after 2 years, tennis magazine's 40 greatest players..

Dean

Rookie
Open Era only.

1 Roger Federer
2 Martina Navratilova
3 Ivan Lendl
4 Chris Evert
5 Steffi Graf
6 Monica Seles
7 Mats Wilander
8 Björn Borg
9 John McEnroe
10 Margaret Smith Court
11 Pete Sampras
12 Jim Courier
13 Boris Becker
14 Stefan Edberg
15 Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
16 Evonne Goolagong
17 Serena Williams
18 Jimmy Connors
19 Hana Mandlíková
20 Venus Williams
21 Billie Jean King
22 Martina Hingis
23 Rafael Nadal
24 Guillermo Vilas
25 Justine Henin
26 Gabriela Sabatini
27 Andre Agassi
28 Lindsay Davenport
29 Pat Cash
30 Rod Laver
31 Andy Roddick
32 Vitas Gerulaitis
33 Jennifer Capriati
34 Mary Joe Fernández
35 Maria Sharapova
36 Helena Suková
37 Conchita Martínez
38 Miloslav Mečíř
39 Lleyton Hewitt
40 Andrea Jaeger

So Laver, the ONLY man to do the Grand Slam in the open era, is at No. 30. No friggen way

Smapras at No 11??? four plces below Wilander. lol I don't think so.... Nadal above Agassi??? Terrible list champ. more holes in it than Swiss cheese.
 

ATPballkid

Professional
if you pit any of those women up against Steffi Graf in a match, Steffi would kick all their asses.

Right .. Graf would never have the record Navratilova had at Wimbledon on the grass, or indoors at the WTA Tour Championships, or in the doubles ... and Graf would never have the record Evert had at the French Open, on clay and in terms of her consistency in winning at least 1 Slam in 13 consecutive years.

Graf was more of a blend .. not as good as Evert on the clay or in terms of consistency year after year ... not as good as Navratilova on grass, indoors or in dominating in her very best years in singles and doubles.

Graf was kind of in between the two .. balanced .. and a fan knocked the #1 player in the world out for her back sticking a sharp knife in her back while they were at an event in Hamburg, Germany.
 

Azzurri

Legend
Why is Jimmy Connors ranked as the 3rd greatest men on the list?

the top 5 men should be something like:
1) Sampras
2) Federer
3) Borg
4) Laver
5) Agassi
6) then maybe Connors, Lendl, McEnroe or something.

I would put Lendl, Mac and Connors ahead of Agassi. Each player dominated their sport at one time, Agassi never did.
 

Azzurri

Legend
why isnt roddick up there, he has the fastest serve in tennis history, plus his backhand is imba

If you are just kidding...good one LOL:D

if not, please re-think what you said. If tennis was nothing but serve speed, I would rank him #1, but its not. Your post makes no sense...at all.
 

Azzurri

Legend
Yeah well, never read the magazine, and dont take much notice of that list. Infact it is a strange list to say the least..

Looking at the list above by Andrew, I would probably have Martina a smidge ahead of Graf because of the numbers of GS's she won in all 3 singles, doubles and mixed. Steffi's Golden Slam is what give her her the big push..

Just on achievment alone, then Margaret Court deserves the #1 spot regardless of this supposedly being an Open era list.. With a calender slam and 61 GS titles, she is the best of all time, men and women..

Laver deserves #1 because again although not as many GS titles than say Fed or Sampras. He has the 2 calender slams, as well as his astonishing career and the trouble that went with it.. He was competative till the end, where the other greats of recent times were either been caught up to, or pushed out by the newer generation.

Jimmy Connors in my opinion was a fighter, but only when it suited him. He was a great player, but not a champion. He is only in the top 10 because he is American.. His only claim is the #1 ranking in a time that rankings were very iffie at best (ask Vilas). But in GS achievments, for me, he is in about the same league as an Agassi or a Courier.. Although I would have Agassi in the top 10..
Also, what gets me. Is that people dont want to include pre-open era players in their lists, because they believe it was easier, ect ect.. But when Sampras was going to break the most Grand Slam titles record. Then why were they always using Roy Emersons total as the record to beat?.. It seems strange that Pete who was an open era player, had to beat a pre-open era players record to gain recognition for having the most slams.. Its just strange how people twist this whole who is the greatest thing to suite their own case and favourite player..


I am a bit confused as to why you would say this. Connors was the definitive fighter....he won 109 singles titles. That shows it ALWAYS suited him. I don't disagree w/you about comparing him to Agassi in terms of the GS (Courier....no way. Courier could not hold a candle to Connors). I would never rate Agassi over Connors (not taking anything away from him...I loved Agassi and he was my favorite player after Mac and Sampras.) mainly because both had long careers, but Connors was more sustained and he won twice as many titles. Maybe cuz I live in the States I am a but biased, but Americans (generally speaking) thought Connors had a lot of heart and was the quintassential fighter...the type America roots for.:D
 

Azzurri

Legend
Chris I get what your saying. That list is total and complete bs IMO. I can't understand for the life of me what the big deal is with wanting to name somebody the GOAT or #1 on a tennis list. I think people forget the fact that we are so very lucky to be seeing history being made right in front of faces with Federer. I don't care who the GOAT is, I care about what is happening in the here and now. I do have one thing to add about something you said in your last paragraph. The pre-Open era was easier. Tennis was a closed off sport for many people and nations for that matter. Only a handful of countries had players in the majors. Tennis is a global sport and that is better for everyone involved in the sport.

You are a bright guy...I read your posts (you don't stop :p ), but you live in America. Everything is "rated" or "ranked". Look at ESPN...the top blah, blah, blah. Everything is ranked, so tennis is just part of our culture or life style to ank things. We do it in school cars, money, EVERYTHING. I am sure you have ranked things...its who we are as Americans. We even rank cat food. This should be no surprise. Chris is Aussie and maybe they don't have that ranking obsession we have. We even rank our burgers...its endless.:)
 

jinsol

New User
you know what i really didnt like about TENNIS's top 40 list?

They said Sampras deserved to be at the top on the argument that he made the most prize money, which must have meant he could play his best "when it really mattered" at the Grand Slams or some crap.

HEY ****S THERE WASNT EQUAL PRIZE MONEY BACK THEN STEFFI AND NAVRATILOVA WON WHEN IT MATTERED TOO EXCEPT THEY COULD DO IT MORE OFTEN.

can anyone run up a calculation how much prize money steffi graf would have had had she had the same prize money opportunities as sampras? or vice versa i dont really care in either case i think it will provide a better view of how good steffi really was. using money as the indicator of greatness in a contest with mixed genders...
 

jinsol

New User
okay when im saying ****S, i mean to the people at TENNIS magazine who made the list, not the posters on talk tennis sry just thought id clear that up :)
 

Azzurri

Legend
You need to be CLEARLY the best player of your best decade to be in consideration for Greatest Of All Time.;)

Navratilova was obviously the best player of the 1980s in women's tennis, and that certainly puts her in consideration. The all-time record 9 Wimbledon singles titles - and being the only woman in tennis history to win 160 titles in both singles and doubles - also helps her case tremendously.

Sampras was obviously the best player of the 1990s and early 2000s in men's tennis, and that certainly puts him in consideration. All of the biggest and best records in men's tennis that Sampras has obviously helps his case tremendously.

The problem with Graf, of course, is that she was limited to 1 major event in 1990, 1991 and 1992 because of a teenager named Monica Seles before the teenage phenom was stabbed in the back with a knife on a changeover in Hamburg in April 1993. Obviously, the best player in the middle of Graf's career was a teenager named Monica Seles. Both the teenage Seles and Martina Navratilova in her mid 30s had a winning record vs. Graf in those years 1990-1993.

I think you forgot about Evert and Graf. I am not saying she was not the best, but its not relly an obvious statement. Evert was awesome.
 

Azzurri

Legend
I would say the top 10 men in the past 40 yrs would be in this order:
though I'm modernly Bias since there's actually game footage of these players playing.

Pete Sampras
Rod Laver
Roger Federer
John Mcenroe
Bjorn Borg
Ivan Lendl
Andre Agassi
Boris Becker
Guga
Nadal.

Honorable mentions: Stefan Edberg, Pat Rafter, Jim Courier, I.Natasase, Roy Emerson & Ken Rosewall, Lletyon Hewitt.....

Connors? I am wondering how old you are? unless you are like 50 years old, then you can't rate Laver...you never saw him play.

I can't believe you left out Connors...I assume you forgot.
 

Azzurri

Legend
Pete Sampras can only be put above Laver because of amounts of GS titles, but with Laver getting the 2 calender slams, he has to be at no 1..

I took your list seriously until I saw Nadal and Guga.. How you missed Wilander is beyond me. Edberg im not so sure..

Lleyton Hewitt shouldnt even be on it, or Pat Rafter for that matter as far as I am concerned, and I am an Australian.. I think some of your choices are ones of popularity instead of achievment..

Emerson and Rosewall for sure..

Wilander...yes. He was a great player.
 

Azzurri

Legend
Open Era only.

1 Roger Federer
2 Martina Navratilova
3 Ivan Lendl
4 Chris Evert
5 Steffi Graf
6 Monica Seles
7 Mats Wilander
8 Björn Borg
9 John McEnroe
10 Margaret Smith Court
11 Pete Sampras
12 Jim Courier
13 Boris Becker
14 Stefan Edberg
15 Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
16 Evonne Goolagong
17 Serena Williams
18 Jimmy Connors
19 Hana Mandlíková
20 Venus Williams
21 Billie Jean King
22 Martina Hingis
23 Rafael Nadal
24 Guillermo Vilas
25 Justine Henin
26 Gabriela Sabatini
27 Andre Agassi
28 Lindsay Davenport
29 Pat Cash
30 Rod Laver
31 Andy Roddick
32 Vitas Gerulaitis
33 Jennifer Capriati
34 Mary Joe Fernández
35 Maria Sharapova
36 Helena Suková
37 Conchita Martínez
38 Miloslav Mečíř
39 Lleyton Hewitt
40 Andrea Jaeger

Seles over Sampras....you lost all credibility.

Laver....30!!!!?????

Seles over Court???????????????

Courier over Becker, Edberg, Connors........I am about to faint.

Oh god...Mandlikova over Agassi? Where you even awake when you wrote this? This is the worst ranking list I have ever seen.
 

eman70

New User
I would say the top 10 men in the past 40 yrs would be in this order:
though I'm modernly Bias since there's actually game footage of these players playing.

Pete Sampras
Rod Laver
Roger Federer
John Mcenroe
Bjorn Borg
Ivan Lendl
Andre Agassi
Boris Becker
Guga
Nadal.

Honorable mentions: Stefan Edberg, Pat Rafter, Jim Courier, I.Natasase, Roy Emerson & Ken Rosewall, Lletyon Hewitt.....


any top 10 list of all time for the men would have to include Jimmy Connors...certianly ahead of Lendl, Agassi, Becker, Guga and Nadal, way ahead of Edbert, Rafter, Couier......

Natasase (sp?) was an unbelieable talent....on his absolute best day....he could probably make any of the men look silly of all time.
 

FedSampras

Semi-Pro
if you pit any of those women up against Steffi Graf in a match, Steffi would kick all their asses.

Graff obviously is overrated and certainly not GOAT, she was never able to dominate the game when the real rival existed.

- 88-89 she had no real competition, MN and CE were both well over thirty years old and their time was already up

- 90-93 she got a decent rival and she was not able to cope with it

- 93-96 was able to dominate again, when the decent rival was removed from her way
 
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