Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time


Greatest Male Player Of All Time

Poll ended at Sun Mar 27, 2011 2:12 pm

Bill Tilden
0
No votes
Donald Budge
0
No votes
Ken Rosewall
0
No votes
Lew Hoad
0
No votes
Rod Laver
10
15%
Jimmy Connors
1
2%
Bjorn Borg
4
6%
John McEnroe
4
6%
Pete Sampras
12
18%
Andre Agassi
1
2%
Roger Federer
31
48%
Rafael Nadal
2
3%
 
Total votes : 65

Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby mighty hounds » Thu Jan 27, 2011 2:48 pm

Johno6 wrote:its hard to compare best players of all time in any sport compared to best players of eras,
becuase who you play against makes a massive difference also..
would bradman still of averaged 99 if he played in this era
would jordan of been as dominant if he played in this era etc etc

i have to vote for the fed express
best ive witnessed


I know this is tennis. but seriously yes Jordan would still carve up bball these days.

Tennis: Federer for me and Sampras behind in second
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby MatteeG » Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:54 pm

If you go for greatest its gotta be the ones with multiple Grand Slam titles on all surfaces- as mentioned Rod Laver, Sampras, Federer etc.

On pure talent, has to be McEnroe. Even now on the masters tour he is so skillful.

Personally, I loved Edberg too. Pity the serve volley game is pretty much done these days.
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby Johno6 » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:41 pm

MH - Altho that statement may be 110% correct, u get my point right?
its hard judging greatest ever when games/sports evolve so much
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby mal » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:48 pm

1 Rod Laver
2 Bjorn Borg
3 Roger Federer

Fed is the re-incarnation of the iceman Borg
Raf is the reincarnation of the brat Mcenroe

3 of those guys are humble, quiet, unassuming personalities ...

Rocket Rod, did amazing things on a Tennis court and I have him above Borg by a whiska and the Fed 3rd by a whiska

If every tennis player played at thier very very very best on a given day, I would pick Mcenroe as the best
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby mighty hounds » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:50 pm

Johno6 wrote:MH - Altho that statement may be 110% correct, u get my point right?
its hard judging greatest ever when games/sports evolve so much


Yeh I knew what u meant. Fwiw I reckon Jordan may be one of few that can come from an earlier era an still dominate the respective sport in today's era. He was simply unstoppable
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby OnSong » Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:53 pm

mighty hounds wrote:
Johno6 wrote:MH - Altho that statement may be 110% correct, u get my point right?
its hard judging greatest ever when games/sports evolve so much


Yeh I knew what u meant. Fwiw I reckon Jordan may be one of few that can come from an earlier era an still dominate the respective sport in today's era. He was simply unstoppable

Has basketball changed all that much though?
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby mighty hounds » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:02 pm

OnSong wrote:
mighty hounds wrote:
Johno6 wrote:MH - Altho that statement may be 110% correct, u get my point right?
its hard judging greatest ever when games/sports evolve so much


Yeh I knew what u meant. Fwiw I reckon Jordan may be one of few that can come from an earlier era an still dominate the respective sport in today's era. He was simply unstoppable

Has basketball changed all that much though?


Maybe just technology and the use if better equipment , he prob of been better now then back in the 90's
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby White Line Fever » Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:33 pm

Where is Lleyton??

I voted Fed then Pistol Pete - huge server.

Jordan will be the best of all-time and I count myself lucky to have witnessed him in my lifetime.
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby Mr66 » Sat Jan 29, 2011 9:37 pm

Rod Laver Grand Slams - 2
Every OTHER professional tennis player Grand Slams - 1

END.
OF.
DISCUSSION.
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Postby GWW » Sat Jan 29, 2011 10:30 pm

Grand Slams arent the only criteria to judge.
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Re: .

Postby Mr66 » Sun Jan 30, 2011 7:53 pm

GWW wrote:Grand Slams arent the only criteria to judge.


...and the others are?...
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby CK » Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:00 pm

White Line Fever wrote:Where is Lleyton??

I voted Fed then Pistol Pete - huge server.

Jordan will be the best of all-time and I count myself lucky to have witnessed him in my lifetime.


With all due respect to Lleyton Hewitt, I don't think he would make a top 25 of this list.
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Re: .

Postby GWW » Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:18 pm

Mr66 wrote:
GWW wrote:Grand Slams arent the only criteria to judge.


...and the others are?...


Well if we're talking a "Grand Slam" in its true meaning (ie. Wimbledon, US Open, Aust Open and French Open all in the calendar year), this is certainly something to take into account, however, i wouldn't purely use this as the means of judging. Equally as significant I think is the total amount of individual "Grand Slam" wins (ie. using "Grand Slam" victory to denote an individual title). So this is where we would take into account the achievements of Federer and Sampras, and others, and the total amount of (US, French, Wimbledon and Aust)titles they won in their career.

I would also look at the level of competition in the player's era. I'm not convinced that the era that Laver competed in, was as strong as other eras.
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby White Line Fever » Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:54 pm

CK wrote:
White Line Fever wrote:Where is Lleyton??

I voted Fed then Pistol Pete - huge server.

Jordan will be the best of all-time and I count myself lucky to have witnessed him in my lifetime.


With all due respect to Lleyton Hewitt, I don't think he would make a top 25 of this list.


or even 50
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby GWW » Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:55 pm

No, Hewitt wouldn't make a top 50 list, however, he probably would come in Australia's top 20, which is a fair achievement in itself.
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby Grahaml » Mon Jan 31, 2011 1:29 am

I don't much like Hewitt, but he did win 2 open era grand slam events so he'd be in the top 20 Australians. Certainly you'd have to put him ahead of Rafter merely because of his longer stint as number 1.

But with tennis you have to be ultra cautious comparing players from different eras. The equiment and surfaces are all so different now to what they were for a start, then you have so many years that the top players weren't even allowed to compete in the grand slam events. Even in the years Laver first won the Australian open very few non Australians even competed.

So mere statistics about grand slams won are lacking meaning here. Certainly there is no doubt that winning an Australian open now is harder than it was in the 60s.
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby David Brent » Tue Feb 01, 2011 4:47 pm

Laver for me. Had the all round game who knows how many Grand Slam wins he would have knocked up if he had been allowed to play throughout that period. The fact he won the slam twice & so many years apart would suggest he would have dominated.

Its hard to say Fed is the best of all time when a bloke in the same era as him has the wood over him in Slam Finals. Fed has been a star but when he was dominating before Nadal became the force he is there wasn't much competition with Hewwitt & Roddick being the pick of the bunch.
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby CK » Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:17 pm

Must admit, the lack of overall support for Borg and McEnroe surprises me in this one. Borg's Grand Slam winning record, both in tournaments won for those contested (11 wins of 27 Slams) and matches won (141 wins from 157 matches) is simply phenomenal and may be very hard to challenge, in terms of the percentages.

McEnroe's singles Slam record is impressive enough, with seven wins, but his doubles record at the level is also very impressive. Nine wins in doubles, plus one mixed doubles Slam, for a total of 17 Grand Slams, is quite amazing. There are very, very few players who could mix it so well at both doubles and singles, but I often wonder if the perceptions on him are tarnished by his behaviour.
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby GWW » Tue Feb 01, 2011 8:33 pm

Borg should never have made a comeback (although him being broke forced his hand). He was ordinary when he returned to the circuit after a couple of years or whatever it was. If he had have stayed retired and then became known soley as the player who dominated from mid 70's to early 80's, including 5 straight Wimbledon singles, then I personally would have rated him somewhat higher.

McEnroe is definitely right up there. He and Fleming are certainly up there with the greatest doubles partnerships of all time.
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Re: Greatest Male Tennis Player Of All Time

Postby GWW » Mon Jan 23, 2012 8:54 pm

Laver names his best of the past and from the modern era.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/tenni ... 6250804670

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/tenni ... 969?page=1

Looks about right, although I think he over-rates Connors a bit, and under-rates Lendl and Edberg. Lendl may be about right though given he didn't win Wimbledon, although neither did Rosewall and he ranked him number 6 of the past players.
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