DropShotArtist
Banned
Sampras' serve is overrated because of the faster surfaces in his time. No way his serve would be as dominant today.
The reason I saw Pete is because Fed and Agassi agree. Agassi, who played a prime Fed said Pete, he made this quote, paraphrase a little "Get to your serve return position, take two huge leaps to your right and mark it, then do the same to the left, Pete could hit either anytime he wanted, and there is nothing you can do about it".It's hard to judge players from different generations, but I thought this would be an interesting topic to discuss. Couple of tihngs that must be taken into account though:
Old days:
-not as good racquet technology, so lower serve speed
-but this means it's also hard to block the serve with weak string/racquet, etc.
Nowadays:
-coursts are WAY slower, so harder to ace/hit service winner
-players return much better because of racquet technology/better reflex, etc.
Ha ha ha, that's how knowledgeable this board is.Greatest Server of All-time? Where is Pancho Gonzales?
Federer has more votes than Ivanisevic![]()
a voice of reason among the flood of "oh Pete has the best serve hands down" crowd (not surprising, given many other aspects of Pete that are overrated). Pete was not even the best server of his era; Goran was. Karlovic is the best server of all time.Sampras' serve is overrated because of the faster surfaces in his time. No way his serve would be as dominant today.
LMAO at Pete winning this poll. Planet Peter Warehouse at its finest.![]()
roddick, Isner and karlovic are clearly better Servers than pete. they both have higher hold percentages despite playing on much slower surfaces and having worse secondary stuff.Sampras many players said that they can not read his serve and he can ace you with the second serve!
Federer and Nadal probably have the two best baseline games of all time, when discounting the serve AND the return (neither are phenomenal returners, but on a second serve they don't have to return).Something interesting. When it comes to winning points on 2nd serves, Nadal and Federer are the greatest players in the open era. Nadal has won 57% of his career 2nd serve points while Federer has won 56%. Sampras is ranked 19th in the all time list in this department.
I would post a gif in reply, but the moderators seem to frown upon successive gifs.
Actually, if you take the effort to dig for stats (not nostalgia), you'll find that you're completely wrong... Karlovic trumps them all.I think Ivanisevic has the greatest first serve of all time. But combine the two and it's really not even close ... Sampras all the way.
I do think Isner has a great motion, and has an excellent first and second. His placement and variety need to improve a bit to get in this discussion ... but I think he has a chance to get there.
Stats are misleading. Sampras played better returners more often than a guy like Karlovic who barely gets out of the first couple of rounds.Actually, if you take the effort to dig for stats (not nostalgia), you'll find that you're completely wrong... Karlovic trumps them all.
If stats are misleading, then perceptions are doubly so.Stats are misleading. Sampras played better returners more often than a guy like Karlovic who barely gets out of the first couple of rounds.
Yup that a guy like Karlovic with a horrendous 5.0 ground game can consistently take the top 4 to tiebreakers in this era of slow courts, unequivocally proves he is the best server of all time.a voice of reason among the flood of "oh Pete has the best serve hands down" crowd (not surprising, given many other aspects of Pete that are overrated). Pete was not even the best server of his era; Goran was. Karlovic is the best server of all time.
Allow me to do some lendings of my Tennis expertise. Because I have a huge collection of my Tennis matches on DVDs and I do some watchings in my spare time with dear Mirky. So you can safely say I am a fan of Tennis, just like you. I mean, not quite like you, but you get my point. Back in Pistol Pete's days, the ball movings was faster, allowing servings to be faster, and returnings much tougher. Since my rulings over Tennis, ball movings is slower and returnings is easier. So Pistol Pete was having the benefits. Karlovic, despite my trainings and tippings and schoolings (you're welcome, Ivo) is having disadvantage in stats. So Ivo > Pistol Pete. Don't thank me, you're welcome.Stats are misleading. Sampras played better returners more often than a guy like Karlovic who barely gets out of the first couple of rounds.
Man, that is horrendous.Allow me to do some lendings of my Tennis expertise. Because I have a huge collection of my Tennis matches on DVDs and I do some watchings in my spare time with dear Mirky. So you can safely say I am a fan of Tennis, just like you. I mean, not quite like you, but you get my point. Back in Pistol Pete's days, the ball movings was faster, allowing servings to be faster, and returnings much tougher. Since my rulings over Tennis, ball movings is slower and returnings is easier. So Pistol Pete was having the benefits. Karlovic, despite my trainings and tippings and schoolings (you're welcome, Ivo) is having disadvantage in stats. So Ivo > Pistol Pete. Don't thank me, you're welcome.
My vote goes to Tanner! I've read about how good Pancho Gonzalves serve was but never seen him play - do don't know.Roscoe Tanner.
Nice choices with Pancho Gonzalez in there.Karlovic, look at how many aces he got.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbgyec9jcCM
After all, how else could someone with poor groundstroke consistency, and the worst movement and backhand on the tour manage to win matches against top players.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4Sgt7ZJTLc
Sampras and Pancho Gonzalez also have very strong arguments.
I second that.Man, that is horrendous.
Would you really have Flipper ahead of Ivanisevic? No one can compare to Ivanisevic. He was an ace machine. And unlike his only statistical challenger Karlovic he did it against top players in finals too, not against journeymen in the second round. I think Goran even got to the QF of the French Open.Poll/thread fail.
Where are Pancho Gonzales, Bill Tilden, Roscoe Tanner and Mark Phillipoussis?
Yep, I would throw Becker and Stich into the fray and if Groth (not sure who he even is) is in the list surely to God both Safin and Arthurs should be in it as well.Poll/thread fail.
Where are Pancho Gonzales, Bill Tilden, Roscoe Tanner and Mark Phillipoussis?
his forehand is pretty hard when he's hitting it well and his slice is decent. but yes his serve is about 70% of his entire game...Hey if u never lose serve its hard to lose a match right?Karlovic, that man has absolutely nothing in his game but a serve and yet he has made it as high as 14 in the world.