Who has the greatest forehand in tennis history?

[RS]

That BP performance was wild

Mostly Nadal reaching another gear on them Fed was pretty close to his best.

Fed probably should have broken once in the first but that's as far as it goes.

 

[Kralingen]

Mostly Nadal reaching another gear on them Fed was pretty close to his best.

Fed probably should have broken once in the first but that's as far as it goes.

That BP performance was wild

Nadal’s maybe most underrated but greatest weapon, differentiating him from other players, to me is the lefty slicer out wide on ad court. It’s not just on Advantage BPs but also 30-40 situations. So effectively if you want to break him you need to be close to perfect on deuce court serves and get lucky on at least one ad court. It’s just a really tough issue to solve.

Like his game was built in a lab for big points

 

[RS]

Nadal’s maybe most underrated but greatest weapon, differentiating him from other players, to me is the lefty slicer out wide on ad court. It’s not just on Advantage BPs but also 30-40 situations. So effectively if you want to break him you need to be close to perfect on deuce court serves and get lucky on at least one ad court. It’s just a really tough issue to solve.

Like his game was built in a lab for big points

Yeah and also in the first 2 sets there were a few times he would lax a bit on regular points which is a little of the reason Fed was able to get a lot of BP's but yeah as you say the big points totally different story. Serve is not built for banging down aces but it's great and setting up Nadal's offence and the spin still doesn't make it easy to return because it's so deceptive.

 

[NatF]

Nadal’s maybe most underrated but greatest weapon, differentiating him from other players, to me is the lefty slicer out wide on ad court. It’s not just on Advantage BPs but also 30-40 situations. So effectively if you want to break him you need to be close to perfect on deuce court serves and get lucky on at least one ad court. It’s just a really tough issue to solve.

Like his game was built in a lab for big points

Lefty advantage

 

[abmk]

I didn’t include 14-15 for Federer because I felt his serve and more aggressive net game did a lot more of the heavy lifting.

I distinctly remember thinking his forehand had gotten a lot worse but I’m willing to give him those years.

I included 2012 but didn’t include 2009 for Nadal because I thought 2009 Nadal’s forehand was actually kind crappy and one of the reasons his pre-RG clay matches against Djokovic were as drawn out as they were.

fed's 14/15 fh was worse than 11/12 fh, but then not really worse than nadal 21/22 fh. so for consistency we'd need to include or exclude both.

I disagree on 09 fh for nadal.
nadal had long drawn out matches vs fed/djoko in Hamburg 08 also. MC 08 could have been a 3-setter if fed had held it together.
rome 09 was a straight-forward straight-setter from what I remember . MC 09 was a 3-setter yes.
he also won barcelona convincingly IIRC.
madrid nadal was struggling a little to adapt to the conditions, game as a whole, not fh in particular.

 

[abmk]

yeah that was my impression, so i was curious if the gap between Lendl & Borg in your list was due to your judging Lendl as having an advantage in DTL/I-O/I-I corridors and that outweighing Borg's advantage CC, or some other thought process. one route i was considering is that i would argue that Borg had a advantage in neutral consistency (zone 3), denying forced and unforced errors with gets (accounting for movement gap), and defensive shotmaking (zones 1 and 2), while Lendl had an advantage in error forcing aggression and offensive shotmaking (zones 4 and 5). meanwhile i would say Nadal would be closer to Lendl in those latter two zones and perhaps overtaking him for offensive shotmaking, along with having Borg's advantages.

Lendl's being better aggressively and being able to flatten it out better, while being consistent.

 

[Kralingen]

Yeah and also in the first 2 sets there were a few times he would lax a bit on regular points which is a little of the reason Fed was able to get a lot of BP's but yeah as you say the big points totally different story. Serve is not built for banging down aces but it's great and setting up Nadal's offence and the spin still doesn't make it easy to return because it's so deceptive

Yeah, growing up is realizing that Nadal’s serve was very effective, for his game, despite what the standalone serve stats may show. You don’t go entire Slam Finals unbroken if it’s a liability.

 

[RS]

Wim 07 final is a good example. Nadal hit just 1 ace but that's misleading.

 

[RS]

That's more to say about his speed and movement than his forehand itself.

A lot of elites have great speed and movement though even if Nadal stands out there. But what makes it tricky as speed and movement can make the shot itself since it's about timing so it's not linked to the shot on paper but it really is if that makes sense.

 

[NatF]

Yeah, growing up is realizing that Nadal’s serve was very effective, for his game, despite what the standalone serve stats may show. You don’t go entire Slam Finals unbroken if it’s a liability.

Very effective for Fed, less effective against Djokovic or players with a strong left side return.

 

[mental midget]

Yeah, growing up is realizing that Nadal’s serve was very effective, for his game, despite what the standalone serve stats may show. You don’t go entire Slam Finals unbroken if it’s a liability.

yeah lefty big advantage in general on ad side w/ the can opener out wide. and for nadal, that spinning either into the forehand or away from backhand on the ad side makes getting it to his backhand off the return difficult for a righty...first ball forehand, and away he goes.

 

[socallefty]

yeah lefty big advantage in general on ad side w/ the can opener out wide. and for nadal, that spinning either into the forehand or away from backhand on the ad side makes getting it to his backhand off the return difficult for a righty...first ball forehand, and away he goes.

Doesn’t the righty have this same advantage on the deuce court? Also Djokovic has no problems getting to Nadal’s BH on ad with a DTL return. You just need a good BH return and a good righty slice serve.

 

[timnz]

I would say , Federer for inside out forehand and Sampras/Lendl for running forehand. Nadal though is his own thing, awesome

 

[Vincent-C]

Federer as the clear best overall FH package; Lendl up there close, but he was not a top-level mover, and did not have
Federer's flexibility / variation in the shot. And Lendl had a killer topspin lob!

 

[Megafanoftennis100]

Djokovic had one of the most overrated seasons of all time that year and was making a mockery out of darn near everyone which he is failing to do now as the weak era is over.

Thats a wild year to use

Fixed it for you

 

[The_Order]

It’s just a manifestation of the hidden weakness and downside of the Nadal forehand. Again there’s no doubting it’s an incredible shot like easily top 2 all time but it’s just not Federer’s FH, that’s all.

There's more to a fh than just hitting winners...

There's also many seasons where Fed's fh was off...

 

[mental midget]

Doesn’t the righty have this same advantage on the deuce court? Also Djokovic has no problems getting to Nadal’s BH on ad with a DTL return. You just need a good BH return and a good righty slice serve.

they do, but given a lot of big points are ad side, and most players are righties, advantage to the lefties!

 

[Incognito]

Yeah, Sampras is right up there with Federer and Nadal in the forehand conversation, people limiting it to Fedal are probably too much drunk on recency bias.

Lol no. Agassi had a better fh than Pete.

 

[martinezownsclay]

Pete seemed to win slightly more of the forehand exchanges with Andre, but a lot of that was his superior movement than the shot itself. It is hard to say which of Sampras or Agassi had a better forehand. I would lean slightly to Agassi overall. Sampras probably could hit more winners off it, but it was far less consistent.

 

[BauerAlmeida]

Fixed it for you

Djokovic 2011 is overrated now

And now the era is stronger than in 2011 ?!?!?! I thought that the argument of anti-Djokovics was the other way around, that now it was weak and that's why he was winning lol.

 

[BauerAlmeida]

Doesn’t the righty have this same advantage on the deuce court? Also Djokovic has no problems getting to Nadal’s BH on ad with a DTL return. You just need a good BH return and a good righty slice serve.

No, the wide serve from a lefty on the ad-court goes to your backhand and the wide serve from a righty on the deuce court goes to the forehand.

 

[FD3S]

Pete seemed to win slightly more of the forehand exchanges with Andre, but a lot of that was his superior movement than the shot itself. It is hard to say which of Sampras or Agassi had a better forehand. I would lean slightly to Agassi overall. Sampras probably could hit more winners off it, but it was far less consistent.

I'd say that while the Sampras FH had the higher ceiling, Agassi's FH by far had the higher floor. While some of it's effectiveness had to do with Andre's insane hand-eye (much like Pete's movement enhancing his own forehand), the stroke in isolation was both technically superb and incredibly efficient; there's so little that could misfire with it from a fundamental standpoint. During his latter years you rarely saw wild, out of nowhere misses unless he was forced into them.

 

[TheRed]

Very light racket and whipping action. Of course it can't be as accurate as fed. But bludgeoning shot..

Huh? Nadal would go sets without missing a forehand. His deficiency compared to Fed was in power, not accuracy

 

[ND-13]

Sampras, RF and RN. One can choose anything but I think the first two are ahead by a whisker

 

[nolefam_2024]

Huh? Nadal would go sets without missing a forehand. His deficiency compared to Fed was in power, not accuracy

Nadal lacked zero power compared to Federer.

 

[socallefty]

No, the wide serve from a lefty on the ad-court goes to your backhand and the wide serve from a righty on the deuce court goes to the forehand.

We are talking about Nadal having an advantage over righties on the ad court. I’m pointing out that righties have the same advantage on the deuce court where they can serve slice to his BH.

 

[martinezownsclay]

I'd say that while the Sampras FH had the higher ceiling, Agassi's FH by far had the higher floor. While some of it's effectiveness had to do with Andre's insane hand-eye (much like Pete's movement enhancing his own forehand), the stroke in isolation was both technically superb and incredibly efficient; there's so little that could misfire with it from a fundamental standpoint. During his latter years you rarely saw wild, out of nowhere misses unless he was forced into them.

I think that is a perfect assessment really.

 

[RS]

Yeah, growing up is realizing that Nadal’s serve was very effective, for his game, despite what the standalone serve stats may show. You don’t go entire Slam Finals unbroken if it’s a liability.

Do wish it was more a cheat code at times. AO 17 final is a really good example of this and it may have preserved Nadal's physical traits a bit longer if he had a better serve.

 

[bnjkn]

I voted Federer, but, having just rewatched the 2007 Wimbledon final, which Nadal lost, I'm not so sure now.

Peak Nadal's forehand was absolutely devastating. It pretty much made Nadal unplayable.

I really don't know how Federer managed to handle that, even on grass.