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Eurosport commentator Simon Reed's continues his look at which players had the best shots in the modern era - next up the women's serve.

The Best: Lindsey Davenport

When looking at who has the best serve in the women's game the one name that stands out for me is Lindsey Davenport. She not only had the best serve but she also had the ability to really turn it on when it mattered - much like my men's pick Pete Sampras.

There were many occasions where Lindsey was able to stroll through matches on the back of her serve and I think that was one of the reasons why her career lasted as long as it did. She always knew she had that serve in reserve if she ever got into trouble.

It was destructive, it was difficult to read, and she was always able to produce big serves on break points down, set points down and even match points down.

She had a phenomenal serve - the best I have ever seen in the 20-odd years I've been commentating on the game.

The Best of the Rest:

Well Brenda Schultz-McCarthy had the biggest serve ever recorded - although it didn't come in a regular tour match - so she deserves to be mentioned. It was a brute of a serve but, to be honest, I think if you look at the stats of service games won she wouldn't be up there with the leading figures of the game, and if you are broken a number of times then it is hard to call yourself one of the all-time great servers.

Venus and Serena Williams are interesting cases. Something has happened to Venus's serve at the moment. For me, she has been the best server of the last decade but it has gone sadly wrong now and there is something seriously amiss. I hope she address it though because you can't dismiss what she acheieved with it in the past. She could serve amazingly quick - up to 129 m/ph - a record in a tour match that still stands today. She could also serve out wide, had a good variety of serves and was difficult to read.

Serena too has an impressive serve. Her serve is probably more reliable than her sister's because Venus's has gone off at times while Serena's has been a more constant factor. It is not that far behind in terms of velocity either.

Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf also had good serves, but you wouldn't say it was the stand-out factor for either of them. I think it was more prominent a tool in Navratilova's game. Graf was so great because of her movement, her all-court play, and her forehand more than her serve.

Navratilova serve was key though, all those Wimbledon titles bare testament to that and she had good disguise, a bit like McEnroe, but for me, Lindsey Davenport was the best.

Simon Reed / Eurosport