THUNDERVOLLEY
G.O.A.T.
Agreed, and it confirms that anyone who does not think Sampras had a perfect, lethal forehand (IOW, one of the best in history, if not the best) never watched Sampras, and certainly did not see him play in person.
Who has the greatest forehand in tennis history?
- Thread starter Boomski
- Start date
Open Stance
Professional
Depends on the surface. Nadal's forehand on clay is the most devastating weapon in tennis history.
Razer
G.O.A.T.
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.
nolefam_2024
Bionic Poster
I haven't seen tennis during Pete's era.
But I don't understand. If Pete had the most mental strength in his era, was a great athlete that everyone claims, and had best serve at his height and best forehand, how did he not win a single roland garros title?
I don't disagree that his forehand was amazing, I have always heard about his running fh.
metsman
Talk Tennis Guru
because no one cares about clay.
Hitman
Bionic Poster
nolefam_2024
Bionic Poster
No a member who has Pete Sampras photo as avatar. Correct wording would be Sampras doesn't care about clay and that also would be wrong since he played every year.
Now don't come off putting your insecurities on the rest of us. please.
BauerAlmeida
Hall of Fame
Overall, Federer. The best shot in tennis history. Power, spin, precision, angles, could go down the line or cross-court, inside-out, inside-in, etc.
Surface-specific, Nadal on clay. He didn't have an elite serve or return, and the backhand was very good but not special. He dominated a surface like no other ever did mostly because of his forehand and his movement.
Surface-specific, Nadal on clay. He didn't have an elite serve or return, and the backhand was very good but not special. He dominated a surface like no other ever did mostly because of his forehand and his movement.
The Guru
Legend
Your reasoning in all of these posts is so unfair. Winners are just a horrible measure in the first place but even with that being said there’s no telling how those winners were set up just off of counting. Del Po out slugged Feds FH in 09 and 11 Novak from the baseline he was not we can all point to matches where Fed and Nadal were vested because their FH was not on.
What would be fair? A detailed video mashup of all the instances across 5000+ hours of matches where it can be shown how he was rushed off the FH wing?
RS
Bionic Poster
I stand by what I said though that it increases the chance of making errors. Both have different stronger and slightly weaker points were there FH's sure.
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The Blond Blur
G.O.A.T.
Tbf Nalby would go to Fed’s FH to then get to his BH. Once Fed’s BH improved this was harder to do ofc. And Delpo famously out dueled Fed FH to FH in the USO 09 F. He could be hurt when forced to run to his FH side.
Hitman
Bionic Poster
This is correct. The actually strategy to dismantle Nadal is to attack the forehand, which then forces him to cough up short balls, and follow it up by hitting into the open court. Nadal is much more comfortable and stable defending on his backhand side, but he doesn't like his forehand being attacked. Once the play book on him came out, it was clear what the game plan was each time. For that reason alone, it cannot be the greatest forehand overall, since to beat him consistently you actually need to hit into it a lot.
Del Potro's forehand is the one shot you simply have no chance of winning against, you need to avoid it at all costs.
The Guru
Legend
Right it totally has nothing to do with Nadal having the most steady BH like ever that basically never leaks errors vs Fed having an infinitely more unsteady backhand. That has nothing do with it.
The Guru
Legend
Saying 2011 Djokovic broke him down therefore worse is just insanely reductionist and myopic. Also Novak often got the better of FH to FH exchanges with Fed in 2011 too so it doesn’t really mean anything anyway.
NatF
Bionic Poster
Nope. Even if Fed had a rock solid backhand like Ned it still wouldn't be the go to strategy to hit the forehand because he didn't leak short balls off that side under pressure.
malbaker86
Hall of Fame
I hear you. No wrong answer. Any answer given has a case for it. Fed’s forehand at the USO from 03-09 was a CHEAT CODE
The Guru
Legend
If Nadal had Feds backhand no one would attack his FH
DSH
Talk Tennis Guru
It's a shame he didn't employ his forehand down the line much more consistently throughout his career.
He would have at least a couple more Major titles in his trophy case with that signature shot of his.
The_Order
G.O.A.T.
Fed's fh at his peak was def the most deadly... but it also has to do with who he was playing...
Once Nadal and Djok were able to defend it and turn that defence into offence, it would often draw errors from Fed's fh.
Lleyton could defend, but more often than not, his defensive shots were easily put away. Not the case with Nadal.
It really depends on what you prefer,
if you prefer higher peak with a sharper drop - Federer
if you prefer consistency and pure domination on clay/slower surfaces - Nadal
The poster you're referring to fails to mention that while players try that strategy, how many of them were actually consistently able to do it? You've got Djok then no one else really. Oh... and lets not forget Djok's got the best 2hb you're likely to ever see...
Federer's fh became an error machine at times and players would def attack that side. It's just like you said, his shbh was much more easily attackable hence the reason it was more targeted.
The_Order
G.O.A.T.
Nah, instead he just leaked errors...
That's why people started calling him Fed-error... so much so, that word is filtered on here... I had to hyphenate it
socallefty
G.O.A.T.
Got to be Federer, right? He won 20 Slams with a 1HBH in the poly era.
mental midget
Hall of Fame
fed, lendl, nadal. honorable mention: pete, courier, delpo.
Razer
G.O.A.T.
True...
In the 90s most people never cared for Clay..... 1 wimbledon was more valuable than piling any number of french opens.
Clay became talked about after Rafael Nadal started piling slams and Federer so badly wanted to beat him there.
jackson vile
G.O.A.T.
I’m going with Nadal
His forehand is somehow simultaneously the ultimate defensive forehand, while still retaining a tremendous amount of offensive ability and power, which makes it seem like an offensive forehead instead of defensive all at the same time.
Also, I don’t think it’s possible for us to ever see this type of forehand ever again making it especially unique
His forehand is somehow simultaneously the ultimate defensive forehand, while still retaining a tremendous amount of offensive ability and power, which makes it seem like an offensive forehead instead of defensive all at the same time.
Also, I don’t think it’s possible for us to ever see this type of forehand ever again making it especially unique
socallefty
G.O.A.T.
Some food for thought from an ESPN article in 2021.
How Novak Djokovic mastered his few faults to become the GOAT
Novak Djokovic has become perhaps the greatest men's player ever because of his ability to turn the few relative weaknesses in his game into outright strengths.
“In 17 previous meetings with Nadal before 2009 that were charted by Tennis Abstract, Nadal had hit 254 forehand winners to Djokovic's 221, and with 27% fewer errors. Beginning with this 2009 match in Paris, however, Djokovic flipped that completely around. In their next 30 charted matches through 2021, Djokovic hit 506 forehand winners to Nadal's 365, and with only 10% more errors.”
In my opinion, Nadal has a great FH for high-bouncing slow courts, but Djokovic has a more versatile FH where he can take the ball early, change angles better and be more offensive which is why you have FH stats (50% more winners, 10% more errors) like this in their head-head after 2009.
I would give the edge to Federer for having the best FH, but I think Djokovic’s FH is under-rated and Nadal’s is over-rated as an offensive weapon especially on lower-bouncing courts. Nadal doesn’t hit as close to the lines as Federer and Djokovic or on the rise from close to the baseline which is part of why there is this huge difference in FH winners. You don’t win 24, 22 or 20 Slams without a great FH that no one can exploit against you.
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Like everyone else, it's either Rafa or Fed. Not only were both shots insanely effective, they were also excited af to watch. Rafa's foreheads on the run quite literally could take your breath away and Fed would just pull out a scorcher seemingly out of nowhere.
Honorable mentions Delpo (duh) and Pete.
Honorable mentions Delpo (duh) and Pete.
kevin qmto
Hall of Fame
Dustin Brown when he tees off.
BorgTheGOAT
Legend
Pete gets usually underrated here. His 95 DC match against Kafelnikov, his 96 YEC final against Becker his 99 matches against Agassi. There are so many matches where he his forehand was clicking. Best running forehand in history.
Tennfan123
Legend
Delpo
NatF
Bionic Poster
Missing the point but ok
MichaelNadal
Bionic Poster
Epic and flashy
StrongRule
Talk Tennis Guru
So Djokovic is not in the top-10?
RS
Bionic Poster
It's fairly common take. Usually I see Djokovic anywhere ranked between 3 and 15 depending on the poster.So Djokovic is not in the top-10?
Federer's new FH with the bigger racquet was not the old FH, in that it lacked the power of the older one. But of course, the new racquet turned his game around, not just against Nadal, but just about against anyone else. Therefore, it showed that power was secondary to control.
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RS
Bionic Poster
Ok but we do have Fed in the 1999-2002/2003 years were he was similar in age to Nadal in 2005-2008 if we are to put importance to Nadal's HC losses in slams at the time.
abmk
Bionic Poster
So Djokovic is not in the top-10?
no, Djokovic FH is just outside of top 10. It used to be under-rated, now its got over-rated.
2003-2007 Federer, yes.
Later Federer with that pat-the-dog FH, no, not No.1 - everyone else in this list plus Djokovic had better FH mechanic than late Federer. He still succeeded despite that new FH because of his talent.
abmk
Bionic Poster
this includes 2003-12 federer FH and 2017-onwards as well. even in 11, djokovic feared federer fh more than nadal fh looked like.
13/16 injury affected years don't factor in too much. a little bit down due to 14-15 FH yes.
Federer, Nadal, Lendl, Sampras, Agassi, Courier, Borg, Del Potro, Gonzalez, Djokovic.
But then they forget that Sampras is a net rusher even if he did not serve-and-volley all the time, and rushing the net after an inside-out FH has never been a good idea (I am calling Fed here).
Because Sampras rarely hit inside-out FH.
But then they forget that Sampras is a net rusher even if he did not serve-and-volley all the time, and rushing the net after an inside-out FH has never been a good idea (I am calling Fed here).
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