Who Is The Best Returner?

According to commentators it's Djokovic followed by Murray.
They both have a DBH and that naturally makes their life considerably easier.

But what about Nadal and especially Federer?
Don't they deal with big servers with more ease?


What do you think?

Nope Nadal, doesn't. It's a liability to be that far back.....even if on clay its not that much of a problem.

I still think that on fast surface where mouvement plays a slightly lesser role, Fed is the best returner.

Djoko moves NEARLY as fast as Fed can move his arm thanks to great eye hand coord. And as your commentator said, that DHBH gives him a great advantage.

BUt this NEARLY is everything on fast court cause the fact he doesn't actually move his body as fast as Federer eye/hand coord means he struggles more than Fed versus bigger servers. Fed can very often find 4 amazing returns in a row giving him a break. Djoko find it more difficult, he has to wait for the big server to give him 4 doubles serves in a game.

Having said that, I still voted Djoko as in current conditions, over the 4 slams, Djoko is the more consistent one.

Nole and Andy are easy to separate - they are not all that different in what they do except that Nole is better at it.

Nadal is by far the worst of the four.  He literally does not do anything on the return most of the time and relies on his baseline game to take over once the rally starts.

Federer is a little trickier to place. He does not return as aggressively as Novak or Andy, so he does not cause the same damage with his returns, but he is better at returning the very fastest serves.  In more old-style tennis conditions, his return might perhaps even be the most efficient of the four.  However, he is playing his tennis in current conditions, and in those he is below either Novak or Andy.

Tenez wrote:Nope Nadal, doesn't. It's a liability to be that far back.....even if on clay its not that much of a problem.

I still think that on fast surface where mouvement plays a slightly lesser role, Fed is the best returner.

Djoko moves NEARLY as fast as Fed can move his arm thanks to great eye hand coord. And as your commentator said, that DHBH gives him a great advantage.

Love it!

Teenez wrote:
BUt this NEARLY is everything on fast court cause the fact he doesn't actually move his body as fast as Federer eye/hand coord means he struggles more than Fed versus bigger servers. Fed can very often find 4 amazing returns in a row giving him a break. Djoko find it more difficult, he has to wait for the big server to give him 4 doubles serves in a game.

Thanks for explaining that.
I could never quite put my finger on it.

Anyway, my vote goes to Fed.

SBH who won 17 slams....no brainer!

I actually think Murray's returning is overrated. He's got his CC BH perfected, but not much else.
Like Nadal, his returning game relies not on consistent depth or placement but keeping the ball in play after return.

With Nadal, I never paid too much attention on quality of his returns, but never felt he was in danger of losing to tall servers, even in TBs.

From memory, most of his returns go mid court and down the middle.

But Murray has a good H2H v big servers.

Tenez wrote:But Murray has a good H2H v big servers.

Didn't check, he is similar to Nole, though I think he lost quite a few times to them all: Anderson, Isner, Querrey, Raonic...and remember those 11 footfaults he needed to beat Ivo on Court one a few years ago?

Tenez wrote:But Murray has a good H2H v big servers.

You're right!

Murray-Karlovic 5:0
Murray-Isner 6:0
Murray-Raonic 3:3
Murray-Roddick 8:3

Nadal-Karlovic 5:0
Nadal-Isner 6:0
Nadal-Raonic 6:1
Nadal-Roddick 7:3

Djokovic-Karlovic 1:3
Djokovic-Isner 8:2
Djokovic-Raonic 5:0
Djokovic-Roddick 4:5

Federer-Karlovic 13:1
Federer-Isner 6:2
Federer-Raonic 9:2
Federer-Roddick 21:3

This hilighs so much the importance of mouvement in returning and why Djoko is a great returner ...against non huge server, where body mouvement is simply not good enough.

We had a discussion with Paul about it....and those stats I must say back my point!