Nope. No one cares about winning the Slams in the 60s etc, we're not all 80 years old sorry. Pro tennis today requires more skill than ever and it requires a lot more athleticism to remain on top compared to before. Deny that all you want.
Ken Rosewall? Watching old matches of him makes my eyes want to bleed. Pancho?? 80% of this board wasn't even born when he was still playing. If time travel existed, Federer would hands-down destroy everyone on that list except Nadal. Stop dwelling in the past and accept your new gods of tennis.
I wasn't born yet during his era so never saw him, care to link me a non-black and white video of him somewhere so I can watch and see for myself? HD preferred
Sure I'm biased because I grew up during the modern era, but Federer has had the most grand slams by far. That, along with the fact that the athleticism and skill involved with tennis is higher than ever, means that Federer is the greatest tennis player of all time. I don't get why you're in denial?
Fuzz,
Let's put some things in perspective here. We've all seen the great abilities of Serena Williams who has great power off her serve, her groundies and has superb speed. Serena can serve over 120 mph with today's equipment.
My point is this, don't you think it's quite possible that much of the extra power and spin today is very likely due to the equipment? If we just viewed the women versus the men of past eras, the women today would seem to be better. However that's not true. The men of the past would have tremendous power and spin with today's racquets.
The players of the past like Laver, Borg, Pancho Gonzalez and Ken Rosewall were extremely gifted. Using the wood racquets of the past, which were heavier than today's racquets by far and had a much smaller head demanded more skill to use the racquet. You couldn't swing the same as today because the ball would be flying out of court.
Here's some video's of past players like Gonzalez, Laver, Borg and Rosewall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJubuKDN7Fk
This is Rosewall against Tony Roche at the old West Side Tennis Club. Notice the horrible condition of the grass courts. You couldn't hit groundies like today off the ground that way because of the terrible bounces. Often the ball would bounce at all.
Here's Laver against the same Tony Roche in the 1969 US Open final. Check out Laver's power, touch and volleying. This is the match that won the Grand Slam again for Laver. Laver was an old man of 31. He was better a few years before.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvpckZmLaEc
This is from the same match.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f60jJTbEps
This is a video of Pancho Gonzalez, also arguably the greatest of all time. He was 6 ft three and a half inches tall with a serve that Vic Braden, who analyzes tennis strokes says would serve regularly in the 140 mph range today. He was smooth elegant with excellent strokes. He was also a tremendous athlete. Gonzalez was the best player of the 1950's and defeated greats like Rosewall, Hoad, Connors, Borg, Ashe, Newcombe, Sedgman, Stan Smith, Olmedo, Segura, Kramer. As you can see he was so tough it was scary.
Look at Isner today with his great serve. Isner with very little aside from his serve is able to defeat anyone in the world and is currently number 16 in the world. Gonzalez is superior in every possible way to Isner. Better strokes, movement, volley, touch and maybe even a superior serve. Where would Gonzalez rank today?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd0gJzm_EQY
Borg at his peak on har tru against Connors in 1979
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTMx--E0OhY
Borg on grass against Connors at Wimbledon 1979.
Now you realize this is all with wood racquets except for Connors who had the T2000 metal racquet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhsNNplZ0Uo
Here's an article how John McEnroe in his fifties almost beat Andy Roddick in World Team Tennis in 2010.
http://www.tennisnow.com/News/Andy-Roddick,-John-McEnroe-Deliver-Crowd-Pleasing-.aspx
How would McEnroe do against Roddick if McEnroe was 25 and Roddick was 25?
Anyway please keep an open mind.
