Let me start with a top five. You may or may not give reasons for your answer.
1) Justine Henin (?hardene): I think she is the most talented out there. She has got a near complete game. For a girl with average built and pwer she has a good serve, amazing back hand, good net play, very good movement, very good slice and very good movement. Her game is beautiful to watch as well as effective and its amazing how well she is able to thrash the power players.
2) Martina Hingis: Again, without being powerful she is able to beat all those players with intelligent and smart tennis. She hasnt got a great weapon but her vollying skills and skills to set up points are better than anybody in womens tour.
3) Serena Williams: I know she is a power player but she is certainly talented. With power alone you cannot win matches. She has good ground strokes, very good serve, moves well and very strong mentally. To be able to win a grandslam after sitting ot almost a year with injuroes speaks volumes of er character.
4) Amelie Mauresmo: She is powerful as well as got a good touch game. Her all round game is only next to Justine but I think she is still weak mentally. Sometimes she doesnt play smart tennis.
5)This is a tough one. Jankovich gets the nod for this spot. she is the most talented of the up and coming players (well she has been around for sometime now).
I havent included Sharapova, petrova, Kim or dementiava. I love kim but thinks her tennis is not upto those i mentioned above even though she is able to beat many of those I mentioned above.
Now, what do you guys/gals think?

The players you mentioned lack strategic weapons to stand out from the crowd. Serena and her sister at times used their physical gifts to seperate themselves from the crowd.But its not sustainable.

I put my faith in Sania and her forehand as the weapon that will prove decisive on the wta tour.but its subject to her developing her game to support it in the optimalw ay possible.

well, then genius, who do you think are the talented women tennis players? Or dont you think anybody is talented? I agree the williamses used their power to separate themselves from other players but surely they have tlent. Physical power without talent cannot win you tennis maches. They need mental strength, athleticism, accuracy in ground strokes and good well placed serves to go with the power.

For me, the Williams sisters are not in the top echelon of 'talents' in the women's game. They both have awesome power, and utilise it to the max, along with good net games honed playing doubles.

However, neither seem to have much else to their games. No guile, no touch shots, no variety, just incredible power. Much like the majority of players on the WTA these days

If we're talking about 'talent' then the top women would have to include Henin, Mauresmo and Hingis as they can all play a pleasing variety of shots, thinking their opponents to defeat (of course in Mauresmo's case this depends on if her brain has recently exploded).

There are other 'power' players on the circuit who aply themselves very well but these don't, in my opinion, qualify as talented in the pure sense of the word.

Of course, it takes more than just talent to succeed in tennis, that's why Momo, Henin and Hingis don't win everytime they play.

O words. I see ou agree with 3 in mylist as Justine, hingis and mauresmo. So who do you think are the next two? I cant simply think of any "touch" player in womens circuit. Only other person who can resonably mix up and play volleys is serena.

Don't really have a top-five as such, I just listed the players I consider the most talented.

I'm really not sure about Serena mixing up play at all. I saw a number of her matches at the Oz Open, certainly the meaningful matches against Petrova, Peer and Sharapova and I didn't see much evidence of 'talent', if she got into trouble she simply hit the ball even harder than she was already.

She has other qualities of course. Heart, mental strength and technique for example, but these do not qualify her to be in the same echelon talent-wiss as the others I named earlier.

That doesn't mean she isn't a 'better' player of course, just not as talented as the others.

Can't fault you at all on your selection Biju :ok:

It depends what you define as talent?
I think you opinions (which are all reasonable) are tending towards being talented at a varied game - Henin, Mauresmo, Hingis.

I also think hitting the ball with power is a talent. It is not just 'go for broke' and pray like some people make it out as. It requires honed groundstrokes, great athleticism, consistency and muscle. The Williams play like this as well as having decent volleying skills, great serves, movement, mentality etc.

However I do tend to agree that under the 'talented' label of this post, Henin, Hingis and Momo have the best court craft although I much prefer the Williams 'power talent' on the WTA side. (I do prefer variety in ATP though as they have enough power anyway).

Thanks Roysie :)

I agree federer-Williams. But variety and "touch" in my opinion needs more talent. But this doesnt mean that hitting balls harder consistently with great accuraracy need no talent!. Thats why I included Serena and not Kutzy, sharapova, petrova or kim in this category.

The 'talent' that you say Hingis has was virtually non existant at AO. Li beat herself rather than Hingis beating her, and if she decided to use her touch against Kim she would have beaten her too. I think Serenas power play oozes talent, but we shall have to wait and see how she fares against JHH. I would put those two at the top

Serena, venus and justine :)

Serena and venus, phenomonal athletes with great racquet skills and racquet preperation. Justine, superior racquet-work also :)

It depends what you definte as talent. I think Serena and Venus' god given genetic disposition to be the most formidable athletes is a talent; just as much as Martina's tactical tennis brain is a gift/talent.

Anyway how do you measure something as subjective as talent?

By the way if you think all Serena was doing at the AO when she was in trouble was to hit the ball even harder, then you need to look again. She came up with some sizzling winners. She's undoubtedly up there with the greatest shot makers of all time :ok:

Totally agree, Venus and Serena are the biggest hitters i've ever seen in the game. Definitely on par if not above Graf and Seles in shot-making ability :ok:

Justine Henin takes the first place in talent, there is no ground stroke that this girl doesnt have. Simply is the best on the women tour when it comes to just pure skill and ability.

Serena Williams is excessively under estimated in this category because people only think of the powerful ground strokes and nothing else but, any wise person will notice that this girl has one hell of a touch and a very good shot selection depending on each opponent, its like she does alot of homework before every match. She never plays an opponent the same way as the other.

Martina Hingis, God bless the swiss miss for her intelligence, this girl can simply neutralise the heaviest ground stroke, its like she knows exactly what you are gonna do next. Every person in women tennis should thank God for her one dimensional top spin serve thats the only part she goes wrong. I mean once in a while she does put some variation in it but it is very readable.

Kim Clijster, I dont know if I can call her talent, she is like a ball machine that has a brain. Dont get me wrong she is good but if you know what she is going to do next she can be steamrolled.

Venus Williams, I have a feeling people often mistaken her game for her sister. Now she is the ultimate power player. When this lady is in trouble all she does is WHACK!!!! the ball harder and moves faster. She sometimes has a good game but I wont put her in my top 3.

Myskina bless her, she knows what to do but just cant execute it. If she could I would put her there with Justine.

Sharapova is a controlled version of Venus.

Good point Chair, I totally forgot about Myskina.

She's one of the only WTA players I actually enjoy watching, when she gets her head together.

When she has one of her off days I just want to give her a big hug :love:

So, I add her to my previous list of three.

Myskina is probably the most talented Russian, she would be a match for Sharapova at her best. But sadly she so rarely gets it together :(

I was fortunate enough to be watching both her seme and final at Eastbourne last year.

Some of the stuff she produced against Henin was astoundingly good. but even within that match she matched the sublime with the ridiculous.

I would darly love to know what goes on in her head, if anything, when she she plays badly.

Her exit to henin at the French last year, apart from the last few games, was painful to watch.

If you imagine all the women players stripped of their power games and forced to rely on racquet skills alone, then my money would be on hingis.
By 'talent' in this context we are talking about racquet ability, not power or athleticism. Hingis, mauresmo and henin are clearly the best if that is our criteria. Hingis has the least 'power' of the three of them and has to rely almost exclusively on skill.
Unfortunately in todays game that isn't enough to be the best, for that you need far more power than skill ie Serena. While Serena and the other power players do have talent-power unharnessed would achieve nothing, their games would achieve little without their ability to move fast and hit hard.

My exact thoughts about roger federer, without the power and speed he is top 200.

Exactly Chairman, you do mean roger federer the famous dwarf thrower don't you, not to be confused with roger federer the famous tennis player!

Roger Federer is one of those lucky ones who has power AND loads of talent. I meant the dwarf thrower ,ofcourse ;)

I don't get this assumption here that if you are powerful then it obviously mean you can't be talented, or not AS talented or that one naturally excludes the other. It seems a bit...I don't know...elitist to me. Just because there are fewer non-power players doesn't necessarily mean the elite few are the best or most talented. They've made the best of what they have and so have the others. It's great to have someone different like Hingis for sure, but I wouldn't want to have a tour full of Hingises. This is just my personal opinion of course based on the fact that I like power tennis (at its best) :) The only thing I will say is that there are a lot of power clones in both the womens and mens game; and even though each one of them is individually very talented, the fact that they come off as clones does seem to detract from their talent.

Roger is a good example. Without that speed around the court and the power behind that forehand, would he have turned into the player he is today? Would he dominate the game? Highly debatable. He'd still be a good player but he wouldn't be Federer. Do you know why? Because his speed, magnificent athleticism and naturally powerful forehand are part of his Natural endowment or ability of a superior quality, that make him good at tennis. It isn't fair to separate the power from tennis, and dismiss it as a talentless aspect. Power is part of tennis. Someone like Serena is lucky genetically to be so strong and powerful (not to suggest that's all she is of course), just as someone like Hingis is genetically lucky to have been gifted with a brain that produces such great courtcraft.

I quite agree with you serena. Power without talent will not win you slams. you my win an odd tournament or two but cannot achieve the consistency needed at the top level.Thats why i included Serena in my top 5.

Agreed, it's a silly assumption in my opinion. Some players have natural power, some have had to build up their bodies through hard work to get that kind of power. Even then with all the power in the world, if you don't have the skill to control that power and put it in the right place then you are nothing. So surely using all that power combined with getting it over the net and hitting the lines is a fantastic tennis talent.

For me the most talented WTA players on the tour at present are:-

1. Serena Williams
2. Justine Henin-Hardenne
3. Maria Sharapova / Venus Williams
5. Kim Clijsters / Martina Hingis

Agreed, you can be talented and have power.
1 Serena-powerful and talented dress designer-or is that Venus, presumably she doesn't wear her own dresses though because they're awful.
2 Sharapova-power player and loads of my mates say she's a real 'talent', which is odd cos none of them like tennis.
3 Clijsters-she has a talent for getting boyfriends, but also one for loosing them too unfortunately-lets hope she can keep this latest one.
4 Venus-well she is very tall, does that count as a talent?

I'm sorry, but Sharapova ahead of venus in terms of talent? :rolleyes:

I know :doh: Has he even seen her play :rolleyes:

Heres my top 5 very quickly:

1. JHH
2. Hingis
3. Serena
4. Jankovic
5. Safarova

Jumping on the Safarova bandwagon a bit there WB roflmao Unless it's for this week ;)

To be fair I think you have all been doing that roflmao

that's the first time I've ever mentioned her :shrug:

I supported her last year [old sig]. However, I finally saw a full match of hers today and :bow: she is finally living up to the promise. (Yer I am jumping on the band wagon a bit but :shrug: ]

Don't worry WB, most of us have hopped on a bandwagon at some point :lol:

I guess I did with Tatiana a little :unsure: :lol:

I jumped on the Ivanovic bandwagon :unsure:

If you take a poll, JHH and Hingis featurs in almost everybodies top 5. Then comes Serena and Mauresmo. So only the fifth spot is up for grabs. Jankovich, ivanovic, safarova, venus,sharapova - well, these are the names for the fift spot. So in reality only so many names for a contention for the "talented lot"!

Nobody actually votes for who they think is most talented!

They pick their favourite players! :P

SW19 can you add a poll to this thread please?

Hmm.. same as everyone else, I'm afraid:

1. JHH
2. Amelie
3. Martina H
5= Jelena Jankovic (good thinker, tactical player oncourt)
5= Anastasia Myskina (wonderful game when in fully flow.. )

Definition of talent? I guess it's natural tennis ability rather than being mentally strong. And of course it isn't necessarily the most talented players that are considered the best. ;)

To be fair, the Williams-Davenport Mafia speak as one these days roflmao