Does Federer have the greatest slice of all time ?

Certainly at this moment, I can't think of anyone in tennis who's slice is as strong as Federer's.
Murray has a pretty strong slice, and I remember Dolgopolov also being able to be very creative with the slice, but when Federer is at his best he can use it to both restrain his opponent from taking the upper hand, as well as follow it up with an aggressive shot.


Cool video:

The one against Berdych @USO was probably my favourite out of those... just skidded through the court and messed Berdych up to the point he fell over.

Rosewal I think takes it for the best slice backhand of all time.

It's close I reckon. Federer has the advantage of a better racket and that he's one of the only prolific users of the slice at this time.  Some of the older guys, McEnroe edberg and even Pete had great ones too.  In going left field though and saying Steffi Graf. She made a career out of it and it was a fantastic slice

Back in the 20s and 30s etc there was no such thing as the DHBH, so I suspect a lot of players back then had great slice backhands.

I think JHM could agree with me about the Henman slice being right up there.

Underrated serve too, LK!

socal1976 wrote:Rosewal I think takes it for the best slice backhand of all time.

Agreed. That single shot stands on its own reputation as being remarkable.

Lots of good slices down the years, I don't think Federer would top the list - but he is undoubtedly the best currently.

What's with all this Henman loving here


Federer has the best slice in the game, I agree with Silver, but there are certain occasions where I think he should it more sparsely than he does. For example when returning the second serve, if his opponent is on form, the sliced backhand can invite his opponent onto the attack.

I couldn't say best of all time etc. but it's good. My clearest memory of it was during the W 12 final when Andy Murray was hitting forehands all over the place because the damn thing was so sticky. It wasn't even an approach shot, there was no passing pressure, it was just very hard to dig out. I seem to recall that a lot in that very big game in the 2nd set.

Its very difficult to say whether its the greatest of all time but for sure one of the best of all time, Murray is a great slicer too but in the league of Fed yet.

Del Po has improved a lot on the slice, and for a big guy like him i would rate his slice a lot more than normal guys.

Henman's slice was too inconsistent to be right up there. He got good bite on it but he stuck a heck of a lot of slice approach shots in the net. Fed's is much more reliable.

Not sure I go along with that.

McEnroe had a great slice.

bogbrush wrote:I couldn't say best of all time etc. but it's good.

+1

Fed a has a fantastic slice and he can play it very well, generally reliably, and even from tough positions.   I seem to remember that it was even claimed somewhere that it was the shot with most rpm in today's tennis.  A shame for him that today's tennis does not reward slice backhand as much as it used to.

But "best of all time"?  That is a very different question.  Many many great slice backhands over the years, mostly in the days gone by.

Watching Niculescu and Vinci in the last 48 hours, who have their entire careers built around slicing.

No Federer doesnt, Dimitrov has a much more accomplished slice

rugbygod2 wrote:No Federer doesnt, Dimitrov has a much more accomplished slice