By Chris Oddo | Friday September 4, 2015
During the course of his 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Andreas Seppi—his 11th in 11 tries over the Italian—Novak Djokovic had things under control well enough to let the commentators of the match engage in a brief debate about the merits of the all-time great returns of serve.
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As Djokovic went about his business of methodically taking apart Seppi (Seppi played well but there was an air of inevitability about the match), ESPN encouraged viewers to join the debate and vote for either Djokovic, Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors and Lleyton Hewitt as the best returner of all-time.
Darren Cahill, an esteemed assessor of talent who is performing double-duty as an ESPN commentator and the coach of No. 2 seed Simona Halep, was first to offer his opinions. It wasn’t easy for the former coach of Andre Agassi, but the Aussie had to give it up to Djokovic.
Cahill said that while Hewitt and Connors were special in their own regard, in his mind the debate boiled down to Djokovic and Agassi. “It’s going to hurt me but I’m going to say Novak,” Cahill said. “I think Agassi, of the ball was in the slot, he had a more powerful weapon to get the ball through the court, he could hurt you with that first shot. But he had to guess a little bit. He didn’t have the flexibility or the reach that a guy like Novak has.”
He added: “Against the big servers [Andre] had to guess a little hit, he got aced a lot, so I would say that Novak has the ability to get his racquet on a lot more balls. With Boris Becker coming in he’s become more aggressive, especially returning the second serve so I would say Novak is the best returner that we’ve seen.”
“The best all-around returner because of his length and his ability to defend and attack, is Djokovic,” said ESPN’s Brad Gilbert. “Andre just behind him at two, Connors behind him at three, and Hewitt a distant four of those four.”
The on-air debated swayed to which player was the toughest to ace, and the consensus was unanimous that this was also Djokovic. “No question, Djokovic,” said Gilbert, “Not even close.”
“Hewitt in his prime was pretty tough to ace as well,” said Patrick McEnroe.
“Slightly smaller guy, didn’t quite have the same reach,” said Cahill.
When it comes to the most offense return, apparently, Djokovic still has his work cut out for him. Agassi would be the winner of that award. “He had the most offensive return of serve, no question” said Cahill.
Meanwhile, Djokovic struggled but finished Seppi in the third set after failing to serve it out on his first try. The victory increases Djokovic’s winning streak against Italian players to 31. After dropping a decision to Filippo Volandri as a 17-year-old in 2004, the Serb has not lost to another Italian.
Since we’re on the subject of returns, Djokovic broke Seppi on five of 12 opportunities, lifting his break numbers for the tournament to 17 breaks in 32 opportunities.
The world No. 1 will face either David Goffin or Roberto Bautista Agut in the round of 16 on Monday.