Nadal has best movement of all time on grass/clay. Mandy and Gymnast excel on hard courts. Nadal's HC movement, while amazing does not look as smooth and natural. Noserer in his peak was a good clay and grass mover and solid HC mover.

 

Nadal's grass movement<Fed's grass movement (in his peak)

But what do you have to say on the quality of transverse and lateral (baseline) movement of these players? Any comments on that?

 

Clay:

1-Nadal
2-Ferrer
3-Federer
4-Monaco
5-Djokovic

Hard:

1-Djokovic
2-Federer
3-Murray
4-Nadal
5-Ferrer


Grass:

1-Federer
2-Murray
3-Nadal
4-Djokovic

Pretty much the same players,only the order is different depending on the surface.

 

Transverse and lateral rankings?

 

PeakDavy had the best ever lateral offensive movement on HCs ever.

 

His wing span on groundstrokes was amazing.

Federer's movement to the net is still very quality, though he stands very close to the baseline so he doesn't have as far to travel as Murray and Nadal.

 

Nobody moved as well as Fed in his peak physical years (04-05).

 

On Hard courts yes. But you could make a case that Nadal's movement (laterally on baseline+longitudinally between baseline and net) was/is greater than Fed's on clay and they are very close on grass.

On another note, is it Djokovic's relatively weak longitudinal movement that makes him relatively weaker on hard courts and fast courts like Cinci?

 

I actually agree with the opener. While Djokovic has absolutely amazing lateral movement, his movement forward is not nearly in the same league. Nadal on the other hand excels in move EVERY single part of the court, same goes for FeDerer during his peak (right now his movement when he tries to hit inside out forehands is pathetic).

 

Yeah I concur completely. If you see most of Djokovic's defeats on HC (against Haas in 2013, Fed in cincy and wimby 2012), he really seems to struggle with the longitudinal movement and a great net player on a fast+low bouncing court can really expose that.

I really think that this weakness in Novak's movement makes him somewhat weak on Wimbledon's grass.

 

My own rankings:

Lateral movement on baseline->

1. Novak Djokovic
2. Rafael Nadal
3. Peakerer (circa 2004-2006)
4. Andy 'Clayray 2.0 OBE' Murray
5. Olderer

Longitudinal movement between baseline and net->

1.Peakerer
2. Rafael Nadal
3. Olderer
4. Novak Djokovic
5. Andy Murray (witness his very poor movement in 2012 Wimby Final, slipping and falling multiple times)

Comment welcome

 

stepanek is among the best back-to-front (to back) movers in the game.

it's particularly noticeable when he is forced to back-pedal to avoid being lobbed.

 

Would you say that all great net players have great back-to-front (to back) movement by default? Are guys like Llodra equally good as stepanek in this regard?

 

wait you want a top 5, but a top 5 that only involves 4 players?

what?

 

Djokovic's footwork is a big reason why he struggles on grass. You need great footwork to be great there, just like Fed and Rafa. Yes, I know he won Wimbledon two years ago but he still isn't a great grass player like Federer, Nadal, or even Murray.

 

I recall in 06, 07, and 08 at Wimbledon, Nadal came to the net more than Federer.

His up and back movement is great, lateral declining in recent years. Fed's anticipation at his peak was almost unfair.

Djokovic has the best lateral movement in the game currently, but his net game has always let much to be desired save for a few times in 2011.

 

It's a shame Monfils has such horrible footwork or he would blow every single one of these guys mentioned away.