Each Countries Greatest Tennis Player (both men and women)

clout

clout

Hall of Fame
Tennis is a worldwide sport which is played by countless nations and cultures around the globe. This has led to a wide variety of nationalities in both the ATP and WTA field. So who are the greatest tennis players from each country? Of course, there are around 200 countries on this globe so we obviously won't get all of them.
I'll start with:
Men:
USA- Pete Sampras
Switzerland- Roger Federer
Spain- Rafa Nadal
Serbia- Novak Djokovic
Sweden- Bjorn Borg
Australia- Rod Laver
Germany- Boris Becker
Czech Republic- Ivan Lendl
Women:
USA- Serena Williams
Germany- Steffi Graf
Czech- Martin Navratilova
Australia- Margaret Court
Serbia- Monica Seles
Russia- Maria Sharapova
Belgium- Justine Henin
 
Great Britain:
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India - Vijay Amritraj (Made singles GS QFs 4 times and has ATP singles title to his name)Paes is a great too but I think I will lean towards Amritraj.

Note-I have never seen him play only heard him on commentary. I went by stats to answer this.
 
citybert said:
If aliens came and said you had to pick one person to play a match for all of humankinds who would you pick?
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Probably prime Nadal or prime Sampras. They both seem to be the type of player where the higher the stakes get, the better they perform. Their records late in slams (in both the semis and finals) say it all.
 
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clout said:
Tennis is a worldwide sport which is played by countless nations and cultures around the globe. This has led to a wide variety of nationalities in both the ATP and WTA field. So who are the greatest tennis players from each country? Of course, there are around 200 countries on this globe so we obviously won't get all of them.
I'll start with:
Men:
USA- Pete Sampras
Switzerland- Roger Federer
Spain- Rafa Nadal
Serbia- Novak Djokovic
Sweden- Bjorn Borg
Australia- Rod Laver
Germany- Boris Becker
Czech Republic- Ivan Lendl
Women:
USA- Serena Williams
Germany- Steffi Graf
Czech- Martin Navratilova
Australia- Margaret Court
Serbia- Monica Seles
Russia- Maria Sharapova
Belgium- Justine Henin
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I'd say Connors edges out Sampras for USA.
also:
Romania: Nastase men, Halep women
Russia: Safin men, Sharapova women
Argentina: Vilas men, Sabatini women
 
Serbia: Djokovic. Djokovic > Seles at this point, he ranks higher in the mens game than Seles in the womens.

Spain: Nadal.

Germany: Graf

Belgium: Henin

Russia: Sharapova. Sharapova > Safin and Kafelnikov, she ranks higher in the womens game than they do in the mens. Although with her being a proven doper it is a closer call than before.

U.S: Serena

Canada: Nestor. His doubles career eclipses Raonic's singles career even giving doubles 1/10 the importance of singles.

Romania: Halep. I would rank her higher amongst the women than Nastase amongst the men at this point.

France: Lenglen. She ranks higher than any other women or man does.

Australia: Laver. There seems to be more people who still rank him the mens GOAT than rank Court the womens GOAT at this point.
 
King No1e said:
I'd say Connors edges out Sampras for USA.
also:
Romania: Nastase men, Halep women
Russia: Safin men, Sharapova women
Argentina: Vilas men, Sabatini women
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Connors is a legend, but he is definitely not greater than Sampras. The only players who have a better resume than Pete are Fedal and maybe Djokovic, in the open era.
 
clout said:
Connors is a legend, but he is definitely not greater than Sampras. The only players who have a better resume than Pete are Fedal and maybe Djokovic, in the open era.
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I would probably put Borg over Sampras too. What he did, totally dominating the polar opposites of grass and clay, is arguably the most impressive thing any man or women has ever done in tennis.
 
Raining hopes said:
India - Vijay Amritraj (Made singles GS QFs 4 times and has ATP singles title to his name)Paes is a great too but I think I will lean towards Amritraj.

Note-I have never seen him play only heard him on commentary. I went by stats to answer this.
Click to expand...
No way Amritraj is greater than Pass. The sheer volume of Paes's Grand Slam titles, his longevity and his Olympic Bronze medal make him far greater
 
Here's more:
Argentina: Vilas for men, Sabatini for women
Brazil: Kuerten for men, Bueno for women
Belarus: Max Miryni for men, Azarenka for women
Croatia: Cilic for men, Majoli for women
Canada: Nestor for men, Bouchard for women (just cuz of her 2014 peak)
Spain: Nadal for men, Sanchez-Vicario for women
Japan: Nishikori for men, Date-Krumm for women
Russia: Safin for men, Sharapova for women
Belgium: Goffin for men, Henin for women
Italy: Pietrangeli for men, Schiavone for women
India: Paes for men, Mirza for women
France: Lacoste for men, Lenglen for women
Britain: Perry for men, Chambers for women
 
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hothanded said:
I would probably put Borg over Sampras too. What he did, totally dominating the polar opposites of grass and clay, is arguably the most impressive thing any man or women has ever done in tennis.
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Yea there could be a strong argument there as well.

The Swede accomplished more by age 25 than any other tennis player in the open era, including "Fedalovic" and Sampras. Borg may only have 2 year end number ones, but the ATP named him player of the year 5 times in a row between 1976-1980 as he was the most successful statistically during that stretch. Borg also has 31 "big titles" spanning across slams, WTF's and Masters tournaments, which is one more than Pete despite playing way less than Sampras. Borg also had a win percentage of 89% or higher for 7 straight seasons before he left in '81 whereas Pete never had a season where he won more than 87% of his matches. Additionally, Borg did miles better at his worst slam (the USO) then Pete did at his worst slam (RG). Overall, Borg still has several claims to being greater than Pete although most put Sampras ahead of him due to his 14 slams and 6 Year End Number Ones, which would still be one more than Borg even if the Swede had finished number one in the seasons where he won player of the year
 
hothanded said:
I would probably put Borg over Sampras too. What he did, totally dominating the polar opposites of grass and clay, is arguably the most impressive thing any man or women has ever done in tennis.
Click to expand...
That is impressive, but unfortunately he had a pretty big weakness on hard courts. Connors has some extremely important records, like most titles in the Open Era, and most matches won ever, which are arguably two of the most important records, winning matches and titles. Connors ranks first in both. Sampras's big achievement over Connors was having more Slams (of course) and longer time at #1 (which is not much, just 18 weeks more). So they're pretty close to even, but since Connors holds those two records, he wins by a bit. It'll be a different story if Federer beats either record though.
So on the GOAT list, in this order, Connors, Sampras, Borg. With nobody else in between.
 
King No1e said:
Sampras also has 286 weeks at #1 and a longer winning span.
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Weeks at number 1 in the 1970s and early 1980s are completely unreliable. Borg had a dominance from 1976-1981 that betters Sampras by some way. And like Sampras, Borg won majors for 8 consecutive calendar years. Borg played his last major at age 25.
 
King No1e said:
Regardless, he won only 2 out of the 4 Slams. So did McEnroe. Connors won 3 of the 4, and also on all 3 surfaces.
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Borg played at the Australian Open just once, in 1974 age 17. He only played 3 majors per year (just 2 in 1977), played his last major at age 25 and retired at age 26, and yet won 11 majors.
 
Mustard said:
Weeks at number 1 in the 1970s and early 1980s are completely unreliable. Borg had a dominance from 1976-1981 that betters Sampras by some way. And like Sampras, Borg won majors for 8 consecutive calendar years. Borg played his major at age 25.
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Winning span for Pete was 12 years. I'm pretty sure if Borg hadn't retired at 25, he would have been GOAT. But alas, such a short career.
 
Mustard said:
Borg played at the Australian Open just once, in 1974 age 17. He only played 3 majors per year (just 2 in 1977) and retired at age 25, and yet won 11 majors.
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Jimmy played 2 Australian Opens, reached the final both times and won the first.
So Jimmy, since he didn't play RG in his prime either, played only 2 in his prime.
 
King No1e said:
Winning span for Pete was 12 years. I'm pretty sure if Borg hadn't retired at 25, he would have been GOAT. But alas, such a short career.
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The Australian Open during the 1970s and early 1980s was very low on prestige, apart from 1971 and the 1975 final where the top 2 in the world played (Connors vs. Newcombe) after not bumping into each other in 1974. John McEnroe has said very clearly that he valued the Masters in New York and the WCT Finals in Dallas far more than the Australian Open for most of the time while he was playing. That perception only started to change in the early 1990s after the Masters moved away from New York to Germany and the WCT disbanded. From 1983 onwards, the Australian Open was starting to get prestigious again but it was clearly nothing like today at that point where we value the Australian Open on more or less equal footing with the other majors. The Australian Open's prestige was at its worst when it was stuck in that death slot in late December from 1977-1981, even though Vilas won the Australian Open twice in that period. I'd say Vilas' 1974 Masters win at Kooyong on grass (the then venue of the Australian Open) was a much bigger victory than his later 2 Australian Open titles.
 
King No1e said:
Jimmy played 2 Australian Opens, reached the final both times and won the first.
So Jimmy, since he didn't play RG in his prime either, played only 2 in his prime.
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True, so the criteria is different to today. Connors in 1974 won 3 out of 4 majors and was banned from playing at the French Open that year due to playing in World Team Tennis for the Baltimore Banners. Connors also entered 1975 as the best player. Borg at the 1974 Australian Open was 4 years younger than Connors and hadn't won a major yet.
 
clout said:
Tennis is a worldwide sport which is played by countless nations and cultures around the globe. This has led to a wide variety of nationalities in both the ATP and WTA field. So who are the greatest tennis players from each country? Of course, there are around 200 countries on this globe so we obviously won't get all of them.
I'll start with:
Men:
USA- Pete Sampras
Switzerland- Roger Federer
Spain- Rafa Nadal
Serbia- Novak Djokovic
Sweden- Bjorn Borg
Australia- Rod Laver
Germany- Boris Becker
Czech Republic- Ivan Lendl
Women:
USA- Serena Williams
Germany- Steffi Graf
Czech- Martin Navratilova
Australia- Margaret Court
Serbia- Monica Seles
Russia- Maria Sharapova
Belgium- Justine Henin
Click to expand...

Lendl never represented the Czech Republic, but Czechoslovakia. Lendl represented the USA after 1992 Wimbledon. Seles never represented Serbia, but Yugoslavia. Seles represented the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, before then representing the USA.

Hamnavoe said:
Ukraine:
Men: Medvedev
Women: Svitolina
Click to expand...

I seem to remember Medvedev saying that he didn't feel like he belonged to any country after the Soviet Union was dissolved. And I've seen his first name spelt the Russian way (Andrei) more than I have the Ukrainian way (Andriy).
 
hothanded said:
Serbia: Djokovic. Djokovic > Seles at this point, he ranks higher in the mens game than Seles in the womens.

Spain: Nadal.

Germany: Graf

Belgium: Henin

Russia: Sharapova. Sharapova > Safin and Kafelnikov, she ranks higher in the womens game than they do in the mens. Although with her being a proven doper it is a closer call than before.

U.S: Serena

Canada: Nestor. His doubles career eclipses Raonic's singles career even giving doubles 1/10 the importance of singles.

Romania: Halep. I would rank her higher amongst the women than Nastase amongst the men at this point.

France: Lenglen. She ranks higher than any other women or man does.

Australia: Laver. There seems to be more people who still rank him the mens GOAT than rank Court the womens GOAT at this point.
Click to expand...
Seles never represented Serbia.
 
EloQuent said:
Seles never represented Serbia.
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Thinking about it, she did and she didn't. It's like asking if Murray represents Scotland. Seles represented Yugoslavia of which Serbia was a part, like Murray represents Great Britain of which Scotland is a part. Adding to this of course is that Seles was an ethnic Hungarian rather than a Serb, although she spoke both languages.
 
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