Know The Greatest Men Tennis Players Of All Time


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Here is a list of the greatest men tennis players of all time. Know the ones who have dominated the court and proved to be worth the fight. Learn from them.

One of the most common questions asked by tennis fans is who is the best tennis player of all time? It’s very difficult to answer question like these since everyone has their own prime in different era, but there are a few things that you should consider when it comes to ranking tennis players.

It takes more than just hard work and athletic ability to make a great tennis player. Most of the greats that we idolise today have certain traits within them that help them crush competition and rise to the top such as:

  • A great tennis player is versatile: Nobody ever becomes great by staying within the confines of their comfort zone. Most players can hit with their forehand with greater force, compared to their backhand. But only the great ones can hit winners from both wings, this is because great tennis players push their boundaries and work towards bettering themselves in the areas they are lacking.
  •  A great tennis player oozes confidence on the court: think of your favourite tennis player and how he enters the court. I can say with certainty that he walks into the court with an air of confidence. This good body language along with patience, humbleness and maintaining eye contact at all times with the opponent is what makes a tennis player great.
  • A great tennis player has a positive battle spirit: Tennis is a sport that tests you mentally as well as physically and having the right attitude and spirit through it all is what makes a tennis player great. In fact, most great tennis players go through exercises and activities that help them deal with failure and frustration on the court.
  • A great tennis player always practises:  Practice is important no matter what stage you are in. A great tennis player will nitpick every stroke, he will tweak and fine-tune his game and he will excel at his serves so that he will never give the opponent a chance to get the better of him with weak serves.

In order to put this list together of the best tennis player of all time, you have to take their grand slam wins and overall ranking throughout their whole career into consideration. A lot of players can claim the number one spot for a year but not many are capable of holding it for 3 or even 5 years.

With that being said, let’s take a look at the 2 greatest men’s tennis players of all time.

Greatest Men Tennis Players Of All Time

16. John Newcombe

Greatest Men’s Tennis Players Of All Time

Country: Australia
Born: May 23, 1944
Career Duration: 1967 – 1981
Grand Slam Titles: 6
Career Titles: 34
Career Prize Money: $1 million – $5 million

John Newcombe is known to be a former number one tennis player that have achieved the number one ranking in both singles and doubles. The Australian player won 17 doubles titles and 7 singles titles. Newcombe certainly took serving, volleying and a hard driving forehand to new heights; they were definitely the cornerstones of his game.

John Newcombe was also known to perform at his best in the most important matches. His signature match was a victory over Ken Rosewall at Wimbledon in 1970. His most recent tennis accomplishments was leading Australia to the title in 1999 as Davis Cup Captain.

15. Mats Wilander

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Country: Sweden
Born: August 22, 1964
Career Duration: 1981 – 1996
Grand Slam Titles: 7
Career Titles: 33
Career Prize Money: $8 million

Mats Wilander is one of the most talented tennis player to ever walk the court. He won his first French Open title 1982 when he was only 17 years and 9 months. Up to this day he is still the youngest player to ever win a Grand Slam title. Overall, he won 7 Grand Slam singles titles (three at the French Open, three at the Australian Open, and one at the US Open).

He was ranked the number one player in the world during 1988-1989 season and was also considered to be one of the greatest tennis player of all time.

14. Roy Emerson

1395209 roy emerson

Country: Australia
Born: November 3, 1936
Career Duration: 1953 – 1983
Grand Slam Titles: 12
Career Titles: 110
Career Prize Money: $6 million

Roy Emerson has gone down in the book as one of the most talented and successful tennis player before the Open Era. He is the only male player to have completed an amateur Career Grand Slam (winning titles at all four Grand Slam events).

Roy Emerson had his prime in his 60s. He won 12 amateur Grand Slam titles and 16 Grand Slam tournament doubles titles. He was ranked the number one player in the world during the 1964-1965 season, he was definitely on top of his game back then.

13. Stefan Edberg

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Country: Sweden
Born: January 19, 1966
Career Duration: 1983 – 1996
Grand Slam Titles: 6
Career Titles: 41
Career Prize Money: $20 million

Stefan Edberg is a swedish former number one tennis player in the world. He was considered to be one of the most successful professional tennis player in the 90s and was one of a few players to ever rank number one in the world in singles and doubles at the same time.

While the Australian Open was his favorite venue, he played in five finals from 1985-1993, tied with Roger Federer for the second most in history. During his career, Edberg attained 6 Grand Slam titles, 2 at Australian Open, 2 at US Open and 2 at Wimbledon.

12. Ken Rosewall

191216 Ken Rosewall scheda 1

Country: Australia
Born: November 2, 1934
Career Duration: 1956 – 1980
Grand Slam Titles: 8
Career Titles: 133
Career Prize Money: $1.6 million

Ken Rosewall is known to be one of the most consistent player to ever walk the court. We strongly believe that his name should pop up in the dictionary under the word “consistency.” He was ranked in the top 20 for over 25 straight years, and even won the Australian Open at 38 years old, which makes him the oldest player to ever win a Grand Slam title.

He was an inspiration on the court and lots of people compared him to the legendary tennis star Roberto Bautista-Agut, who share a very similar play-style. Being able win 3 Grand Slam titles after turning 35 is pretty impressive.

11. Boris Becker

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Country: Germany
Born: November 22, 1967
Career Duration: 1984 – 1999
Grand Slam Titles: 6
Career Titles: 49
Career Prize Money: $25

Boris Becker is another former world number one professional tennis player who, on July 7, 1985, at age 17, became the youngest champion in the history of men’s singles at Wimbledon. With powerful serves and an attacking style, he overpowered his opponents, advancing to the finals, where he won against Kevin Curren in four sets.

He won during his overall career 6 Grand Slam titles, 3 Wimbledons, 2 Australian Open, and 1 at the US Open. He was ranked the number one player in the world for a short period during the 1991 season.

10. Jimmy Connors

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Country: USA
Born: September 2, 1952
Career Duration: 1972 – 1996
Grand Slam Titles: 8
Career Titles: 109
Career Prize Money: $8.6 million

Jimmy Connors is a retired American world number one professional tennis player, who is considered to be one of the greatest men’s tennis players of all time. During his career he won 109 singles championship and was ranked number one in the world for 160 consecutive weeks.

In 1974 he won 3 Grand Slam titles during one calendar year (US Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon) but was barred from completing in the fourth, the French Open. He had a very long career retired at the age of 43.

9. Ivan Lendl

ivan lendl

Country: Czech-American
Born: March 7, 1960
Career Duration: 1978 – 1994
Grand Slam Titles: 8
Career Titles: 94
Career Prize Money: $21 million

Ivan Lendl is a super focus and supremely talented tennis player – there’s no disputing that the eight time major singles champion was a major presence on worldwide tennis court in the 1980s. He held the number one spot for over 270 weeks in the 80s and was the dominating force in all the Grand Slam tournaments during that period.

Despite being the eight time champion, he was also known for another impressive statistic. He has competed in an ATP-record 19 Grand Slam finals and made it to around 1 in each of 11 consecutive years. Ivan Lendl is also well known today for being the coach of the 3 Grand Slam champion Andy Murray.

8. John McEnroe

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Country: USA
Born: February 16, 1959
Career Duration: 1978 – 1994
Grand Slam Titles: 8
Career Titles: 94
Career Prize Money: $12.5 million

John McEnroe is a former tennis champion who is considered to be one of the leading title holders of all time. He is known for his match against Björn Borg and Jimmy Connors, which 3 continuously switched between number 1, 2 and 3 spot in the world.

His gameplay was very unique, his serve did not overpowered, but instead he had extremely quick reflexes and an uncanny court sense – he knew exactly where to place each shots. John McEnroe hated to lose, his controversial behavior made people either hate or love him.

7. Andre Agassi

2005 USOpen

Country: USA
Born: April 29, 1970
Career Duration: 1986 – 2006
Grand Slam Titles: 8
Career Titles: 60
Career Prize Money: $30 million

One of the greatest player to ever played the sport is Andre Agassi which many tennis fans labeled him as the most legendary players of all time. Andre Agassi is a 8 time Grand Slam champion and an Olympic gold medalist.

He has entitled to be the best serve-returner in history by many of the top players who have played against Agassi, he had insane eye coordination. Off the court, Agassi has proven to be inspiring as well. There may not be an athlete out there who does more for their community than Agassi and his wife.

Back in the 90s Andre Agassi was the first player to win 4 Australian Open titles, which eventually got surpassed by Novak Djokovic’s and Roger Federer.

6. Rod Laver

Rod Laver

Country: Australia
Born: August 9, 1938
Career Duration: 1963 – 1979
Grand Slam Titles: 11
Career Titles: 200
Career Prize Money: $1.5 million

Rodney George Laver also known as Rod Laver is an Australian former number one tennis player. He was ranked number one in the world from 1964 – 1970. He won a total of 11 Grand Slam titles and is the only player in Open Era history to twice won all Grand Slam during the same calendar year in 1969. If he wasn’t excluded from the Grand Slam tournaments during a five year period in the mids 1960s, who knows how many titles he would have won.

With 200 singles titles to his name, he also holds the record of the most titles won in the history of tennis. Back in the 1960s and 70s, he was labeled the best tennis player of all time.

5. Björn Borg

1980 Wimbledon

Country: Sweden
Born: June 6, 1956
Career Duration: 1973 – 1983
Grand Slam Titles: 11
Career Titles: 64
Career Prize Money: €3.6 million

Many tennis fans may think that Björn Borg doesn’t deserve to be 5th on this list, but we strong believe that he deserves it. There’s absolutely no tennis player in the world that have achieved the same thing in such a short time frame as he did. Björn Borg is a former number one tennis player widely considered to be one of the greatest players in the history of the sport.

In 1974 Borg became the youngest player in history to ever win a Grand Slam title, when he won the French Open at the age of 18. After that he won 10 more Grand Slam titles before retiring at the early age of 26. Borg was the first player of the modern era to win more than 10 majors. If he had continued playing he could have been a top three all time tennis player.

4. Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras backhand

Country: USA
Born: August 12, 1971
Career Duration: 1988 – 2002
Grand Slam Titles: 14
Career Titles: 64
Career Prize Money: $43 million

Pete Sampras has earned his spot has the 4th greatest tennis player of all time. He have dominated the tennis world during the 1990s and was labeled at his retirement in 2002, the greatest player to ever walk the court although some would dispute this. He was number one in the world rankings for six consecutive years.

Sampras during his career won 7 Wimbledon singles championship, 5 US Open titles, and two Australian Open championships, but a win at the French Open elude him. His successful career of professional tennis during the 90s placed him alongside him boyhood idol, Rod Laver, as one of the greatest. As you can see he definitely to be 4th on this list.

3. Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic celebrates another victory at Wimbledon 2019

Country: Serbia
Born: May 2, 1987
Career Duration: 2002
Grand Slam Titles: 17
Career Titles: 75
Career Prize Money: $132 million

We all know that Novak Djokovic would made it in the top three since he is considered to be the best player in the world at the moment and surely has the potential to win many more Grand Slam titles. He have pretty much dominated the Grand Slam tournaments during the last four years placing him in the same era as Nadal and Federer. With 17 Grand Slam currently under his belt, he certainly has the potential to surpass Federer’s total of 20.

During his career he had won 17 Grand Slam singles, 6 Australian Opens, 1 French Opens, 5 Wimbledons and 3 US Opens. You should keep in mind that he also won the Tour Finals which he has won 5 times and the Davis Cup. With his 2016 French Open title, Novak Djokovic became the eight man to secure a career Grand Slam.

2. Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal celebrates at US Open 752x428 1

Country: Spain
Born: June 3, 1986
Career Duration: 2001
Grand Slam Titles: 19
Career Titles: 84
Career Prize Money: $115

Rafael Nadal is very well known to be the second best tennis player of all time. Placing him second on the list was an easy decision. The Spaniard who is nicknamed “King of Clay” as a result of his amazing performance on clay, has won 19 Grand Slam singles in his career, 12 French Opens, 2 Wimbledons, 1 Australian Opens, 4 US Opens.

Base on his performance, we believe that in the upcoming years, he will surpass Roger Federer in the Grand Slam titles ranking. When compared to other players, I think Nadal has proven that he deserves to be considered among the best to ever grace the court.

1. Roger Federer

Roger Federer smiles Australian Open 2020

Country: Schweiz
Born: August 8, 1981
Career Duration: 1998
Grand Slam Titles: 20
Career Titles: 102
Career Prize Money: $127 million

Roger Federer currently holds several ATP records and is considered to be the greatest tennis player of all time. Federer is the player that have the most Grand Slam titles in the world coming at 20 and also have the world record of most weeks at the world number one spot in the open era with 310 weeks. From 2004 – 2008, Federer went 237 consecutive weeks being ranked number one in the world, a record that may never be surpassed.

He is a great role model on and off the field, in 2003, he founded the Roger Federer Foundation, which is dedicated to providing education programs for children living in poverty in Africa and Switzerland.

 

Conclusion

As you can see there are so many great tennis players and we hope this article has helped you learn more about them.

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Gaurav Mongia

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