Who Is the Greatest Male Tennis Player of All-Time?

Pete Sampras only because he had such a variety of talent to play against.

It wasn't this cookie cutter mold you see today.

Sampras is scissors who occassionally ran up against a rock.

Federer is scissors amongst a land of paper.

 

Federer is the most complete player of all time. He can do all. However Sampras has more Grand Slams with half coming from one tournament that was tailored to his game. Sampras has the edge right now but Federer isn't finished yet.

If they played head to head, I think Federer would kick Sampras's butt on every surface except grass.

 

I'd pay good money to see All four of these Matches

Rocket River

 

Borg was amazing. You can certainly make all kinds of statistical arguments against him, but if you watched him during that Wimbledon run, you knew you were watching unsurpassed greatness. He made you want to watch tennis... a quality that has been lacking on the circuit since he left... at least in my opinion as no great tennis fan.

I did enjoy watching Sampras, mainly because he's an American and had a good guy personality, but I never went out of my way to watch a Sampras match like I did with Borg.

Borg is to tennis as Dream is to centers... there are others who have better stats and more championships, but I can't see any of the others beating him in his prime.

 

Manny, you really need to put Rod Laver on that list.

1. John McEnroe (you didn't say "greatest singles" player, you said "greatest male" but I still say he is the greatest singles player of the wood racquet era.

2. Roger Federer

3. Rod Laver/Bjorn Borg

 

What, no love for this here dude:

 

Martina Navratilova

Runners-up:

Serena Williams
Amelie Mauresmo

 

I'd have to say from what I have seen, it is:

Sampras
Federer (will probably pass Sampras soon)
Agassi
Borg
Becker
McEnroe
Lendl


Most dramatic and entertaining to watch:

1) Becker
2) McEnroe
3) Agassi
4) Yannick Noah

 

i'd have to put Ilie Nastase on that list. Maybe even #1.

I remember one tournament he showed up with a racquet double strung. He had an extra set of strings twisting around the normally strung set. Took him awhile in practice to perfect the stringing and how to use it, but it put such a wicked spin on the ball they had to outlaw it immediately. As I recall, he wasn't even allowed to finish the 1st match, even though there was no rule explicitly banning a double string job.

I remember my friends and I trying to duplicate the string job. We could never figure it out.

 

i just remember him saying he was a big Olajuwon fan...that Hakeem was his favorite athlete.

 

Sampras never even made a French Open final and was a completely ordinary player on clay. Best ever I don't think so. Federer made one French and lost, but is a better all around player than Sampras.

Rod Laver is the best ever, totally dominant on all surfaces in his prime.

 

I agree...McEnroe, Borg, Laver, Agassi and Federer are the best all-surface players, imo.

Mac had a French in his pocket (up two sets to Lendl) but choked off 3 sets in a row; he'll never forgive himself for that. He and Laver are the only 2 guys I can remember who could actually pull off a serve n volley game on clay.

Borg just for whatever reason never delivered a US Open, but he was great on all surfaces.

Laver ... what can you say. Last Grand Slam in men's tennis, and he probably has multiple grand slams and most definitely the most titles if they allowed pro players in all the tournaments back in his day. Remember, he went pro and couldn't play at Wimbledon the majority of his prime. I think the others weren't Open's either at that time. not sure though.

Agassi ... career grand slam ... say no more

Federer ... he'll get it.

but guys, greatest male player, imo, includes doubles, making McEnroe hands down the greatest. well, that's just imo. but i'm surprised i'm the only who voted for him.

 

Rod Laver, 2 grand slams.

 

i voted for sampras because he's my favorite but it's really impossible to just pick one seeing how most of the contenders never played against each other.

 

What I know about Tennis my Wii taught me. I voted McEnroe. I remember his matches always being entertaining.

 

McEnroe.

He played the best competition. He drove Borg into retirement for crying out loud. People can say 'Federer doesn't have competition because he is so dominant,' but you simply don't have all time greats on the court with him as Mac did. Neither did Sampras.

2003 Wimbledon Mark Philippoussis 7-6(5), 6-2, 7-6(3)
2004 Australian Open Marat Safin 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-2
2004 Wimbledon (2) Andy Roddick 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(3), 6-4
2004 U.S. Open Lleyton Hewitt 6-0, 7-6(3), 6-0
2005 Wimbledon (3) Andy Roddick 6-2, 7-6(2), 6-4
2005 U.S. Open (2) Andre Agassi 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-1
2006 Australian Open (2) Marcos Baghdatis 5-7, 7-5, 6-0, 6-2
2006 Wimbledon (4) Rafael Nadal 6-0, 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 6-3
2006 U.S. Open (3) Andy Roddick 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1

There isn't an all time great on there with the possible exception of an 85 year old Andre, who also doesn't make the running for 'best ever.' McEnroe's GS final wins include beating Borg three times, Connors, and Lendl. His 82-3 record in '84 was IMO the most dominant season ever for a male. And as someone else mentioned, his SEVENTY doubles titles should count for something.

Be careful with the 'number of grand slam' comparisons. For along time many players didn't even fly to Australia for the Open there, so more recent players have padded their stats with that one.

 

None of them were open to professional tennis players...which is why they weren't called "Open" before 1968. The grand slam tournaments were just the US/Australian/French national singles championships prior to the Open era.

Professional played their own versions of Grand Slams, but nobody ever remembers them. As a result, most of the great professional players prior to the Newcombe/Laver/Emerson/Rosewall era (who were the top players during the Open era transition) are completely left out of conversations.

The 1950s produced some of the most amazing tennis, with Segura, Gonzales, and Kramer squaring off every year for the rights to #1 in the world. Before that you have the Don Budge domination, and if you go back even further you get the "Big Bill" era. Any discussion about the best tennis player ever has to include these guys.

 

Sampras=greatest right now

Federer on his way

The way Roger dominated Andy (who is a great player) yesterday reminded me of the way Pete dominated Agassi when he was in his prime.

Sampras, Hellas!!!

 

Andre is the man. He won it all, majors, olympics, and davis cup.

 

If Federer can pull one of on the French Open one of these days, I will put him on top without a doubt. Right now for me he shares the top spot with Sampras. Reason why they both share the top spot is because neither has had much success on clay.

I don't buy the arguments of players such as McEnroe, Laver and Borg because during their days the fitness level was never as high as it was during the days of Sampras or Federer.

Only during the 90's did tennis players actively start hitting the weight room, and cross training year round. The tennis players now look like Olympic athletes. They are bigger, faster and stronger.

I posted in the other tennis thread, that competition these days has never been higher. Any player in the top 25 can beat anyone else ranked 2-25. I never saw this happening in the days of Sampras, and it certainly didn't happen in the days of McEnroe.

McEnroe, Borg, and their competitors such as Conners and Lendl were finesse players. Not strength players.

Sampras definitely started the trend of power along with finesse. Federer has just perfected that art.

Laver was a great player, but during his time there were only a handful of apt competitors. Maybe 5. He might also be the victim of not many people have actually seen him play other than in grainy black and white classic videos.



Like I said, Federer will probably claim the top spot without a doubt one of these days when he wins a French. Then pundits can put the argument to rest.