I have start watching tennis from last two years and i felt that Federed is the best tennis player but if i go back to history of tennis, can someone tell me who are the top 10 in history of tennis? i know Federer and Sampras.
Re: Who is great
by Deepak on Jun 08, 2009 04:55 AM
Federer Sampras Rod Laver Bjorn Borg Ivan Lendl John McEnroe Roy Emerson Jimmy Connors Stefan Edberg Agassi/Becker
Re: Re: Re: Who is great
by Kabeer on Jun 08, 2009 07:03 AM
Dear Prashant,
Of the top list only 4 have won all the Four Grand Slam titles. Of them, I guess only Rod Laver has won all of them in a single calendar year, with the possible exception of Pete Sampras.
They are
1. Federer with this first French open
2. Sampras
3. Agassi
and finally,
4. Rod Laver
Borg has never won US Open
McEnroe has never won French Open
Ivan Lendl has never won Wimbledon (he famously went on to say, disgruntled at his continual failures on Grass -Grass is only for COWS!)
Re: Re: Re: Re: Who is great
by vinod bhaskaran on Jun 08, 2009 09:07 AM
Hi Kabeer, Sorry but Sampras has never won French Open.Only players to have career slams in their kitty are : Fred Perry; Don Budge; Rod Laver ; Roy Emerson ; Andre Agassi ; # Roger Federer.But in open era only 3 plaeyrs have manged to get it:(Rod Laver, Andre Agassi and Roger Federer).This list is for Mens tennis.five women (Margaret Court, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and Serena Williams) in open era.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Who is great
by Mithun MV on Jun 08, 2009 11:06 AM
to add to that.. steffi graf and agassi have the golden grandslam(4 grandslam and olympics gold). Steffi managed all 5 in the same calender year of 1988,One of the greatest sporting acheivements ever.
Re: Nadal wud hav thrashd him
by Mahesh Kishore on Jun 08, 2009 02:53 AM
You mean Bunny Nadal ? haha got thrashed by soldering...nadal has become bunny for many now...
Re: Re: Nadal wud hav thrashd him
by samit on Jun 08, 2009 04:21 AM
i dont think we should discredit nadal like this that he has defeated federer in the last 5 grand slam finals, on all surfaces, and 4 strt french open finals..
having said that, federer fully deserves it. a lot of ppl said taht the only way for federer to win another major esp the French was someone else to beat nadal and that came true.. :)
Re: Federer at his best...!!!!!!!
by samit on Jun 08, 2009 04:22 AM
what is wrong iwth you... are you jealous of him... thats the first i have heard of anyone disrespecting a player and champion like nadal..
i dont think we should discredit nadal like this that he has defeated federer in the last 5 grand slam finals, on all surfaces, and 4 strt french open finals..
having said that, federer fully deserves it. a lot of ppl said taht the only way for federer to win another major esp the French was someone else to beat nadal and that came true.. :)
Re: Re: Federer at his best...!!!!!!!
by John Gomez on Jun 08, 2009 04:49 AM
This moron Mahesh shud jus go drown himself. Idiots like him who jus read d paper n cheer d ball crossin d net shud b kicked in d streets for fun. Bleedin idiot. Nadal was d god of clay for 4 years.
Re: Federer at his best...!!!!!!!
by Srinivasan S on Jun 08, 2009 11:45 AM
Soderling certainly lost his rythm from the semifinal stage itself. His performance in the finals was nowhere near the one against Rafa & Davydenko.
...Before Signing Off. It's nice to engage in a friendly debate over a game of tennis. Makes a big change from the sheer muck that is rolled with malevolence in religious-political discussions.
Re: only becoz nadal lost
by sachin on Jun 08, 2009 05:00 AM
NADAL COULD CROSS 4TH ROUND . IS THAT FEDERER FAULT. ANWAY FEDERER IS BACK IN FORM NOW NO ONE CAN STOP HIM UNLESS HE RUNS OUT OF FORM AGAIN...
My higher rating (not just mine- for that matter, quite a few who know the game better too did the same-) for John ahead of Borg was because of the following basic principle of greatness.
In any combat, one can win over the opponent in broadly, two ways:
1. By outplaying him in most of the departments of the game like Viv did to his bowlers or
2. By sheer dogged perseverance tiring the opponent like Sunil Gavaskar & Geoff Boycott.
It is like a wild dog strategy in achieving victory. A pack of wild dogs just persevere too long and tire the victim before overpowering it.
Howver, a tiger (unlike lions who hunt in packs and to some extent even Cheetahs) plays the game solitary and oversmarts and overpowers the opponent and hence it is called the better predator than a lion.
Borg almost always persevered like a wild dog and tired the opponent and won most of his matches. It is for that reason he was called Ice-Bo(e)rg!
I still remember how Vijay Amritraj nearly won his second round against Borg in Wimbledon yet lost it. Vijay, being an asthma patient, could not last as longer as Borg. And Borg knows this Achilles heel of Amritraj and kept on persevering and Vijay ran out of steam and lost that match and Borg went on to win his second or third Wimbledon title.
But a McEnroe would play differently; he would go for the jugular and either wins (as he does most of the times like a Tiger) or occasionally loses.
Re: Re: Re: @ Ashok Lulla!
by Crazy Indian on Jun 08, 2009 12:04 AM
Well, my point is we may debate about whether Fedex is better than Sampras. But we can not compare Fedex or Sampras with Borg or McEnore. My reason is that a claycourt match is great when played from the baseline bit not a grass court match.
Re: Re: Re: Re: @ Ashok Lulla!
by Kabeer on Jun 08, 2009 12:13 AM
I agree with you to some extent; grass court play is primarily a serve & volley game. It is more like a 20-20 than a test cricket which any cricket pundit considers the ultimate test of quality of game.
In that sense, Clay of French open and to some extent Hard courts of US Open are better than a Grass court of Wimbledon.
Sampras gained considerably from power tennis against his arch rival Andre Agassi. It would be interesting who would have won more had Sampras is not as powerful as he was!
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: @ Ashok Lulla!
by Crazy Indian on Jun 08, 2009 12:25 AM
With all respect to clay court champions, I consider clay court matches as ding dong battles! And I consider grass court matches as beautiful as Spanish football matches and clay court matches as English Football matches!
Re: Rod Laver vs Federer. Who is greatest ever Tennis Player ?
by Crazy Indian on Jun 07, 2009 11:45 PM
A real tennis fan would have guessed it easy - Whether fedex wins or loses the finals, he would cry!
Re: Re: Rod Laver vs Federer. Who is greatest ever Tennis Player
by Srinivasan S on Jun 08, 2009 11:59 AM
Well said man. And this is one aspect I dont like about Roger. As a true champion, one cannot control his emotions for the first or the second Grand Slam, but not for all 14 Grand Slams
Re: Rod Laver vs Federer. Who is greatest ever Tennis Player ?
by Kabeer on Jun 07, 2009 11:54 PM
It is not exactly comparable!
But if comparison is inevitable, it is undoubtedly Federer!
The times were different; Rod Laver's time the game was not played as intensely as it is being today.
Besides, Federer nearly got all his 13 titles in virtually record time. ONly his 14th took quite long.
Most of the times it happens that the challenger takes over the No:1 when he is fading into sunset. But Federer was still as young as his nearest rival Nadal was when Federer won 13 and Nadal less than half of them.
But for beating Pete Sampras record, had Federer announced retirement he would certainly been rated as the Greatest.
In times of Power play Federer's touch was absolutely refreshing as much as Shane Warne has brought to spin in times of pace brutely decimating the art of spin!
Re: Re: Rod Laver vs Federer. Who is greatest ever Tennis Player
by Pushan Banerjee on Jun 08, 2009 12:00 PM
Have you watched Rod Laver?? Do you know who played during his era? Why do most comments reek of ignorance?
You say that during Laver's time the game was not intense. Were you there? Do you have any clues as to who his opponents were? Add to that, even Federer has said that Laver is great.
I think people like you have started watching tennis from 2008. Maybe its a good time to learn stuff you know. Cause you sound like an ignoramus
