{"id":182270,"date":"2025-06-13T23:06:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T23:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/182270\/"},"modified":"2025-06-13T23:06:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T23:06:11","slug":"andy-roddick-names-the-three-greatest-volleyers-he-has-ever-seen-in-tennis-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/182270\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Roddick names the three greatest volleyers he has ever seen in tennis history"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Volleying is among the trickiest skills in tennis, with only a handful of players having truly mastered the art.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many ATP<\/a> and WTA players attempted to win points via volleying at the French Open<\/a>, which has just concluded in Paris.<\/p>\n

Iga Swiatek congratulated Coco Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz<\/a> after the Grand Slam, with the players having won the women\u2019s and men\u2019s singles titles respectively.<\/p>\n

Alexander Zverev was among the French Open disappointments<\/a>, but the ATP and WTA calendars have already moved on from the Grand Slam.<\/p>\n

Queen\u2019s<\/a> is underway on the latter, with the former having turned to both the Boss Open and Libema Open.<\/p>\n

\"HSBCPhoto by Luke Walker\/Getty Images for LTAAndre Agassi shares what it was like playing against Jimmy Connors<\/p>\n

During the French Open, however, a discussion on volleying was held between legendary figures Andy Roddick<\/a> and Andre Agassi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And it started when Agassi was tasked with sharing his verdict on one former rival of his in Jimmy Connors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> He\u2019s the former number one who made Andre Agassi feel like the rules of tennis needed to be changed when he played him<\/a><\/p>\n

\"JimmyPhoto by Gilbert Iundt\/Corbis\/VCG via Getty Images<\/p>\n

He said on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast: \u201cWhen I looked at him as an 18-year-old, I saw somebody I recognised in the sense that he always had his team around him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe always seemed like he had this appropriate\u2026 how would I call it, appropriate paranoia about him? He didn\u2019t trust anybody that wasn\u2019t on his team, but he trusted his team immensely, there\u2019s something I identified with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he did for the game was incredible. Jimmy surprised the hell out of me when I played him by his ability\u2026 it would have been later on [in his career], although years later he still got to the semis in the Open, pretty incredible.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really amazed at Jimmy\u2019s ability to take pace and use it against you, right? So if I hit a hard ball to his backhand, he would maybe stay with one cross to my forehand, then I hit it hard again to his backhand, and then he would take a two-handed early inside-out shovel, like a two-handed side spin shot like line, and he would come in.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was only like five nine, but man he only came in on his terms. And when he came in\u2026 talk about a guy that never missed a volley. He made sure. He turned his racket into a sand wedge.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Andy Roddick names the three greatest volleyers he\u2019s ever seen<\/p>\n

Choosing to focus on that skill in particular, Roddick interjected with the question: \u201cDo you think we have this thing in tennis where if someone\u2019s a baseliner, that means we don\u2019t give them credit for the volley?<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause three of the best volleyers I\u2019ve ever seen are\u2026 watched Connors, [Lleyton] Hewitt<\/a> and Rafa [Nadal<\/a>].<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> What Sam Querrey said about Coco Gauff\u2019s final with Aryna Sabalenka which really annoyed Andre Agassi<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DavisPhoto by Matt McNulty\/Getty Images for ITF<\/p>\n

A relieved Agassi said: \u201cThank you for saying Rafa. Completely,\u201d with Roddick continuing: \u201cBut we\u2019re so lazy if they\u2019re a baseliner that means\u2026 just because they don\u2019t come in a lot doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re not golden when they get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Agassi then concluded: \u201cYou know what I would have loved to have seen? I would have loved to have seen Rafa play a match where he had to come in 68 times. Just to watch what he could come up with to set that record straight.\u201d<\/p>\n\nPlayer<\/strong><\/td>\nTitles<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nJimmy Connors<\/td>\n 109<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nRoger Federer<\/td>\n 103<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nNovak Djokovic<\/td>\n 100<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nIvan Lendl<\/td>\n 94<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nRafael Nadal<\/td>\n 92<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

ATP Tour title leaders<\/p>\n

Nadal\u2019s superb volleying helped him endure record-breaking success at the French Open, a tournament he won 14 times.<\/p>\n

His compatriot Alcaraz is now doing his utmost to continue Spanish dominance at the Grand Slam, having now won the last two titles in Paris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volleying is among the trickiest skills in tennis, with only a handful of players having truly mastered the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4105],"tags":[38012,5065,4294,72556,74899,4296,79,1068,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-182270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-andre-agassi","9":"tag-andy-roddick","10":"tag-atp","11":"tag-jimmy-connors","12":"tag-lleyton-hewitt","13":"tag-rafael-nadal","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tennis","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114678568460857383","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}