Worst weapons in pro tennis

S

Scientist

Rookie
There are lots of threads here on GOATs and "best (x) of all time". How about we talk about some of the worst shots in tennis. You know, the ugliest, least effective, or incredibly overshadowed strokes possessed by otherwise capable professionals. Shots that make you wonder how that guy (or girl) ever became a top 50 player.

I'll start:

worst backhand: Feliciano Lopez
forehand: Richard Gasquet
serve: Aggie Radwanska
volley: Robin Soderling
return:Karlovic, Isner
footwork/speed:Karlovic, Isner, Sharapova
mentality:Gulbis, Safina
 
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Serves: Seppi, Kunitsyn
BH: Lopez
FH: Fish
Volleys: Sod

Kunitsyn's game overall makes me wonder how he's even top 100. He has no weapons. He played Blake last year in Cinci and it was like torture to watch. Blake just gave him the match w/ a ton of stupid errors. Kunitsyn has no weapons to impose onto his opponent. The folks that call Murray a pusher obviously haven't seen him play.
 
FH: Fish
BH: Karlovic (worse than Lopez)
Volleys: Davydenko
Serve: Seppi, Monaco, Nieminen (gets away with it b/c he's lefty)
 
Oh man I forgot about Nieminen for serves...I was watching the Roddick match today and the guy was literally tossing 50-60 mph meatballs with regularity. But you're right he get's away with it because of some lefty spin and his groundstrokes are machine-like solid.
 
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Other than volleys, slice bh and serve... karlovic may just be able to sweep all the other categories.
 
Davydenko has nowhere close to the worst volleys in the top 50. He's capable of finishing points near the net, which is more than what I can say about most of the strict counterpunchers that don't know how to approach the net.

I would also nominate Ljubicic for the forehand category.
 
During the Murray match, Gasquet was hitting some nice winners off the forehand side, and was rallying competantly with it. It's not a great shot, and is overshadowed by the backhand, but I don't think it's an awful shot.
Davydenko is an unorthodox but effective volleyer. If you saw him at the end of last year, he was fininshing points off at the net with regularity, with the two-handed backhand volley.
I do have to give a vote to the Seppi serve and Soderling volleys though, they are bad shots for a professional player.
 
So is this thread supposed to be about the "worst weapons" of the top ranked players? Because I'm sure there are guys ranked down around 500 or so, that we've never heard of, that have strokes much worse than those being listed so far.

EDITED: Ok, I see the OP references worst weapons for the Top 50 players.
 
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I know this doesn't really count cause he is ranked so low, but I think his name was Anders that Tsonga played at Roland garros first round this year. He has a terrible backhand.
 
Does Marion Bartolli still go up on the balls of her feet to serve?? That is the oddest thing I've seen.
 
worst backhand: Feliciano Lopez
forehand: Andy Murray
serve: Novak Djokovic
volley: Robin Soderling
return:Ivo Karlovic
footwork/speed:Ivo Karlovic
mentality: Nicolas Almagro
 
nadalfan4life said:
I know this doesn't really count cause he is ranked so low, but I think his name was Anders that Tsonga played at Roland garros first round this year. He has a terrible backhand.
Click to expand...

Brands? The guy that nearly beat Tsonga? I thought his backhand was quite potent.
 
jamesblakefan#1 said:
How are Roddick's tactics bad? They're the most improved part of his game, just look at the match vs Nadal in Miami.

Guys w/ worse tactics than Roddick:

Murray, Cilic, Gonzo, Monfils, Almagro, Querrey, Gulbis, Blake.
Click to expand...

He still make mistakes on his transition game from baseline to net, it is painful to watch sometimes. I agree it improved a lot though.
 
nadalfan4life said:
I know this doesn't really count cause he is ranked so low, but I think his name was Anders that Tsonga played at Roland garros first round this year. He has a terrible backhand.
Click to expand...

His name is Daniel Brands. I mentioned him as having one of the worst backhands in my previous post in this thread lol.
 
jamesblakefan#1 said:
How are Roddick's tactics bad? They're the most improved part of his game, just look at the match vs Nadal in Miami.

Guys w/ worse tactics than Roddick:

Murray, Cilic, Gonzo, Monfils, Almagro, Querrey, Gulbis, Blake.
Click to expand...

Add Tursonov for that matter. No it's even like

tactics: tursunov

when you have top 10 groundies, a very decent serve and you can barely break into top 20... i mean that says it all
 
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