Before we get into this impossible debate, let me set some parameters. We don’t debate off-field achievements, nor favoritism, nor how gracefully our players, who only come from the Open era, may have conducted themselves.
Instead, I imagine one Miracle-like battle for the survival of our planet, based on a single tennis match against an unknown challenger from a parallel universe. And the choice of surface is determined by the roll of a die. Deep breath, there you go.
10. Monica Seles
If it weren’t for the tragedy that occurred in Hamburg in 1993, when her career was derailed by a knife-wielding Steffi Graf obsessive, she might well be in the top spot. At that point, Seles’ brutal double-handed pounding on both wings had won her 55 of her last 56 matches at the Majors – an astonishing statistic – with her only defeat a heavy loss to Graf in the 1992 Wimbledon final.
One of Seles’ great assets was her simplicity of vision and hitting: there simply wasn’t much that could go wrong, and she never overcomplicated what she saw as an essentially simple game. But she never won Wimbledon, which is one of the reasons she is relatively low on this list.
9. Bjorn Borg
Tough one, this. Borg had a relatively short career, but his record is so good that I will give him a chance in my selection. Never won the US Open, which was played on grass in his day, and only made the trip to Australia once, but still has a 90 percent winning percentage at the majors, which only Graf on our list can match.
In her case, this is reinforced by a lack of major rivals; in him the decision to leave the sport at his physical peak, at the age of 26. Despite the glamor of Borg mania, he played a very conservative style, based on eliminating mistakes and superhuman endurance. He famously had a resting heart rate of just 35 beats per minute.
8. Rafael Nadal
I’m sure I’ll be slaughtered for this, but the fact is we’re rolling the dice on the choice of surface, and there’s only a one in three chance that the match will be played on clay. Clearly, Nadal’s record on clay is in a different universe than anything else we’ve seen in the history of tennis.
At Wimbledon, however, his winning percentage of 83 is good but not great, exposing the relative fragility of his serve. At the two hard court slams that figure rises to 84, but at Roland Garros it reached a staggering 97.
7. Rod Laver
‘The Rocket’ only features briefly in our calculations, having played most of his career before the advent of the Open era, but winning the calendar grand slam in 1969 (as he had done in 1962 before he turned pro) was a rare and historic event. feat yet to be repeated in the men’s game.
This Queensland boy was as strong as a crocodile skin and stood only 6 feet tall, but was known for the size of his Popeye-esque left forearm and the quality of his volleys. The only serious contender that foreshadows the Borg revolution of the 1970s.
6. Chris Evert
Evert’s astonishing 80-match rivalry with tennis’ ice maiden Martina Navratilova puts even the ‘big three’ men in the shade. Even more remarkable, 60 of those encounters came in the final, with Navratilova eclipsing the results 43 to 37. As with the rivalry between Roger Federer and Nadal, this was a brilliant contrast of styles and personalities, with Evert’s ruthless basic accuracy providing a kind of security. of the Sicilian defense against the net-storming aggression of its opponent.
Has anyone ever kept a cool head on the field? Evert joins Nadal in that rare category of players who never threw a shaky ball.
5.Roger Federer
Federer’s mastery in all areas is overshadowed by the fact that he was trying to win the French Open at the same time as Rafael Nadal. In fact, he is the only man to have won ten titles on each of the three surfaces – although this statistic also reflects Djokovic’s reluctance to play warm-up events on grass before Wimbledon.
An incredible leader whose winning percentage from the time he won his first Grand Slam title (Wimbledon 2003) until the end of 2007 was 92 percent, with twelve majors out of a possible twenty. After that, Nadal and Djokovic limited Federer to just eight major titles, but his re-emergence in 2017, with a powerful backhand that tested his old rivals, must go down as one of the most romantic comebacks in sporting history.
4. Martina Navratilova
It took a while for Navratilova’s career – and a defection from Czechoslovakia to the US – to blossom. But she really blossomed in her late 20s, after switching to a graphite racket and taking fitness seriously. An explosive athlete whose pace and power combined with a perfect volley technique made her almost unbeatable at Wimbledon, where she won six consecutive singles titles from 1982 to 1987.
During that purple patch, Navratilova won 14 of 21 majors and also finished second four times, while recording a mind-boggling tour winning percentage of 95.
3. Steffi Graf
Another bulletproof mental monster, ‘Fraulein Forehand’, won the golden slam (all four majors plus the Olympic gold medal in singles) and at least four titles at each of those slams, despite hitting the vast majority of her backhands had cut off. Her winning percentages are extraordinarily high – a huge 89.75 at the majors, for example – and she dished out some fearsome beatdowns in major finals, including the infamous double bagel against Natalia Zvereva at the 1988 French Open. The downside was that Graf was rarely too faced a really strong rival, with Arantxa Sánchez Vicario being her closest challenger for much of her career.
2. Novak Djokovic
Has proven beyond doubt that he is the greatest man in tennis history, with an unparalleled level of balance between the three different surfaces. Balance is indeed the key to Djokovic’s game. His ability to slide on any surface likely comes from a childhood spent on the ski slopes of Kapaonik, a Serbian mountain retreat, and his uncanny flexibility has allowed him to overcome seemingly impossible situations countless times during his career. find out.
Not the most elegant or charming player to watch, but a perfectly calibrated winning machine and, mentally, the toughest nut around.
1. Serena Williams
Simply the most irresistible force I have ever seen on a tennis court, with the greatest locker room force of all time. Won 23 majors despite losing interest for a significant period in the mid-1990s, then became a mother while still a dominant force at age 36. There is strong evidence that 23 majors represents an underachievement for a woman whose entire package – technique, physicality and mentality – was as superior to the field as Simone Biles is to other gymnasts.
And look what Serena was like when she… Real wanted to win – or, in other words, when she played against Maria Sharapova. She won 19 matches in a row, from 2005 to 2019, dropping as many as three sets. I do That Serena to play for the future of the Earth.
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