Your Top 5 volleyers of all time?

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Weird list I know. Just some really good volleyers of the ball. Not necessarily the best. I cba picking the usual players. We're watching the modern era, may as well pick from them...
 
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Mac, Edberg, PETE, Becker, and Rafter stick out above many of the others. A boring answer, but I can't help but be impressed when I see old clips of those guys working their magic. I have no idea about Laver or any of those older players, though.

Fraud is a great volleyer indeed, but he's edged out by the top five I think. It'd be interesting to see what his net game would have developed into had he played in the 90's more. He started out with a bit of an old-school game that carried over into about 2003 before switching to his more modern strokes.
 
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Do we just mean the technique and hands or also net coverage as well?
 
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Third Serve said:
Mac, Edberg, PETE, Becker, and Rafter stick out above many of the others. A boring answer, but I can't help but be impressed when I see old clips of those guys working their magic. I have no idea about Laver or any of those older players, though.

Fraud is a great volleyer indeed, but he's edged out by the top five I think. It'd be interesting to see what his net game would have developed into had he played in the 90's more. He started out with a bit of an old-school game that carried over into about 2003 before switching to his more modern strokes.
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Roger is nowhere near the top 10 let alone 5 volleyers of all time.
 
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Dolgopolov85

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Druss said:
Please, spare us.
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In all honesty, as a Fed fan, I do find it difficult to accommodate him when it comes to all time volleyers though he would just about make the cut for my top 10. After the five I have mentioned, I would still have to find room for at least Pat Cash, Feli and Stepanek. I have seen Feli change direction on a shoestring volley. I don't remember seeing Fed do that. Fed is brilliant at everything but not necessarily the best at everything. I mean, there's no player who's that anyway, it's not possible. Best forehand followed by a top 5 serve and slice and top 10ish everything else.
 
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Druss said:
I thought you could answer that, as you seem to bring up Fraud even in threads that have nothing to do with him.
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Feddys brought him up in a thread about the top 5 volleyers of all time tho.
 
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Dolgopolov85 said:
In all honesty, as a Fed fan, I do find it difficult to accommodate him when it comes to all time volleyers though he would just about make the cut for my top 10. After the five I have mentioned, I would still have to find room for at least Pat Cash, Feli and Stepanek. I have seen Feli change direction on a shoestring volley. I don't remember seeing Fed do that. Fed is brilliant at everything but not necessarily the best at everything. I mean, there's no player who's that anyway, it's not possible. Best forehand followed by a top 5 serve and slice and top 10ish everything else.
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I appreciate your sense of fairness but Fed would be lucky to make the cut as a top 50 volleyer all time. As an example, Pete is an ATG volleyer but I hesitate to put him in a top 5 all time list that isn't limited to OE ATGs because even in his own era there were volleyers like Rafter who were superior to him in some aspects of the volley/net game. Put another way, is Pete's volley comparable to his serve? Its a stretch. Is Fed's volley comparable to his GOAT forehand? LMAO
 
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Third Serve said:
What does your top 10 look like? I agree that he probably doesn't make the top ten (unsure about the "nowhere near" qualifier).
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Take a look at my response to Dogopolov then lets go from there
 
Druss

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Dolgopolov85 said:
In all honesty, as a Fed fan, I do find it difficult to accommodate him when it comes to all time volleyers though he would just about make the cut for my top 10. After the five I have mentioned, I would still have to find room for at least Pat Cash, Feli and Stepanek. I have seen Feli change direction on a shoestring volley. I don't remember seeing Fed do that. Fed is brilliant at everything but not necessarily the best at everything. I mean, there's no player who's that anyway, it's not possible. Best forehand followed by a top 5 serve and slice and top 10ish everything else.
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Do you take into consideration though due to his attacking game, he often puts himself in a tough position, yet more often than not comes up with a clean volley? That's also in an era were we've seen the best basinliners in tennis history. Compare him to Nadal for instance, who is also an excellent volleyer, however generally comes into the net when it's an easy put-away.
 
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GhostofPetros said:
Take a look at my response to Dogopolov then lets go from there
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btw I refer mostly to Open Era. In the grand scheme of things, since net play has been a crucial part of tennis from the 1880s up until like 20 years ago, there have most probably been lots of players better than Fed at the net. But what's your personal top 10 as far as OE is concerned? The post you referred me to only covers a couple of players.
 
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Druss said:
Do you take into consideration though due to his attacking game, he often puts himself in a tough position, yet more often than not comes up with a clean volley? That's also in an era were we've seen the best basinliners in tennis history. Compare him to Nadal for instance, who is also an excellent volleyer, however generally comes into the net when it's an easy put-away.
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Fed doesn't come in that often though. If he serve and volleyed like past greats he wouldn't look anywhere near as clean at net. And the volleys Fed makes aren't really that impressive imo. Greatly aided by poly and his form isn't great either. Honestly he is a great shotmaker but his actual volleying ability is above average to good imo
 
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Druss said:
Yes that's because Fedr has a case to be in the top 5. Of course it's debatable but it's not that far-fetched.
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Yes...yes it is. You're going to tell me you think Fed's volleys are comparable to Rafter's let alone Edberg's????
 
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Dolgopolov85

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GhostofPetros said:
I appreciate your sense of fairness but Fed would be lucky to make the cut as a top 50 volleyer all time. As an example, Pete is an ATG volleyer but I hesitate to put him in a top 5 all time list that isn't limited to OE ATGs because even in his own era there were volleyers like Rafter who were superior to him in some aspects of the volley/net game. Put another way, is Pete's volley comparable to his serve? Its a stretch. Is Fed's volley comparable to his GOAT forehand? LMAO
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Top 50 is a stretch, I can't think of 50 better volleyers than him all time. Not unless you are including doubles specialists. If you did, then yes, Leander for starters. Peter Fleming was another. There would be so many.
 
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Dolgopolov85

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Druss said:
Do you take into consideration though due to his attacking game, he often puts himself in a tough position, yet more often than not comes up with a clean volley? That's also in an era were we've seen the best basinliners in tennis history. Compare him to Nadal for instance, who is also an excellent volleyer, however generally comes into the net when it's an easy put-away.
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I do. Because I have seen the other volleyers I mentioned also volley from similar tough positions. And more often because all of the ones I mentioned serve volleyed a lot more than Fed. And it's a myth that serve and volley was easy in the 80s or 90s. It never was. These players just honed the ability early, so they could repeatedly make volleys that would be considered impossible today.

I mostly find Fed hitting great volleys on pure feel when he's within reach of the incoming shot. Less so when he's using footwork and reaching/diving to get to it. I have probably seen Djokovic dive more often to make volleys than Fed. What I am saying is Fed is rather conservative with how he volleys. Nadal is not a good base to compare with because only Nadal-ites and McEnroe overrate his volleying skills. Nadal himself says he only comes in when it's safe.
 
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Third Serve said:
btw I refer mostly to Open Era. In the grand scheme of things, since net play has been a crucial part of tennis from the 1880s up until like 20 years ago, there have most probably been lots of players better than Fed at the net. But what's your personal top 10 as far as OE is concerned? The post you referred me to only covers a couple of players.
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There are too many great volleyers even OE to make a good list imo. Among slam champions though I would say Edberg is my personal GOAT then you have a nice gap and Mac comes into the picture for his hands and good anticipation, then you have your bread and butter volleyers who lived and died by the volley because their serves weren't anything to write home about like your Cash, your Rafter, your Laver's, then I would put a healthy gap and put Pete at the top of the next tier with guys like Becker, Henman etc. beneath.
 
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Dolgopolov85

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GhostofPetros said:
There are too many great volleyers even OE to make a good list imo. Among slam champions though I would say Edberg is my personal GOAT then you have a nice gap and Mac comes into the picture for his hands and good anticipation, then you have your bread and butter volleyers who lived and died by the volley because their serves weren't anything to write home about like your Cash, your Rafter, your Laver's, then I would put a healthy gap and put Pete at the top of the next tier with guys like Becker, Henman etc. beneath.
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Laver's serve not being anything to write home about isn't something I am too sure about. It more than got the job done in his time.
 
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