8 Wimbledon’s tennis’s biggest prize. What makes moving up for him difficult is that Rod Laver, who many people have never seen play, was really a great player and one of the few from that era that I think would give today's greats a run for their money. Rod Laver is the greatest male tennis player of all time. Certainly, he is in the top 12 or 13 at worst, and some might even include him in the top 10. But, in the highly competitive world of tennis, he could also succumb to injury and miss out on some of his best remaining years, so the jury is still out on his ultimate place in tennis history. Answer: I think the edge would go to Roger Federer. Eugenie Bouchard. Completing the Masters 1000 Slam is quite a feat, and Novak certainly seems to be back in top form. Question: If Rafa and Federer end up retiring with the same number of Grand Slam Championships, who would be considered the GOAT? Therefore, Serena Williams should be considered the game’s best player ever. Answer: No, I do not feel that Boris Becker should be in the top three all-time. Answer: John McEnroe was a great tennis player. In the end, it won’t matter what anybody says about who is the greatest male or female tennis player of all time. An ongoing injury forced Murray to announce his retirement after Wimbledon 2019. Those were the peak years of Rod Laver’s tennis career that he missed as a professional not being allowed to compete in Grand Slam tournaments. Just my opinion and speculation, but I think that's how it will end up when their playing days are over. There are no prizes or trophies for the GOAT but there are trophies for Grand Slam titles. To me, those factors made Djokovic's path towards his greater success was easier than that of Federer and Nadal. Bliss, Grand Slam singles titles are what players are remembered for long after they have retired. Believe me, the top tennis players only really care who wins the most Grand Slam singles titles. Difference between Rafa and Nole is 2-3% today so it is very difficult to say who is better. Answer: Andy Murray has some work to do before he can be considered in the top 10 all-time. Yet, Federer still loses the majority of the big matches to Djokovic and Nadal for most of his career. John McEnroe: What do we do about Johnny Mac? 3 on our list. If Nadal finish with 2+ more GS over Djokovic, I would give Nadal GOAT claim (and more titles than Federer). For a player it's far more annoying to have the crowd barracking for an opponent like Federer and the crowd getting under your skin than it is for an opponent to take the full 20 seconds to serve. So the GOAT is between Roger Federer and Rod Laver; Rod has shown incredible professional conduct on the field. I have had a lifelong passion for the game of tennis from my days as a competitive youth player to now following the world's top players. 1 in men’s tennis in 2001 and 2002 — he spent a total of 80 weeks at the top spot, the 10th most in the Open era — won 30 titles and two Grand Slams. Question: What do you think, if Novak gets the same number of Grand Slams as Federer, should we consider him the best of all time? It’s difficult to assess how Rod Laver would have fared against the players of today, but I suspect the redheaded Aussie would have done just fine. Grand Slam success, given its five-set nature, demonstrates how good your physical conditioning is, not how good a tennis player you are. For me, the only statistic that will matter in the end who ends up winning the most Grand Slam singles titles out of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic after all 3 players have retired. Question: I would like to know how many people are employed around a single tennis player. During this time period, the pre-open era, the Grand Slam tournaments were for amateurs only. She won a total of 4 medals in the table tennis events of the Olympic Games in her career and is inducted in the ninth place in our list of top 10 greatest table tennis players of all time. His fiery attitude and occasional bad-boy behavior made tennis fans either hate him or love him. In my opinion all three players failed to capture substantial GS title lead. 3) Bill De Giulio's list will be probably soon updated and Nole will be No 2. Federer’s word matters the most. Nadal is GOAT for sure. You cannot compare different eras. Nadal experienced more challenges with injuries, post 2011, than prior to that year. Nothing you or any other Federer fan will say will convince Nadal and Djokovic fans otherwise! See Williams' 10 best women's tennis players of all time. Question: Why are Grand Slams given such importance when determining the greatest men's tennis players of all time? 19 majors, 5 less years than Federer, only 1 major less, winning head to head record against Federer in Grand Slam tournaments and winning overall record against Federer. He had contemplated retirement but has decided to go on. His 20 Grand Slam titles and 310 weeks ranked number one speak for themselves, and even at the age of 39, he is still winning and competing at the highest levels. I would argue that Federer would not have won as many Grand Slam singles titles as he did, had both Djokovic and Nadal started their careers at the same time. In their ranking of the 50 best players of the Open era in tennis (1968 – 2018), Tennis magazine put Federer at the top of the men’s list. Answer: Absolutely. Bliss, he’s not. Newsday's Jeff Williams ranks the 10 best men's tennis players of all time. If Laver was not excluded from the Grand Slam tournaments during a five-year period in the mid-1960s, who knows how many he would have won. Not only has Federer had a 5 year head and 20 Grand Slam tournaments head start start over Nadal and Djokovic to win Grand Slam titles, Federer’s first 5 years in Grand Slam tournaments were not against Nadal, Djokovic and Murray. Therefore, I take my hat off to any player who has won just 1 Grand Slam singles title. That said, he did win 4 Grand Slams as an amateur player in addition to the 1959 Pro Tournament of Champions. Gonzalo, Federer always has the crowd cheering much more for him. This certainly is a big reason why it is so difficult to compare players of different generations. With whole respect to Mr Lendl I think that Greatest Of All Time is far more than only Grand Slams statistics. Rod Laver 2. Difference in GS between them could be a matter of luck or injury. I shall forever remain solely focused on who ends up winning the most Grand Slam singles titles after all 3 have retired and I will be the 1st person to congratulate whoever that person is. He has won 8 Wimbledon Championships, 6 Australian Open titles, 5 US Open titles, and 1 French Open Championship. His 2020 French Open title gives Rafa 20 Grand Slams Championships and ties him with Roger Federer for most Grand Slams of all time. Here, you’ll find just enough information to sound like an Arthur Ashe aficionado the next time you get talking tennis. Federer is a bad person. Nadal and Djokovic are the greatest tennis players of all time! Usually, speculating about what could have been is useless, but not in this case. History and trivia on Australia's biggest tennis tournament. To compete at his age with the next generation of tennis greats speaks volumes to his conditioning and mental toughness. I don't play tennis but my master thesis was from statistics analysis of pharmaceutical data. Write any load of nonsense you want, hhfan. We are talking about the greatest tennis player of all time. Gonzalo, your logic is ridiculous! Twenty years ago, not many would have thought that the record of Sampras’ Grand Slam singles titles would be broken. Final Verdict. Question: After Novak's win at Wimbledon 2018, do you think he deserves to be at number three? CBSSports.com provides all tennis rankings and standings. Here’s how to avoid the ticket touts and see live tennis. I think McEnroe’s career is certainly worthy of a top ten all-time ranking. I don’t care if anyone writes a 50 page thesis trying to change my mind, but if Nadal ends up on 21 Grand Slam singles titles to Federer’s 20, Nadal will be the best. Tyran, you seem to take delight in mentioning what Federer did when he was younger. Granted he has two Olympic Gold Medals, but his results, while good, do not place him in my top ten all-time. The only questionable situation is on clay surface: Definitely Rafael has proven to be a better player than Novak but not 100%. For the time being, I will leave Novak in the number five position and wait to see how he fares at the US Open. Djokovic should've at least held an edge over Nadal, on his best surface (HC). Question: Probably not in the top 10 but I'd be interested to know where you would place Guillermo Vilas? I do think that the five-set match is a fair determination of who is better in a head to head match, and certainly, a player's level of physical conditioning is an important part of how good a player they are. 2) Both Nadal and Djokovic started their professional tennis careers against each other, Murray and Federer, all at their peak whereas Federer started his tennis career 5 years beforehand without playing against Nadal, Djokovic and Murray at their peak in that period. What Nadal and Djokovic have achieved in winning Grand Slam singles titles in a 5 year shorter time frame than Federer puts both Nadal and Djokovic above Federer. ATP decision not to delete rank points from 2019 US Open and Cincinnati supports both Nadal and Federer against players involved in those tournaments like Djokovic and many others. Question: Why don’t you take into account that almost half of the Federer grand slams were in the first years, before Nadal, Djokovic, etc? Off the court, Agassi has proven to be a champion as well. That was the first of the German player’s six Grand Slams over his career, which also saw him win almost 77% of his individual matches. Gonzalo, you don't seem to understand the issues of what constitutes cheating. Don’t have enough time to read our whole article? As both players are still competing for things could certainly change, but for that to happen, I think Nadal needs to prove his head-to-head dominance on hard/fast surfaces. The Security Guards at future tennis matches between the pair will be more vigilant. And yes, there are other famous tennis players that have behaved really bad on court. Noone of them is Michael Jordan of tenis (undisputed GOAT). Given that Laver was ranked number one in the world during this five-year period, it’s likely he would have won many more Grand Slam titles. It's only to settle themselves properly. If you take their entire body of work into account, I think most ratings will have Federer as the greatest of all-time. Gonzalo, your logic is absolutely ridiculous. This certainly does not mean that his game is one-dimensional because it’s not, but I think this is where the edge goes to Federer. This is the main reason why he has 209 weeks at No 1 comparing to "about 300" of the RF and Nole. As far as the Tour or Year End finals are concerned, it’s round robin and there are many withdrawals prior to or during the tournament, as it’s the end of the year. Chinese female table tennis player Chen Jing was born in Wuhan, Hubei, China, on 20th September 1968. Chen Jing Chen Jing. Only then will that player be known as the Greatest of All Time. Although 21 Grand Slam singles titles is way out of range for Del Potro now, he could yet win his 2nd Grand Slam singles title, should his body hold up. Nadal is a very professional tennis player. Yet Graf will be remembered as a better player because she cashed in with Seles’ misfortune, winning 22 Grand Slam singles titles. Question: Why is Boris Becker not on the list? How many depends on how long they play and how healthy they stay. With those killer ground strokes and returns of serve, no top-10 list would be complete without Andre Agassi. He was ranked number one in the world for seven straight years (1964 – 1970) and has more career titles (200) than anyone in the history of the game. I would rather listen to, read the opinion and agree with Ivan Lendl than agree with the majority of completely biased and popularity based Federer fans. Those who’ve battled on the court have also spent years battling against general disregard, social commentary, and double standards. Gustavo Kuerten‘s career highlights include 20 titles, three Grand Slams (the French Open in 1997, 2000 and 2001) and a world No. That’s just the nature of tennis! Nadal is the GOAT. The 9th is Agassi with 101 weeks. Answer: I think John Newcombe is very close to the top 10 of all time. Nadal and Djokovic have achieved more than Federer did in a 5 year less time period. Over his long, prolific career, Connors won 1,256 matches (in the top five of the Open era), eight Grand Slams and 109 total titles, which more than warrants a place inside our top 10. He won 64 individual titles and 14 Grand Slams during his professional career, which ended on a high when he beat longtime rival Andre Agassi to win the 2002 U.S. Open. Top 15, most definitely. During that periord of time referenced, Djokovic only managed to win just 1 GS title, of the first 20. We take under consideration GS, weeks at No 1, Olimpics medals, statistical points, and Masters. I just admire players who do their job well, winning their Grand Slam singles titles in a shorter time frame than Federer. She was born on 25 February 1994 in Montreal, Canada. This is just the ranking of most Grand Slam wins, it is not the GOAT ranking. Today it’s a pretty safe bet that it will be one of the current big three. It’s their Grand Final. He won 17 events, including two Grand Slams and a record 46 straight wins. It would not matter to me if you or anyone else in this article were in reality, the best experts in statistical analysis in the world. This is the golden era of men’s tennis. On-court histrionics aside, John McEnroe was a graceful volleyer and equally at home on clay as on grass. 10. Anyone who says otherwise is talking complete nonsense! Lendl also mentioned in that interview that it won’t be a popularity contest to decide who is the greatest player of all time, but the number of Grand Slam singles titles won by each player after all of them have retired. I say this because as good as Rafa is, most of his Grand Slam titles came on the clay of Roland Garros. Question: Who do you believe is the GOAT? Nadal is a better player than Federer and will go down in history as a better player than Federer. Question: Why did tennis player Pete Sampras retire early? Top 30, most definitely. Serena is the greatest overall, no doubt, BUT with an asterisk. However, in the end, she had only 1 Grand Slam singles title to show for it. In the middle of this past tennis season, Andrew Levine switched from singles to join Brandon Hubbard at the No. Few grand slams to Djokovic and few more wins vs. Fed and Nadal (so the score can be even better), and for me, he is the goat with no doubt. He made an audible obscenity to a female umpire during the Australian Open and got a warning. Ever wonder who the best of the best is? If it makes you happy, leave and name whoever you want as your so called current and future GOAT for all the criteria you have mentioned. In my opinion, the three best players who ever lived are playing right now; ranked #1, #2 and #3-still. The Swede with the nimble feet was the world’s No. Answer: Five years from now I think the top three will still be Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic, but I think the order will be different from what we have today. Likewise Federer. 3, Rafael Nadal. Let the race for the most Grand Slam singles titles begin and continue! Awesome. Yes he is! Andy Roddick was No. And I feel in order for Dokovic to have ranked higher, he needed to do more during the 1st half of his rivalry against Federer and Nadal (2006-2010). We made it easy for you to see our top 10 tennis racquets for intermediate players. Guess what, hhfan, I could not care less about ANYTHING you write. The only man to have won the Calendar Grand Slam Twice. The "Big Four" have dominated the rest of the field in tennis, but the dynamic within that group is constantly changing. Don’t forget that Rafa would have had at least 22 to 23 Grand Slam singles titles by now, if not for injuries prior to and during Grand Slam tournaments. Those who know tennis KNOW that this is not a guess: The greatest, most unbeateble player of all time, BY FAR, was the great Monica Seles. I belive 1 year at No 1 = approx. If I were a professional tennis player as good as those 3 players, the only evidence I need is Grand Slam singles titles won. I think the number of players capable of winning a Grand Slam title was probably never better than the 1990s. The best professional tennis players take the Grand Slam singles titles the most seriously. Roddick peaked early, ranking No. 335 tennis records compared to 164 for 2nd place Nadal. Show that to any person in the sports media, and you’ll be laughed at. I say Rod Laver is the greatest player of all time for having won the calendar Grand Slam twice. We must reason objectively based on facts; only on facts and not on subjective feelings. But Djokovic is the greatest because he is the most well-rounded of the three. His eight Grand Slam titles combined with 15 Major Championships undoubtedly qualifies Rosewall a place in tennis immortality. Rod Laver, who won the calendar Grand Slam twice and missed 6 years at his peak between 1962 and 1968 having been banned from playing Grand Slam tournaments as he had turned professional and he probably would have ended up with 25 Grand Slam singles titles overall, had he played in Grand Slam tournaments from 1962 to 1968 inclusive. Question: Don't you think there are some older players we don't talk much about like Arthur Ashe or even older, Rene Lacoste? Both Nadal and Djokovic have better head to head to records against Federer in both Grand Slam tournaments and overall. Pete Sampras wasn’t universally liked but he had the most Grand Slam singles titles when he retired. Federer is not the best. And of course, I do accept that you could be proven that Novak has shown, about in 2011, probably the best tennis game ever. 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