Who in your opinion has produced the highest level of tennis?

Which player took tennis to the highest level?

  • Sampras

    Votes: 21 6.2%
  • Federer

    Votes: 245 72.7%
  • Nadal

    Votes: 31 9.2%
  • Agassi

    Votes: 7 2.1%
  • Laver

    Votes: 7 2.1%
  • Borg

    Votes: 5 1.5%
  • Connors

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • McEnroe

    Votes: 9 2.7%
  • Lendl

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Other

    Votes: 11 3.3%

  • Total voters
    337

dogged

Banned
By this I don't mean who is the goat. But instead which professional played tennis at the highest level, even it is for one match.

As much as I like Rafa, and after all the incredilbe things I have seen Federer do over the past 7 years, I think Pete took tennis to the highest levels. Higher than any other great ever has.

The way he bludgeoned Andre at the 1999 Wimble or 1999 MC was ridiculous. Also 1997 Davis Cup against Rafter, and 2002 USO final against Andre.

Whats your opinion?
 

jones101

Hall of Fame
I have only been watching tennis since Wimby 03, so its fed to me, but they are all legend's so this poll should be interesting.
 

davey

Rookie
Yeah berdych does play insanely good sometimes. Another guy who I think has produced some sick tennis when he's on fire is Gulbis.

Gulbis? Berdych? Every player on tour has at least hit an insane shot or two in their careers, that doesn't mean just anyone can be considered for something like this. When I think of tennis at its highest level I think of more than just ball bashing. Federer, Sampras, McEnroe... these guys are known for soo much more than just ball bashing or shot making. They know how to work points moving their opponents around and exploit openings and weaknesses.
 
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Deleted member 21996

Guest
if you mean total ownage left and right in everyone's face for a short period, i would have to go Nalbo's 2007 indoor season... that was steamrolling for 2 weeks!
 

NicoMK

Hall of Fame
Johnny Mac in 1984. Just amazing.

Sampras played some amazing matches throughout his career, but two of them remain in everyone's mind : His QF against Agassi at the USO in 2001, and the Wimbledon final in 99. Short after, Agassi had this comment : 'Today, Pete was walking on water'. :)
 

The Edberg

Banned
Between Federer or Sampras. Never seen anyone produce or reach the level that Sampras reached at the 1999 Wimbledon final. He made Agassi look like a juniors level player. It looked like a man against a boy.


Federer AO 2007 level as well. Unreal play.
 

Kobble

Hall of Fame
Baseliner - Nadal

Serve and Volley - Krajicek

With Pete, Federer and Agassi, I always felt there was a way to serve better, or play the right strategy. With Krajicek, there really was no strategy when he was at his best. You had to pray for second serves, because it looked nearly impossible to threaten him off the 1st. You become reactive to his game. In 1998 at Stuttgart,he almost destroyed every major rival in one tournament in straights. Which consisted of two former, and one current world number one. The list of players totaled 25 majors in their career. He also beat two of the best baseliners (Agassi and Kafelnikov), and two of the best servers (Sampras and Ivanisevic) on and indoor court.


Round Opponent Ranking Score R64 Bye N/A W
R32 Magnus Norman (SWE) 52 W 6-4, 6-1 Stats ............

R16 Andre Agassi (USA) 5 W 6-3, 6-4 Stats

Q Goran Ivanisevic (CRO) 14 W 7-6(3), 7-6(5) Stats
.
S Pete Sampras (USA) 1 W 6-7(2), 6-4, 7-6(5) Stats

W Yevgeny Kafelnikov (RUS) 8 W 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 Stats


Nadal is the only player that made me say, "Wow, I never thought I would see a shot like that."
 
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onkystomper

Hall of Fame
if you mean total ownage left and right in everyone's face for a short period, i would have to go Nalbo's 2007 indoor season... that was steamrolling for 2 weeks!

I second this.. i recently rewatched some of these matches and it was just crazy.. also Gasquet came out and said he had never felt completely helpless on a tennis court like he did then, even when Federer was whipping him he said that no matter waht he had no say against NAlbandian.
 

davey25

Banned
Definitely Sampras or Laver. On clay Borg or Nadal.  I have no doubt Sampras playing at his highest level would beat Federer pretty much everytime. Federer is more consistent, especialy in his true prime, playing a higher proportion of his best day in and day out than is Sampras though.
 

P_Agony

Banned
Federer, no contest IMO. Pete took it to high levels as well, but no one dominated the sport like Fed, and no one did it with a style as pretty as his. He's had so many matches that you can call perfect tennis, and he's beaten so many great players so many times. Federer's highest level puts everyone to shame IMO.
 
S

Serendipitous

Guest
Federer, no contest IMO. Pete took it to high levels as well, but no one dominated the sport like Fed, and no one did it with a style as pretty as his. He's had so many matches that you can call perfect tennis, and he's beaten so many great players so many times. Federer's highest level puts everyone to shame IMO.

Yes, very nice! 8)8)8)
 

christos_liaskos

Professional
I reached a pretty insane level in my match a couple weeks ago....I doubt tennis has ever been played to that level before....shame it was just that one match and not consistently for a few years because otherwise you guys may be debating whether I am the GOAT or not with my 20+ slam titles
 

With all due respect, did you actually SEE those matches? If so, you wouldn't just post results to show how insane his level was in those matches.

I actually saw that Berdych match in Madrid; it was nothing special, this was back when Nadal struggled w/ all kinds of flatball hitters on HC (Youzhny, Blake, Berdych) so the Berdych win was no big surprise.

I'm gonna have to go w/ Fed vs Roddick 07 AO SF. Total ownage there. It was like video game tennis from Fed. Perfect on BPs vs Roddick? Nuff said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ikx0Du735Y

A dark horse would be Tsonga vs Nadal AO 08. He was on fire that night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO6lalt5f6M
 

davey25

Banned

That was one of Federer's worst matches ever. Most guys in the top 50 would have beaten him that day. Berdych didnt even play well. I think both guys had about 7 winners and over 60 unforced, it was horrible.

Berdych was a tough matchup for Nadal for awhile, then again so were Youzhny and Blake.
 

davey25

Banned
Federer, no contest IMO. Pete took it to high levels as well, but no one dominated the sport like Fed, and no one did it with a style as pretty as his. He's had so many matches that you can call perfect tennis, and he's beaten so many great players so many times. Federer's highest level puts everyone to shame IMO.

I think Pete's game was higher risk than Federer's so he was more prone to "off days" which is what caused nearly all his losses. At his best he was virtually untouchable IMO. Federer of course also reaches amazingly high peaks, but it is that combined with his amazing consistency day in day out that allows him to dominate to such an extreme.
 

kmen21

New User
if you mean total ownage left and right in everyone's face for a short period, i would have to go Nalbo's 2007 indoor season... that was steamrolling for 2 weeks!


This

Also, Gonzalez at the Aussie Open in 07 or 08, don't remember. He was bageling everyone left and right, until he chocked in the final.
 

anointedone

Banned
This

Also, Gonzalez at the Aussie Open in 07 or 08, don't remember. He was bageling everyone left and right, until he chocked in the final.

The choke word has become a ridiculously abused word. How do you choke away a match you lose in straight sets! Or choke a match away you lose to a guy you were something like 0-10 against regardless how well you are playing.
 
I feel we should have some definition of peak play. Are we talking about a single match? Single tournament? Single season? Two or three year period? A players best consecutive years?
 

matchmaker

Hall of Fame
If you only talk about one match, pretty much any player can get in the zone and play lights out.

Mc Enroe, Rios, Nalbandian, Federer, and many others have known such days of being in the zone and making the opponent look like a tool.
 

piece

Professional
I'll admit that I've never seen the entire 1999 wimbledon final but I'm not sure I'd consider if Sampras's best performance based on the youtube highlights I've seen of the match. I know the highlights don't tell the whole story, but you'd think, if anything, the highlights would make a match look more impressive than it actually was, but I just don't find sampras's level of play particularly impressive. Agassi served horribly and didn't return very well and sampras - while certainly not giving agassi anything - seems to just serve huge then volley away the returns (many being somewhat difficult volleys, to be sure). So while sampras definitely played very well, I'm more impressed by the solidness of the performance rather than anything outstandingly brilliant. I don't think it was better than Mac's 1984 wimby final performance or some of Kajiceks's grass performances, or some of Fed's 2006 wimby performances (his wins over gasquet, henman, ancic, bjorkman are all up with the best grass performances i think, and I certainly find the youtube highlights more impressive than sampras's - and as i said, if we're talking about best performances ever you're gonna want the youtube highlights to look damn impressive), also I think in the late 70's borg had a couple of dominant wins too - not too sure of the actual quality of performance on those though.

The 1999 TMC final on the other hand (which I did see) is the best I have ever seen sampras play. He was a winners machine from the baseline, and he definitely played above himself in the backhand department. Heaps of winners from that side. I do, however, think I have seem a few better individual performances than sampras in that match. As always, sampras's defence wasn't up there with the greats (even in the 1999 tmc final), and while he certainly didn't need it to be to beat agassi that day, if he had been playing someone with better movement than agassi, someone who could have returned more of his attacking shots with great depth (a nadal, hewitt, djokovic kind of player) he might not have looked so great.

I think the best individual performance ever is federer def. hewitt 2004 us open final, mostly because of the first set. best set of tennis ever played. Every forehand federer hit, it seemed, landed on hewitt's baseline and came with ridiculous pace. Federer was hitting winners from ridiculous positions - and i don't mean from way out of court, but from deep balls that gave him no angle he would just rip forehand winners. I find that kind of hitting the most impressive of all, when the opponent hits a good pace, good depth rally shot and you can only expect another rally shot in response, but instead there's a winner, made from nothing, and out of nowhere.
 

piece

Professional
Also, I think Hoad, Gonzales and Vines should be options. Jack Kramer considered all these guys to have better peak play than Laver, and Gonzales thought Hoad at his best was the best ever
 

JeMar

Legend
It's kinda hard to pick against Federer here. He essentially melded together classic technique with new technology and modern strokes. His technique will be studied for years to come.
 

The Edberg

Banned
I think Pete's game was higher risk than Federer's so he was more prone to "off days" which is what caused nearly all his losses. At his best he was virtually untouchable IMO. Federer of course also reaches amazingly high peaks, but it is that combined with his amazing consistency day in day out that allows him to dominate to such an extreme.

Its 10 times easier to be week in week out consistent with Fed's game opposed to Sampras'. No one could play Sampras' style of game and expect 14 slams. Very very few players could. Had Federer kept his pre-2004 style of game, he would have never been as week in week out consistent as he was. Its more or less comparing apples to oranges with Fed to Sampras in this regard
 

Tony48

Legend
I hate to admit it (I really, really do...lol) but I have to say Federer. I'll always remember that match at the AO in 2007 (iirc) where he bludgeoned Roddick. Made him look like a complete clown.

Roddick: I bet you can't beat the s**t out of me.
Federer: You're on!
 

origmarm

Hall of Fame
If you mean level during a period of play in a match I remember a match (I'm sorry I can't remember the opponent) in which Rios played some points that I genuinely rewound on my VHS as I didn't believe it just happened.

For a match overall I'd have to give it to either Sampras '09 against Agassi that others have mentioned, possibly Gonzalez vs Haas at the AO '07 or Federer in many matches 07-09, just too many to mention.

I did consider the Safin US Open victory over Sampras in '00 but I think that was more a steady beating than an outright flash of brilliance
 

Anaconda

Hall of Fame
Actually, i have changed my mind. Safin, against Sampras and Federer in the US open & Australian Open respectively.
 

abmk

Bionic Poster
federer

though there are a lot more other great examples as well, I'll put them down later
 
Berdych is so overrated. Can you name a single match Berdych played where you could say he would have beaten pretty much anyone that day.

If you were watching tennis around 2005 you would've heard great things about the man and occasionally you would've seen some incredible shot-making for that period.

And, it doesn't have to be a semifinal or a final. There are other players besides Federer and Nadal in the atp tour.
 
Maybe not the highest level of tennis, but one of the smartest matches ever played was Ashe's win over Connors Wimby 75. Ashe devised the perfect gameplan to drive Connors bananas and pull of one of the biggest upsets in tennis history.
 
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Deleted member 3771

Guest
Definitely Sampras. But most people in this forum havn't seen him play so its more fruitful to just include current players in the poll.

Krajicek was also untouchable in some of the matches Ive seen of his.
 

piece

Professional
never seen anything better than sampras at masters cups 1996, 1997 and federer at masters cup 04 ao 07

Do you think sampras's 1996/7 tmcs were more impressive than his 1999 tmc final (putting aside the fact that 1996 match with Becker was obviously a better overall match)? And do you think fed's 04 tmc was more impressive than his 2003 final drubbing over agassi ? i thought that was one of fed's all time best performances
 
T

TennisandMusic

Guest
Is it fair to say all of them? All of those guys are basically the best the game has ever seen and all of them have taken the sport to it's very height at one point or another. They could also all beat each other on any given day. I think picking one is fruitless.
 

TheTruth

G.O.A.T.
My favorite Sampras match was USO, 2000, QF against Krajicek. That is one of the most amazing matches I've ever seen.

Krajicek, being Sampras' kryponite was on fire. The display of tennis he put on was nothing short of spectacular. He was in the zone and won the first set.

It's been a while, so I don't remember all the details, but anyway, they ended up in a second set tiebreak, and Krajicek's brilliance continued.

He went ahead 6-1 to take a two-set lead. Sampras's expression never changed. If you were just tuning in, you wouldn't know he was in a world of trouble.

The umpire was calling the score in an authoritative voice. (now,I can't remember the exact sequence) but it was like, 1-love, Sampras. 1-1 all. 2-1 Krajicek. 3-1 Krajicek. 4-1 Krajicek. 5-1 Krajicek. 6-1 Krajicek.

His back against the wall and facing a 2 set deficit. Sampras went into stealth mode. It kept going back and forth on serve, 2-6 Krajicek. 3-6 Krajicek. 4-6 Krajicek. 5-6 Krajicek. 6-all. 7-6 Sampras. 8-6 Sampras. Pete won the second set and went on to win the match.

Krajicek was shocked. He kept playing well, but it was obvious he was in a daze. Obviously, he had never experienced anything of that nature.

It was beyond. Anybody else see that match? Wow!
 

dogged

Banned
My favorite Sampras match was USO, 2000, QF against Krajicek. That is one of the most amazing matches I've ever seen.

Krajicek, being Sampras' kryponite was on fire. The display of tennis he put on was nothing short of spectacular. He was in the zone and won the first set.

It's been a while, so I don't remember all the details, but anyway, they ended up in a second set tiebreak, and Krajicek's brilliance continued.

He went ahead 6-1 to take a two-set lead. Sampras's expression never changed. If you were just tuning in, you wouldn't know he was in a world of trouble.

The umpire was calling the score in an authoritative voice. (now,I can't remember the exact sequence) but it was like, 1-love, Sampras. 1-1 all. 2-1 Krajicek. 3-1 Krajicek. 4-1 Krajicek. 5-1 Krajicek. 6-1 Krajicek.

His back against the wall and facing a 2 set deficit. Sampras went into stealth mode. It kept going back and forth on serve, 2-6 Krajicek. 3-6 Krajicek. 4-6 Krajicek. 5-6 Krajicek. 6-all. 7-6 Sampras. 8-6 Sampras. Pete won the second set and went on to win the match.

Krajicek was shocked. He kept playing well, but it was obvious he was in a daze. Obviously, he had never experienced anything of that nature.

It was beyond. Anybody else see that match? Wow!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMHwYfkkYVA&feature=related
 

davey25

Banned
Maybe not the highest level of tennis, but one of the smartest matches ever played was Ashe's win over Connors Wimby 75. Ashe devised the perfect gameplan to drive Connors bananas and pull of one of the biggest upsets in tennis history.

What was most impressive is that was not Ashes normal game at all. Normally he ripped the ball, hit huge serve, attacked relentlessly, came over backhands and drove them very hard. He totally adapted his game for that match, as he knew playing his normal way would be likely just be chewed up by Connors.
 
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