Now that tennis fans are in a brief hibernation period—a nice, relaxing couple of weeks from my point of view—and we have a few minutes to breathe (or sleep), TENNIS.com is filling the gap this week with a series by Joel Drucker on the greatest shots of all time.
Monday we found out that Pete Sampras had the best serve ever; Tuesday we were informed, somewhat more controversially, that Jimmy Connors owned the finest return; and Wednesday it was revealed that Roger Federer has the best forehand of all time.
It's hard to argue with the Sampras pick. His serve was a model of effeciency and deadly in many ways. It was fast, heavy, and wickedly spun, and it always ended up right in the corner on a big point. It was the ultimate insurance weapon; having it in his back pocket allowed Sampras to relax and take more chances with the rest of his game. And it's still working. Even Roger Federer struggled against the 36-year-old version last month.
The only modern serve I can think of that challenges Sampras' is Goran Ivanisevic's laser lefty delivery. I feel like Sampras still could have won majors (though not 14) even if his serve had been a bit less stellar. It's hard to guess how far the explosion-waiting-to-happen known as Goran would have gone if his serve had been anything less than extraordinary. (Then again, he may have been forced to develop another major weapon if that had been the case.)
The best return is harder to pick, at least among the men. I'd say we've got Connors, Agassi, Hewitt, and Federer (Seles' and Venus' are pretty strong on the women's side). I'll eliminate Hewitt because he's not quite of the stature of the others. Federer's is the most consistent of the remaining three; he has an uncanny ability to read even the biggest serve and get his strings there in time to calmly put the ball back in a good spot. Agassi was the most aggressive with his return. He regularly guessed where the serve was going because he wanted to be offensive with his return and take away the server's advantage right away. Connors was also a fierce hitter, especially on the backhand side; but, as Drucker says, Connors had to deal with more serve-and-volleyers than those guys. In other words, he had to be more exact with his placement on his return.
It's a compelling argument. For me, it's a toss-up between Agassi and Connors. Having seen Andre rip so many returns over the years, it's hard for me to believe that anyone can do it better.
Any thoughts on these subjects?
I'll be back with a couple more posts, including a "best moments of '07" wrap-up, before shutting down for the year.