Who are your favorite 5 players (both tours if you wish) all-time?

[RaulRamirez]

Nothing too deep here.
With Rafa's retirement, perhaps, your mind was/is flooded with memories of other favorite players.
Let's have a judgment-free zone here, and whether in order or not, who are your 5 favorite players (for whatever reasons...and not the 5 best in your eyes) of both tours. No debates, just names and whatever reasons and memories you wish to share.

For what it's worth, for me, as I think of it:

MEN - roughly chronologically

Arthur Ashe - as much for the great human being he was, but he was a great player, too.
Roger
Rafa
Novak
(yes, it's boring to have each of the Big 3, but there it is)
The 5th spot can be shared by so many -- here are a few disparate names (Laver, Nastase (when I first started following -- pure excitement and unpredictability), Yannick Noah, Patrick Rafter, perhaps, the real Raul Ramirez...)

WOMEN - I need to think about it some more, and welcome your choices.

 

[Berrettini_Fan]

Women - Steffi Graf, Li Na, Angelique Kerber, Sloane Stephens, and Princess Peach

Men - Sampras, Pioline, Rafa, Berrettini, and Luigi

 

[nolefam_2024]

Men's for me
Djokovic
Federer
A lot of players after these two are not hard core favorites

Women's
Before doping Halep
Azarenka
Barty
Kerber
Serena

 

[Bill Lobsalot]

Favorites I liked watch...

McEnroe
Federer
Connors
Nastase
Sharapova

 

[JMR]

In order of their appearance on the scene, with primi inter pares bolded:

Borg
Vitas
Mecir
Agassi
Federer

Goolagong
Mandlikova
Sabatini
Pierce
Rybakina

 

[N01E]

Men:
Djokovic
Del Potro
Sampras
Medvedev
Borg

Women:
Hsieh
Rybakina
Ivanovic
Giorgi
Sharapova

 

[ChrisRF]

No further ranking, just in chronological order when they became important:

Boris Becker
Pete Sampras
Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
Novak Djokovic

Steffi Graf
Martina Hingis
Justine Henin
Iga Swiatek
Coco Gauff

 

[JMR]

In order of their appearance on the scene, with primi inter pares bolded:

Borg
Vitas
Mecir
Agassi
Federer

Goolagong
Mandlikova
Sabatini
Pierce
Rybakina

If I may, I'd like to add a few Honorable Mentions. I'll place them in this separate post to avoid confusion.

Ramirez, Wawrinka, Clijsters, Sharapova

 

[RaulRamirez]

If I may, I'd like to add a few Honorable Mentions. I'll place them in this separate post to avoid confusion.

Ramirez, Wawrinka, Clijsters, Sharapova

Another Raul fan -- cool. (When starting to follow tennis...and they showed muchmore doubles then...I loved the Gottfried-Ramirez doubles team -- still my favorite tandem. Both were good at singles, too; I preferred RR.

 

[The Blond Blur]

Men:
RAFA
Borg
Hewitt
Chang
Ferrer

Women:
Kournikova
Kirilenko
Ivanovic
Wozniacki
Cirstea

 

[RaulRamirez]

Men:
RAFA
Borg
Hewitt
Chang
Ferrer

Women:
Kournikova
Kirilenko
Ivanovic
Wozniacki
Cirstea

Not judging, but a LOT of speed and court coverage for the men, and a very good-looking group of women players.

 

[JMR]

Another Raul fan -- cool. (When starting to follow tennis...and they showed muchmore doubles then...I loved the Gottfried-Ramirez doubles team -- still my favorite tandem. Both were good at singles, too; I preferred RR.

Today, players at the singles level of Ramirez and Gottfried (not slam winners, but both top 5 at their peak, with many singles titles won) would not even think about playing doubles regularly. It wouldn't even be on the table for consideration. But I'm sure R&G are very glad they did, for all the extra glory and the slam titles, not to mention the additional income at the time.

 

[TheGoldenEra1990’s]

Top 5 together
1. Graf (Eternal GOAT of genders even alien)
2. Sampras
3. Nadal
4. Muster
5. Agassi

 

[RaulRamirez]

Today, players at the singles level of Ramirez and Gottfried (not slam winners, but both top 5 at their peak, with many singles titles won) would not even think about playing doubles regularly. It wouldn't even be on the table for consideration. But I'm sure R&G are very glad they did, for all the extra glory and the slam titles, not to mention the additional income at the time.

Totally agree.

 

[anarosevoli]

Radwanska
Graf
Cirstea
Keys
Muguruza

Nadal
Sinner

 

[RaulRamirez]

Still trying to do justice to my 5 favorite female players. A lot of good choices, but possibly -- roughly chronologically:

Goolagong
Evert
Hingis/Henin (both were undersized tennis geniuses -- even if kind of unlikable in some aspects, they'll share a spot)
Radwanska
Emma R...

Others: Ivanovic; Sabatini; Iga...

 

[Donkus_Reborn]

men - serena williams, stousr, maursemo, sakkari, diatchenko

 

[Pheasant]

1. McEnroe
2. Federer
3. Agassi
4. Sampras
5. Connors


1. Evert
2. Graf
3. Navratilova
4. Seles
5. Madison Keys

 

[Juice4080]

Top 5 together
1. Graf (Eternal GOAT of genders even alien)
2. Sampras
3. Nadal
4. Muster
5. Agassi

Pretty similar here

1 Graf
2 Pete
3 Andre
4 Nole
5 Roger

 

[JMR]

1. McEnroe
2. Federer
3. Agassi
4. Sampras
5. Connors

You have two pairs of regular, intense rivals in your top 5. Must have been hard to watch!

 

[heftylefty]

Men:
Federer
Nadal
Monfils
Da Man
Rafter

Women:
Serena
Venus
Gabby
BJK
Steffi

 

[Pheasant]

You have two pairs of regular, intense rivals in your top 5. Must have been hard to watch!

I always liked both Sampras and Agassi equally. Those were the easiest of times. It was Mac that really got me into tennis; especially when he scored those epic wins over Borg. Connors did tick me off a bit when he beat Mac in the 1982 Wimbledon final. Who in the hell did Connors think he was, anyway? But Jimbo grew on me later on when Mac was washed up. And of course, he had our entire country's attention during his run to the semis at the 1991 USO. The worst of times were when Lendl was starting to get the better of Mac in their HTH. Those were terrible times.

 

[ibbi]

Borg, Agassi, Nadal. Not sure who the other two would be tbh. Shoutouts to Wilander, Stich, Guga, Gasquet, Alcaraz.

Steffi, Hingis, Myskina, Dementieva, Muguruza.

 

[aldeayeah]

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and the Big Four.

 

[SamprasisGOAT]

Favourites
1.Nadal 2.Sampras 3.Borg 4.Alcaraz 5.Connors

 

[NoleFam]

Djokovic
Agassi
Sampras
Kuerten
Thiem

Venus
Seles
Pierce
Serena
Hingis

 

[The Guru]

Djokovic
Hewitt
Dimitrov
Tsonga
and my name sake The Guru himself La Monf

Nadal would probably be my next choice

 

[Olli Jokinen]

Ladies: Steffi, Justine Henin, Sabatini, Hingis, Barty (current: Muchova)
Gentlemen: Roger, Edberg, Wilander, Leconte, Wawrinka (current: Musetti)

 

[Carax]

Men:
1. Nadal
2. Murray
3. Federer
4. Guga
5. Lendl

Women:
1. Jabeur
2. Muguruza
3. Seles
4. Rybakina
5. Clijsters

 

[duaneeo]

Federer, Nadal, Hewitt, Safin, Wawrinka

Current: Alcaraz, Sinner

 

[objection_]

Fed
Nadal
Alcaraz
Edberg
Djokovic

 

[NatF]

Federer, Roddick, Hewitt, Baghdatis and Del Potro, not a lot similar except that I formed an emotional connection with them when I started watching.

 

[The Blond Blur]

Not judging, but a LOT of speed and court coverage for the men, and a very good-looking group of women players.

You sir have successfully seen the pattern of my preferences for tennis players on both tours

 

[RS]

I would struggle with a top 5 after Nadal.

Maybe King Murray 2nd though.

 

[naturalexponent]

Sampras, Federer, Agassi, Kuerten, Gasquet
Henin, Muchova, Clijsters, Hingis, Graf

 

[Winner Sinner]

In terms of support, obviously Sinner.
On a mythological level, Federer.
In terms of admiration Djokovic.
On a historical level Lendl.
At the level of the first tennis crush Gianluigi Quinzi.

 

[jackson vile]

Djokovic
Sampras
Nadal
Federer
Agassi / Martin del Potro

 

[ND-13]

Djokovic
Tipsarevic
troicki
Lajovic
Medgedovic

Ivanovic
Jankovic
Krunic
Jovanovski
Danilovic

 

[TheFifthSet]

Among players I followed closely:


Federer
Djokovic
Haas
Goffin
Brown

(Agassi was up there, but I soured on him a little.)

HM’s: Tsonga, Ljubicic, Youzhny, Blake, Coria, Phau

Ivanovic
Clijsters
Davenport
Voegele
Dokic

HM’s: Kvitova, Venus, Kirilenko


Historically I’d add many more, but I’ll leave it at players whose careers I followed in real time!

 

[Gizo]

In chronological order:

Men:
Gerulaitis
Clerc
El Aynaoui
Lapentti
Cuevas

Women:
Goolagong
Sugiyama
Suarez
Mauresmo
Muchova

 

[roysid]

Men
Federer ( Absolute favorite)
Nadal ( he was not favorite till 2019, now yes)
Zverev
Alcaraz
Sinner

Note: Appreciate djokovic a lot but not favorite player. Hes the goliath to me

Women
Graf
Seles
Henin
Halep
Muchova

 

[Tennfan123]

Nalbandian
Safin
delpo
pierce
capriati

 

[Sudacafan]

Fed, Mac, Vilas, Del Potro and maybe Nadal.

 

[Aabye5]

Fed, Mac, Vilas, Del Potro and maybe Nadal.

What?! Has @MichaelNadal put some sort of hex on you?

 

[Incognito]

-Gents
DelHotro
Rafa
Fed
Murray
Alcaraz

Sampras

-Ladies
Serena
Seles
Venus
Coco
Osaka

Sabatini

 

[Incognito]

To all of you who mentioned Graf……ewwwww

 

[Incognito]

Djokovic
Sampras
Nadal
Federer
Agassi / Martin del Potro

Your posting history shows you don’t particularly Fedal

 

[Olli Jokinen]

To all of you who mentioned Graf……ewwwww

What why huh?

 

[Smecz]

Men:
Federer
Borg
Sampras
Laver
Lendl
Ashe(Bonus)

Women:
Graf
Henin
Swiatek
Clijsters
Bilie Jean King
Jedrzejowska(Bonus)

 

[junior74]

McEnroe
Edberg
Safin
Federer
Wawrinka

Navratilova
Sabatini
Graf
Henin
Venus