Top 5 players by surface-- thoughts?

[curlywhirly]

Hey,

Its the offseason and I'm bored and looking for anything to chat about! I got this idea from another site. Who would you rank as the Top 5 by surface? Active players only. Some of these lists were difficult for me to decide. Just wondering what y'all think...

Women:

Slow HC:

Serena
Sharapova
Jankovic
Venus
Ivanovic

Fast HC:

Serena
Venus
Sharapova
Dementieva
Jankovic

Clay:

Ivanovic
Safina
Serena
Jankovic
Kuznetsova

Grass:

Venus
Serena
Davenport
Mauresmo
Sharapova

Men:

Slow HC:

Djokovic
Federer
Murray
Nadal
Nalbandian/Safin/Davydenko (can't choose)

Fast HC:

Federer
Djokovic
Murray
Davydenko
Roddick/Ferrer

Clay:

Nadal
Federer
Davydenko
Ferrer?
Djokovic

Grass:

Federer
Nadal
Roddick
Murray
Gasquet

I found the clay lists to be the most difficult (because so many players "specialize" on that surface) and grass the easiest (since so few have games tailor-made for grass).

What are your lists? ;D

[falafaclese]

I agree with most of your lists. Are you talking about performance over this year, or cumulative history? I'm going to assume you mean cumulative, in which case, I would have to consider Momo and Davenport for top five for slow and fast hard courts. I think I'd place them instead of the Serbs and Dementieva, although it'd be very tight.

As for the men, I'd have to consider Ancic instead of Murray for grass.

[curlywhirly]

I guess I was going by cumulative history but also who I would expect to see in the latter stages of big tournaments now. History is why I have Serena so high on the clay court list (since she has won RG), but I actually wouldn't favor her to beat Jankovic, Kuznetsova or Dementieva on clay these days. Momo definitely is good on slow hard but I wouldn't include her in the top 5 on fast hard, a lot of big hitters can blow her away on that surface. She probably belongs on the clay list instead of Kuzzie though. She has a tremendous record on clay, the only blight is her underperformance at RG.

I dunno what I was thinking putting Jankovic on the fast HC list over Davenport

[falafaclese]

Momo definitely is good on slow hard but I wouldn't include her in the top 5 on fast hard, a lot of big hitters can blow her away on that surface. She probably belongs on the clay list instead of Kuzzie though.

I think you're right about Momo and fast hard courts. It's hard to make an assessment too, because she's been on a bit of a slide in the last year or so. As for Kuzie, she's hard to gauge too because she's a fantastic player on any surface, but somehow she hasn't been able to put it together to win a title in over a year. She's one of my favorite female players to watch when she's on, but I don't know what to think of her. I hope her recent coaching change has a positive effect on her results.