Best serve-and-volleys in history?

[Gregoire]

My ranking:
1/Sampras
2/McEnroe
3.Becker
4.Edberg
5.Ivanisevich

[Doctor MJ]

Let me see if I get this answer from Pat Cash on Quora in here:

http://www.quora.com/Tennis/Who-do-you- ... f-all-time

Oh this is a tough one as I didn't get to play some of the all time greats like Rod Laver and Pancho Gonzales.

However I will mention that Laver's technique is near perfect even compared to modern standards and Gonzales had such an effective serve and volley that they actually changed the rules of tennis for a while because of it.

I've spoken to many people and heard lots of names come up in this discussion (sometimes even mine:) but not having played many of the legendary greats and not being able to rely on statistics (previous eras are not accurate and often not included) I'm going to base my answer on players I have personally competed against or watched play in detail.

Out of the the players I have played I would say (in no particular order):
Boris Becker


John McEnroe


Stefan Edberg


Of the modern players:
Pat Rafter


Pete Sampras


Rafter and Sampras are also the only modern players who would get into my top 10 list.

On the women's side the best Iv'e seen are:
Martina Navratilova


Margaret Court


Venus Williams and Serena Williams



Soon I'll be doing a full top 10 list on my blog so stay tuned. Also if you're interested you can find a few photos of my volleys here Photos - Google+.

[Doctor MJ]

For me, I'd think of two guys most: McEnroe & Sampras - so I'm with you Gregoire.

When I think of a rapid-fire fighters brain with the instincts to attack the net best, I think of McEnroe.

Then you have Sampras whose serving was so effective that he removed much of the risk that comes with rushing the net, and once the other player is on the defense and you're at the net, you're odds of winning the point are huge.

Also, I'll echo Cash and mention Gonzales. It seems entirely plausible to me that if Gonzales were in his prime in the Sampras era he'd be at least as strong as Sampras.

[Slava]

Sampras and Rafter for me, I think even Bjorg had a very effective serve and volley game. Ivanisevic is a outlier because his main weapon was his serve and when he had to volley he depended a lot on his baseline ground strokes than coming to the net often.

[Dupp]

From what I've seen clearly Rafter and Sampras. Ivanisevich was good but not on their level. Rafter was the best volly'er but sampras' serve puts him ahead overall imo.


Something that has pretty much vanished from the modern game. Watching Agassi go at it against these two when all were on their game was great tennis. Completely conflicting styles but great to watch.

[fredsays]

Pat Rafter should get a mention in top 5 all time.

[BlackKnight]

Sampras and McEnroe as 1a and 1b

[Def Leppard]

Edberg, rafter, Mac,