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Who is the greatest Tennis player of all time?


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Who is the greatest Tennis player of all time?  

  1. 1.

    • Federer
      19
    • Laver
      1
    • Sampras
      3
    • Nadal
      5
    • Borg
      1
    • Rosewall
      0
    • None of these.
      0
    • Someone else.
      1


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I heard recently McEnroe say Nadal was the greatest tennis player of all time, I wasn't surprised he said it as he has reached the top tier of all time players, I don't agree with him though, who is the greatest in your opinion. Federer: Many people's all time greatest, holds the most slams (17) in the open era, dominated his peers during his peak and conquered 3 grand slams. Reigned over 300 weeks as number 1. Holds the record for Wimbledon wins, the most prestigious tournament in the sport. Dominated the WTFs as well. However poor H2H vs Nadal and poor showing at Roland Garros in comparison to other majors is a downside. Laver: 21 Majors, two calendar slams (probably the most difficult thing to achieve in the sport). 200 titles. 277 Weeks as the number 1. Major argument against is, what was his competition like. Sampras: 14 Slams, dominated Wimbledon like Fed did. 286 weeks as number 1 and with a more difficult pool of players to compete with. 5 WTFs. All that talent, but no French Opens to show for it, the best being a SF in 96. Nadal: 13 Grand Slams and a record 26 Masters (probably more out of reach than Fed's 17 Slams). Has a positive H2H record against all his major rivals and a phenomenal win-loss ratio. However more than 50% of his slams have come on one surface. 102 weeks at world number 1, which is a long way behind the others. Borg: 11 Grand Slams, possibly more had he not retired at the age of 26? What was he thinking? 150 weeks as world number 1. Has the best win-loss ratios at Slams, 41% he entered he won. Also a career ratio of 628-127. Downside is, we don't know how he would have done had he carried on playing, would he have dominated or would he have declined? He was a no show at the Hard Court events. Rosewell: 23 Majors (pre Open era) and over 200 weeks as number 1, number I have are between 230 and 240 weeks. Major downside, we simply don't know how good his competition was. He could have been the best of an ordinary bunch or the best of a very talent bunch. I won't mention any of the others because honestly, their stats don't match up, in fact I think statiscally you'd be very biased if you didn't think it was a shoot out between Fed and Laver. My vote going to Laver because he was an all court player, winning 2 Calendar Slams is the peak of all achievements.

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Nadal. Reasons - 1. Best Win-Loss ratio for any tennis player ever played. 2. He is better than all of his contemporaries on account of having better H2H, that includes both Federer and Djokovic. 3. Along with 13 GS, has won highest number of masters. 4. His Grand Slams have come in most competitive era of Men's tennis. As a youngster he faced a dominating Federer who himself is a contender for all time great. In his prime he faced a season of such brilliance from Djokovic that many rate that as the greatest ever season by a Tennis player. Still he has managed 13 GS. 5. Most importantly he is not finished yet.

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3. Along with 13 GS, has won highest number of masters. 5. Most importantly he is not finished yet.
On point 3, he hasn't won any World Tour Finals, these events are more important than Masters. Nadal fans love to point out the masters achievement, but what if his no show at the World Tour Finals where you are only playing top players. I personally think the World Tour Finals, should become a 2000 point event right at the end of the year with a week gap either side of it. It has the top 8 players from the year. But that's another matter altogether. On point 5, you could argue Borg achieved more, 11 by the age of 26, Nadal 13 by 27, so Borg could have gone on to match or surpass that. You don't base opinions on what could happen, but on what has happened.
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Comparison of players whom Federer and Nadal defeated repeated respectively to win their grand slam titles. There is clear difference in quality of players whom Nadal and Federer defeated to win their GS. Another notice worthy fact is that Federer defeated some of big players when they were yet to reach at the top like Andy Murray or Djokovic. 2m4bn1i.png

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Combined (men and women who won more than 10 Grand Slam titles) # Player S D M Total Winning span 1 Australia Margaret Court 24 19 19 * 62 * 1960–1975 2 United States Martina Navratilova 18 31 10 59 1974–2006 3 United States Billie Jean King 12 16 11 39 1961–1980 4 United States Margaret Osborne duPont 6 21 10 37 1941–1962 5 United States Louise Brough Clapp 6 21 8 35 1942–1957 = United States Doris Hart 6 14 15 35 1947–1955 7 United States Serena Williams 17 13 2 32 1998–2013 8 United States Helen Wills Moody 19 9 3 31 1923–1938 9 United States Elizabeth Ryan 0 19 11 30 1913–1934 10 Australia Roy Emerson 12 16 0 28 1959–1971 11 Australia John Newcombe 7 17 1 * 25* 1964–1976 12 Germany Steffi Graf 22 1 0 23 1987–1999 = Australia Todd Woodbridge 0 16 7 23 1990–2004 14 United States Venus Williams 7 13 2 22 1998–2012 = Australia Frank Sedgman 5 9 8 22 1948–1952 = United States Pam Shriver 0 21 1 22 1981–1991 = United States Bob Bryan 0 15 7 22 2003–2013 18 United States Chris Evert 18 3 0 21 1974–1986 = United States Bill Tilden 10 6 5 21 1913–1930 = France Suzanne Lenglen[1] 8 8 5 21 1919–1926 21 Australia Rod Laver 11 6 3 20 1959–1971 = Australia Nancye Wynne Bolton 6 10 4 20 1936–1952 = Belarus Natasha Zvereva 0 18 2 20 1989–1997 24 Brazil Maria Bueno 7 11 1 19 1958–1968 = Australia Jack Bromwich 2 13 4 19 1938–1950 = Australia Fred Stolle 2 10 7 19 1962–1969 27 France Jean Borotra 4 9 5 18 1924–1936 = Australia Neale Fraser 3 11 4 18 1956–1962 = United States Alice Marble 5 6 7 18 1936–1940 = United States Mike Bryan 0 15 3 18 2003–2013 31 Switzerland Roger Federer 17 0 0 17 2003–2012 = Australia Ken Rosewall 8 9 0 17 1953–1974 = United States John McEnroe 7 9 1 17 1977–1992 = Australia Jack Crawford 6 6 5 17 1929–1935 = United States Shirley Fry Irvin 4 12 1 17 1950–1957 = Australia Adrian Quist 3 14 0 17 1935–1950 = Czech Republic Jana Novotná 1 12 4 17 1988–1998 = Puerto Rico Gigi Fernández 0 17 0 17 1988–1997 = Australia Mark Woodforde 0 12 5 17 1989–2000 United Kingdom Lawrence Doherty 6 10 0 16 1897–1906 Australia Tony Roche 1 13 2 16 1965–1977 Switzerland Martina Hingis 5 9 1 15 1996–2006 United States Vic Seixas 2 5 8 15 1952–1956 South Africa Bob Hewitt 0 9 6 15 1961–1979 United States Pete Sampras 14 0 0 14 1990–2002 United Kingdom Reginald Doherty 4 10 0 14 1897–1905 Spain Arantxa Sánchez Vicario 4 6 4 14 1989–2000 Czechoslovakia Helena Suková 0 9 5 14 1985–1997 United States Molla Bjurstedt Mallory 8 2 3 13 2002–2010 Australia Evonne Cawley 7 5 1 13 1971–1980 India Leander Paes 0 8 6 14 1999–2013 Australia Owen Davidson 0 2 10 * 12 1965–1974 Spain Rafael Nadal 13 0 0 13 2005–2013 United Kingdom William Renshaw 7 5 0 12 1881–1889 France Jacques Brugnon 0 10 2 12 1925–1934 Australia Ken Fletcher 0 2 10 12 1963–1968 United States George Lott 0 8 4 12 1928–1934 India Mahesh Bhupathi 0 4 8 12 1997–2012 New Zealand Tony Wilding 6 5 0 11 1906–1914 Spain Virginia Ruano Pascual 0 10 1 11 2001–2009 United States Lisa Raymond 0 6 5 11 1996–2012 United States Jimmy Connors 8 2 0 10 1973–1983 Australia Gerald Patterson 3 6 1 10 1914–1927 United States Jack Kramer 3 6 1 10 1940–1947 Canada Daniel Nestor 0 8 2 10 2002–2012 Canada Max Mirnyi 0 6 4 10 2002–2013 Zimbabwe Cara Black 0 5 5 10 2002–2010
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As I said above I am not a big fan of this greatest of all time terminology, but if we are talking about achievements in the open era, then right now obviously Federer is at the top, however if Nadal stays healthy for the next 3-4 years then he can definitely challenge Federer and be the so called "GOAT". There is a lack of young talents in the tour right now, so I don't see a major change in the grand slam winners in the next 3-4 years. There will an odd upset or two but at least 12 of the next 16 grand slams will be won by the current top players barring any major injury concern. My guess is that Novak will end up with about 10-12 titles, Nadal 16-18, Murray 5-6, DelPo 2-3 and Federer may get one more before he retires if he manages to avoid Nadal like he has done for his last 5-6 grand slam titles.

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Comparison of players whom Federer and Nadal defeated repeated respectively to win their grand slam titles. There is clear difference in quality of players whom Nadal and Federer defeated to win their GS. Another notice worthy fact is that Federer defeated some of big players when they were yet to reach at the top like Andy Murray or Djokovic. 2m4bn1i.png
Actually Nadal beat Federer and Novak two more times, 2005 French Open and 2013 French open, both in the semi. So 11 out of his 13 grand slam wins have come after beating either Federer or Novak and his 5 losses are also against them. Great achievement.
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