My Top 100 By Gender and Era

clayqueen

Talk Tennis Guru
So here is my top 100 using this more streamlined technique. However, I am fairly ignorant on the comparative greatness of pre-open era stars so I will leave it to someone more knowledgeable to fill in the blanks :grin:

Top 25 Open Era Males
1. Roger Federer
2. Rafael Nadal
3. Pete Sampras
4. Rod Laver
5. Bjorn Borg
6. Novak Djokovic (based on where I think he will end up in his career)
7. Ivan Lendl
8. John McEnroe
9. Jimmy Connors
10. Andre Agassi
11. Boris Becker
12. Stefan Edberg
13. Mats Wilander
14. John Newcombe
15. Guillermo Vilas
16. Jim Courier
17. Arthur Ashe
18. Ilie Nastase
19. Andy Murray
20. Lleyton Hewitt
21. Yevgeny Kafelnikov
22. Stan Smith
23. Jan Kodes
24. Gustavo Kuerten
25. Patrick Rafter

You were doing well until your caveat against Djokovic. You either rank them where you think they are today and leave it at that or don't do it at all. Looking into a crystal ball for Djokovic negates everything.
 

PMChambers

Hall of Fame
The three / four women
Court
Evert
Navratilova
Graf
are so inter changeable that that will never be agreed, most drop Court but she has a GS and 3+FI & 3+SFx2 so she definitely dominated. There are enormous posts on this alone and there's no real answer, my preference is,
1. Navratilova
2. Graf
3. Evert
but I switch Graf and Evert a bit as I think Evert would beat Graf in the woodie era and Graf beat Evert in the graphite era in general and regardless of surface.

Also Court who I put 4th played a lot of mixed doubles and went with the men, playing against Stolle, Necombe and Roche (she also played with Stolle & newcombe). I could not see Graf going against Becker and Edberg or the woodies, with that huge back hand weakness and average volleying.
 

Russeljones

Talk Tennis Guru
Viable players for pre open era for the men-1920 onward for top 25.
Tilden
Cochet
Lacoste
Borotra
Nusslein
Perry
Vines
Don Budge
Hoad
Sedgman
Trabert
Segura
Riggs
Kramer
Gonzalez
Drobny
Santana
Emerson
Gimeno
Rosewall
Laver
Wilding
Mcloughlin
Bill Johnston
Jack Crawford
Dick Williams
Frank Kovacs
Bromwich
Norman Brookes
von Cramm
Frank Parker
Budge Patty
Neale Fraser
Ted Schoeder
Olmedo
Don McNeill
Mal Anderson
Ashley Cooper
Seixas
Budge Patty

Probably forgot a number of players. I once did a thread I think on great returners and forgot to put Agassi in! Anyway I think you can get a decent list from here of pre-open top twenty-five players from 1920 onward. A number of great players can be named before than also.

I think locks for the top twenty-five should be Gonzalez, Laver, Vines, Kramer, Tilden, Rosewall, Riggs, Don Budge, Cochet, Lacoste and Perry.

We can do a Kramer-esque top 25 and just about squeeze the Aussies in at the bottom ;)
 

pc1

G.O.A.T.
Viable players for pre open era for the men-1920 onward for top 25.
Tilden
Cochet
Lacoste
Borotra
Nusslein
Perry
Vines
Don Budge
Hoad
Sedgman
Trabert
Segura
Riggs
Kramer
Gonzalez
Drobny
Santana
Emerson
Gimeno
Rosewall
Laver
Wilding
Mcloughlin
Bill Johnston
Jack Crawford
Dick Williams
Frank Kovacs
Bromwich
Norman Brookes
von Cramm
Frank Parker
Budge Patty
Neale Fraser
Ted Schoeder
Olmedo
Don McNeill
Mal Anderson
Ashley Cooper
Seixas
Budge Patty

Probably forgot a number of players. I once did a thread I think on great returners and forgot to put Agassi in! Anyway I think you can get a decent list from here of pre-open top twenty-five players from 1920 onward. A number of great players can be named before than also.

I think locks for the top twenty-five should be Gonzalez, Laver, Vines, Kramer, Tilden, Rosewall, Riggs, Don Budge, Cochet, Lacoste and Perry.

Viable choices for the women for top 25.
Lenglen
Wills
Marble
Betz
Ryan
Jacobs
Round
Osborne
Brough
Hart
Fry
Gibson
Hard
Bueno
Ann Haydon Jones
Court
Connolly
Richey
King
Wade
Evert
Navratilova
Goolagong
Graf
Austin
Seles
Sabatini
Capriati
Sanchez
Serena Williams
Venus Williams
Hingis
Sharapova
Henin
Clijsters

Locks to be top twenty-five are Lenglen, Wills, Court, Evert, Navratilova, Graf, Serena Williams, Connolly.
 
Last edited:

SelesFan23

New User
As I have mentioned in another thread, I think the best way to rank the top 100 players of all time is to separate them by gender and pre-open era vs. open era players (Top 25 of each).

So here is my top 100 using this more streamlined technique. However, I am fairly ignorant on the comparative greatness of pre-open era stars so I will leave it to someone more knowledgeable to fill in the blanks :grin:

Top 25 Open Era Males
1. Roger Federer
2. Rafael Nadal
3. Pete Sampras
4. Rod Laver
5. Bjorn Borg
6. Novak Djokovic (based on where I think he will end up in his career)
7. Ivan Lendl
8. John McEnroe
9. Jimmy Connors
10. Andre Agassi
11. Boris Becker
12. Stefan Edberg
13. Mats Wilander
14. John Newcombe
15. Guillermo Vilas
16. Jim Courier
17. Arthur Ashe
18. Ilie Nastase
19. Andy Murray
20. Lleyton Hewitt
21. Yevgeny Kafelnikov
22. Stan Smith
23. Jan Kodes
24. Gustavo Kuerten
25. Patrick Rafter

Top 25 Open Era Females
1. Steffi Graf
2. Serena Williams (Like with Djokovic, based on future projection)
3. Martina Navratilova
4. Chris Evert
5. Margaret Court
6. Billy Jean King
7. Monica Seles
8. Justine Henin
9. Venus Williams
10. Evonne Goolagong
11. Martina Hingis
12. Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
13. Hana Mandlíková
14. Maria Sharapova
15. Virginia Wade
16. Lindsay Davenport
17. Kim Clijsters
18. Tracy Austin
19. Jennifer Capriati
20. Mary Pierce
21. Li Na
22. Amelie Mauresmo
23. Petra Kvitova
24. Gabriela Sabbitini
25. Jana Novotna

Top 25 Pre-Open Era Males
Please fill in blanks

Top 25 Pre-Open Era Females
Please fill in blanks

What was your criteria for judging the greatest players in the open era?
 

pame

Hall of Fame
No Parche and dagger, and Graf wins no more than 16 slams. She is no GOAT and can never be the GOAT nor #1. Sorry.

Serena, Navratilova, Evert and Court are all waaaaaay above her.
How many slams would Navratilova have if, got forbid, someone did to Evert what was done to Seles? 30 at least.

Will somebody tell Chico that life is not lived in the land of ifa, coulda, shoulda, woulda and mighta. What happens, happens, no matter how much you might bemoan it happening.

And the harsh truth as far as Mr Chico is concerned, is that nobody is going to put the arbitrary assessment of a keyboard warrior over the combined and virtually unanimous view of players, coaches and administrators with a much more credible level of expertise in tennis
 
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