave a massive gap of time between Borg and Agassi, and yet had the gall to also name Hewitt in the list (not that he isn't deserving).
 
Also, Wilander deserves some consideration and was probably as good as Lendl or Hewitt.
 
Nathaniel_Near said:
Lendl also arguably has that combination but you didn't list him in your chronological order earlier, instead choosing to leave a massive gap of time between Borg and Agassi, and yet had the gall to also name Hewitt in the list (not that he isn't deserving).
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Ouch, I haven't seem much of Lendl that's why. I qualified my list with a (those I've seen). I only started watching tennis in the 00's. I've watched lots of old matches but I haven't really watched much of Lendl. So I couldn't judge...besides from what I hear he preferred hitting as his opponents rather than passing them ;)
 
NatF said:
Ouch, I haven't seem much of Lendl that's why. I qualified my list with a (those I've seen). I only started watching tennis in the 00's. I've watched lots of old matches but I haven't really watched much of Lendl. So I couldn't judge...besides from what I hear he preferred hitting as his opponents rather than passing them ;)
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Oh sorry yeah I do remember that you did qualify your post in that manner.

Definitely check out as much as you possibly can through youtube, him and Wilander had superb passing shots off both wings. Lendl is an underrated shot-maker. I haven't seen any more of Borg, Lendl or Wilander than I've seen of say Agassi, Federer or Nadal but there is certainly enough about to get an impression.

Thing about Lendl is, he made his trade primarily as a baseliner (though players just tended to use the net a bit more frequently those days compared to today) against truly elite exponents of S&V tennis. The same can be said for Wilander, so both are well and truly tried and tested.
 
I enjoyed Federer's passing shots in that Wimbledon 2012 final against Murray.
 
I picked a random Lendl match and found an impressive amount of amazing passes, especially frequent in the third set.

I even watched the whole match for you, NatF, and noted timestamps for the passing shots

AND THEN MY COMPUTER CRASHED.


...


I've just searched again and fortunately Krosero actually compiled a short highlights of the very full match I found which contains most of the shots I listed in notepad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3q9Y5fAdMo

I'll post the full match anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K34JwVb4ek0

Go to 26:55 for a nice slowmo replay of the first pass from the highlights video.

There is a portion in the full match where the commentators (which includes Rod Laver) talked about how Becker seemed to be avoiding coming to the net out of fear for Lendl's passing shots. By set 3, I noticed that Becker just felt he had to attack more, and he got duly punished... so now also imagine a Nadal or Federer, as they would provide a similar fear.

Lendl was capable of going anywhere and everywhere with his backhand pass and his forehand was brutal in all situations.
 
Nathaniel_Near said:
I picked a random Lendl match and found an impressive amount of amazing passes, especially frequent in the third set.

I even watched the whole match for you, NatF, and noted timestamps for the passing shots

AND THEN MY COMPUTER CRASHED.


...


I've just searched again and fortunately Krosero actually compiled a short highlights of the very full match I found which contains most of the shots I listed in notepad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3q9Y5fAdMo

I'll post the full match anyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K34JwVb4ek0

Go to 26:55 for a nice slowmo replay of the first pass from the highlights video.

There is a portion in the full match where the commentators (which includes Rod Laver) talked about how Becker seemed to be avoiding coming to the net out of fear for Lendl's passing shots. By set 3, I noticed that Becker just felt he had to attack more, and he got duly punished... so now also imagine a Nadal or Federer, as they would provide a similar fear.

Lendl was capable of going anywhere and everywhere with his backhand pass and his forehand was brutal in all situations.
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Thanks for this Nathaniel (feels odd writing that as my full name is also Nathaniel),

I will watch the highlights and then probably the whole match. Thanks for taking the time to time stamp the passes, sucks that the computer crashed! Pretty cool that Rod is doing the commentary as well.
 
NatF said:
Thanks for this Nathaniel (feels odd writing that as my full name is also Nathaniel),

I will watch the highlights and then probably the whole match. Thanks for taking the time to time stamp the passes, sucks that the computer crashed! Pretty cool that Rod is doing the commentary as well.
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Somebody named Nathaniel who is actually HAPPY to shorten their name to Nat, what is the world coming to?

I jest.

It was always fascinating to hear the views of such a legend in the commentary, and he made many comments. He really sort of lived through the match with the players and gives the impression that he wishes somehow that he could still be out there.
 
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Nathaniel_Near said:
Somebody named Nathaniel who is actually HAPPY to shorten their name to Nat, what is the world coming to?

I jest.

It was always fascinating to hear the views of such a legend in the commentary, and he made many comments. He really sort of lived through the match with the players and gives the impression that he wishes somehow that he could still be out there.
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Haha very funny. Don't start calling me Natalie now please. When I was younger I wanted a nick name and Nat just seemed to stick.

I think it's really good when recent players do commentary. There was that match at the USO in 2007 between Roddick and Federer. Agassi did the commentary there and it was a good change up to here his analysis.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_69wkVgRLk

Iffy quality, but an even more brutal example of the scary accuracy and power of Lendl's passing shots off both wings, and also his devastatingly accurate lob. McEnroe was more willing to come to the net than Becker and got burned.

The full match of this is also available to watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMaeabpig14

The highlights for these matches suffice to get the picture but it is nice to frame it inside the overall context of the match so when you do find some time, it might be worth giving the matches the full viewing.

Now that I bring up McEnroe, he's another player who had great passing shots, actually he would hit some absolutely disgusting passes. There is a McEnroe Wilander match that comes to mind that had some incredible shot-making on show.

...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-60Bods2EU

4:34, though not sure the ball was in.
 
NatF said:
Haha very funny. Don't start calling me Natalie now please. When I was younger I wanted a nick name and Nat just seemed to stick.

I think it's really good when recent players do commentary. There was that match at the USO in 2007 between Roddick and Federer. Agassi did the commentary there and it was a good change up to here his analysis.
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Well I remember when I first saw you on the board I actually thought you might be female because I thought to myself, no Nathan or Nathaniel is going to choose Nat as a nickname -- I stand corrected!

My friends call me Nate.
 
Nathaniel_Near said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_69wkVgRLk

Iffy quality, but an even more brutal example of the scary accuracy and power of Lendl's passing shots off both wings, and also his devastatingly accurate lob. McEnroe was more willing to come to the net than Becker and got burned.

The full match of this is also available to watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMaeabpig14

The highlights for these matches suffice to get the picture but it is nice to frame it inside the overall context of the match so when you do find some time, it might be worth giving the matches the full viewing.

Now that I bring up McEnroe, he's another player who had great passing shots, actually he would hit some absolutely disgusting passes. There is a McEnroe Wilander match that comes to mind that had some incredible shot-making on show.

...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-60Bods2EU

4:34, though not sure the ball was in.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this. I have a huge backlog of matches I want to get throw but I'll put these near the top.

Nathaniel_Near said:
Well I remember when I first saw you on the board I actually thought you might be female because I thought to myself, no Nathan or Nathaniel is going to choose Nat as a nickname -- I stand corrected!

My friends call me Nate.
Click to expand...

Work friends call me Nate, think they prefer it to Nat...

Not sure why Nat is so bad as a nickname but whatever lol.
 
NatF said:
Thanks for this. I have a huge backlog of matches I want to get throw but I'll put these near the top.



Work friends call me Nate, think they prefer it to Nat...

Not sure why Nat is so bad as a nickname but whatever lol.
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Because as you sort of brought up, it makes one think of Natalie!

I can offer you a second reason in that it sounds the same as gnat.

gnat_210x201.jpg


But don't let me tempt you with the avatar option...
 
Lendl had the fastest one but Borg had the most accurate and versatile.

Connors and Rosewall weren´t bad either...
 
Nadal could have been among the greatest passing shot makers with his talent, but he never got enough practice with it in actual match. Everybody now stay back and play from the baseline! IMO, Borg was/is probably the greatest passing shot maker of all time. It's one of the main reasons why he won 5 Wimbledon in a row.
 
muster and vilas had sick passing shots also.

borg and nadal are the best of all time.

honorable mention to Federer: at his peak he too was pretty good at passing.
 
Best I have seen is Federer. I put him slightly above Nadal, because he could take the ball even earlier and this led to his domination.

After that Nadal, who sometimes struggled on very quick surfaces, because he did not have time to properly set up. However, the huge power and spin he could get from way behind court was incredibly impressive.

Third would be Hewitt, who had a similar style to Federer.

Murray and Agassi round off the top 5 for me.

EDIT
This is from the 90s.
 
roberttennis54 said:
Best I have seen is Federer. I put him slightly above Nadal, because he could take the ball even earlier and this led to his domination.

After that Nadal, who sometimes struggled on very quick surfaces, because he did not have time to properly set up. However, the huge power and spin he could get from way behind court was incredibly impressive.

Third would be Hewitt, who had a similar style to Federer.

Murray and Agassi round off the top 5 for me.

EDIT
This is from the 90s.
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they all have pretty good passing shots but I have a hard time calling anyone of them the best passer because they played on high bouncing surfaces against incompetent net players.

those players are probably the strongest ever (including nadal) but in terms of pure passing I have to rank borg ahead of them.
 
Nadal has cheatcode passing shots.

Next, I would say Federer. Hewitt, Agassi, Borg and Safin are also great.
 
dominikk1985 said:
they all have pretty good passing shots but I have a hard time calling anyone of them the best passer because they played on high bouncing surfaces against incompetent net players.

those players are probably the strongest ever (including nadal) but in terms of pure passing I have to rank borg ahead of them.
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Borg was before my time and though I have seen plenty of his matches, I have not seen the average top 20 of his era to compare how good he was compared to his peers. Equipment has changed so much that it is hard for me to judge players before my time. So all my comments are based on players from the early 90s onwards.

Hewitt did not play against incompetent net players, in fact he destroyed some of the very best when he was still young.
 
Nadal has great passing shots when on the run from the forehand and backhand (his backhand passing shots were better 2005-2009 than they are now). These are the passing shots one thinks of when thinking of Nadal's passing shots. He finds an angle at a very clutch, unthinkable moment. I feel like his probably really crush morale in the opponent because he hits them when the opponent has really worked for a point and should have easily won the point if he were playing anyone other than Nadal.

While Federer's on-the-run passing shots may not equal Nadal's in number or consistency, he has produced many of at least as good of quality, especially on his backhand. But most of Federer's passing shots are so great because he hits a lot of them when both players are in relatively decent positions on the court. He sets them up when the opponent doesn't even realize it, and then before you know it, a winner is hit. There are endless examples of this especially between 2003 and 2007.

It's no blowout by either and it's childish to claim it is.
 
mbm0912 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzxA-TYr1og
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See, when I watch points like these unfold, it's really frustrating as a fan of tennis. Even an indoor court no longer rewards the assertive sort of tennis. Federer appears to have gotten the upperhand in the point, but in reality, Djokovic has him right were he wants him, by virtue of camping out in the back and taking a defensive position. That kind of sucks, to me. Heck even why I play tennis, I feel like it's so easy to get passed, even on pretty decent approaches.
 
NatF said:
The best in chronological order (that I've seen);

- Borg
- Agassi
---


-
.
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Borg came to mind instantly-- with the borg/conners era there was far more serve and volley-- i watched many matches back then - the wimbledon match with roscoe tanner i think it was a 5 set final then? and the matches with john mac and borg.. i was a borg fan then so biased-- nadal and fed- djoko - murray can all do exceptional passes but they arent pressed for it as often as it was required back then..
 
I would also mention Vilas and Wilander.Rosewall and Connors had great passing shots as well.
 
Rafa is unique, he is like a football player who makes his passes by instinct without even checking where the other players are! Rafa is the best without a shadow of doubt, from the last thirty years. Lleyton Hewitt, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are also great, used to love those ones from Pete Sampras too
 
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