I am a big fan of the men's game ever since watching my first match - Connors v Borg at Wimbledon 1978.
The following is a list of my opinion of the Top 50 Greatest Players of All-Time.
(#1 being the highest).
1. Rod Laver
2. Pete Sampras
3. Roger Federer - could move to #2 in the next three months
4. Bjorn Borg
5. Bill Tilden
6. John McEnroe
7. Jimmy Connors
8. Ivan Lendl
9. Andre Agassi
10. Don Budge
11. Ken Rosewell
12. Fred Perry
13. John Newcombe
14. Guillermo Vilas
15. Boris Becker
16. Stefan Edberg
17. Rafael Nadal - This will change with time
18. Pancho Gonzalez
19. Roy Emerson
20. Mats Wilander
21. Henri Cochet
22. Rene Lacoste
23. Jean Borotra
24. Lew Hoad
25. Arthur Ashe
26. Ille Nastase
27. Jim Courier
28. Patrick Rafter
29. Jack Kramer
30. Gustavo Kuertin
31. Jack Crawford
32. Ellsworth Vines
33. Ashley Cooper
34. Bobby Riggs
35. Goran Ivanisevic
36. Vitas Gerulatis
37. Marat Safin
38. Neale Fraser
39. Lleyton Hewitt
40. Andy Roddick
41. Yannick Noah
42. Michael Chang
43. Jaroslav Drobny
44. Stan Smith
45. Sergi Bruguera
46. Manuel Santana
47. Alex Olmedo
48. Roscoe Tanner
49. Miroslav Mecir
50. Nicole Pietrangeli
6 comments:
Lleyton Hewitt has accomplished more in tennis than his compatriot Pat Rafter and thus should be higher. I say this being an Aussie.
A few reasons.
1. Hewitt has won wimbledon
2. He is the youngest world no.1 of all time.
3. He's won two masters cup (Pat has won none)
4. He's Australia's most successful Davis Cup player.
5. He's won back-to-back masters at Indian Wells.
6. He's held the no.1 position for over 70 weeks (Pat had it just one)
7. He's the only active player to have won more grand slam matches after Federer.
8. He's has won 6 grass court titles.
9. He's has won titles on all four surfaces.
10. Has one the highest record of 5-set victories than any other tennis player in the open era.
Well argued - I always believed that Rafter was more of a natural talent - whose career was unfortunately cut short by injury. You make some excellent points though. I will revisit this ranking shortly.
Thanks
Gavin
Hi,
I enjoyed perusing your list of all time greats and agree with most of your choices. However, I do have some opinions that I would like to make. I would have placed both Connors and Lendl slightly ahead of McEnroe as they both won more Grand Slams, have been number one for many more weeks than Mac, and have established a greater period of longevity.
Guillermo Vilas was a great player, but I was quite surprised to see him rated so high on your list. Of the four Grand Slams that he won, two of them were the Australian Open, which, in the 1970s, was clearly much less regarded than the other three slams (Vilas’s greatest rivals of his time rarely played the event—Connors twice and Borg only once). Moreover, Vilas never won Wimbledon. Therefore, I would have rated players such as Boris Becker, Mats Wilander, and Stefan Edberg much higher than him. Wilander never won Wimbledon as well, but he did win a total of seven Grand Slams to Vilas’ four.
Where’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov? He won two singles Grand Slams, four doubles Grand Slams, was briefly number one, and won a gold medal at the Olympics. He won 27 tournaments in all and retired with just under 24 million dollars in earnings—one of the highest grossing players of all time.
I would also include Tomas Muster on the list. He was also ranked number one for a short period of time, won 44singles tournaments, and is considered by many to be one of the best clay court players of all time.
As much as I enjoyed Miloslav Mecir play in his prime, I would certainly rank Kafelnikov and Muster ahead of him as Mecir has never won any Grand Slam events and retired prematurely at the age of 26.
Anyway, that’s my two cents. Thanks for the posting!
Jonathan
Why don't you update the top? I think that it is very interesting ! and i'd like to see how do you rise Federer and Nadal ! Please answer me with another comment , Thank you.
Aside from the top 5 or 10, this is an awful opinion of top tennis players of all-time.
Also,
Where is Novak Djokovic??? He should easily be in the top 20 based on current stats & accomplishments. And he will most likely be considered a top 10 player of all-time by the end of his career.
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