Best Ball striker

[CrazyLefty]

It is commonly known in golf that Ben Hogan was the greatest ball striker in the history of the game. Does tennis have and equivalent player or would this category have to be broken down to each type of shot.

Any thoughts?

[Segoo]

Tough to compare golf to tennis, but, I'll bite.

imho
The great ball strikers by era:
Elly Vines.
Pancho Segura.
Lew Hoad
Manuel Santana
Carlos Santana
Laver (the original, original crazylefty...are you him?)
Nasty
Borg/Connors (tie)
Monika Seles
Fred Couples (oops)
Andre Agassi.
Hingis and Federer (the ambiguously Swiss duo).
And of course that guy who won the fast serve contest on the subway platform between the Nat'l Tennis Center and Shea. Slappin the fookin shite outta the ball into a cage.

What do the experts think?

[lukman41985]

Lendl
Becker
Sampras
Agassi
Safin

All these guys struck the ball with authority. Not too much spin, just hard and penetrating.

[JoeTennis]

Johnny Mac, Jimmy Connors, Iron Mike Stich, Elena Bovina, L. Davenport, Andre, Safin on a good day, and Joseph Giuliano, coach of the New York SPORTimes. Oh, and Federer, I guess. Alicia Molik.

Ayy, was Laver really the original CrazyLefty? Aussie-ironic nickname for the mild mannered Rocket? Get Atkinson, Yandell or Chabreia on this, stat. CrazyLefty, care to chime in? Ida thought it was Mac all the way.

[safin_rod]

Ilie Nastase

[jlkm2219]

Fernando Gonzalez. He is a beast.

[ladycoach]

Maria Bueno.Evonne Goolagong.Martina (both of them).Mauresmo.Agassi. Seles.Connors.Serena.Jack Kramer.

In that order.

TLC

[bottle]

Helen Wills Moody

[CrazyLefty]

Andre and Lendl of the ground
Mac on the volleys
Boris on the serve
Pete on the overhead (I hate to admit it after the 1990 open semis)

My list is slightly biased by era, I think Ed Atkinson would have great insights into this discussion.