Yes, my bad. Women’s tennis.
We followed Graf for obvious reasons! And, others. Men’s game didn’t do much for us back then.
Ahh cool. I didn’t realize this was open era only discussion like your worldwide forums that you are a part of. Congrats on your membership in worldwide open era only tennis forums. Considering you didn’t specify open era only in your original post surely you can understand my confusion.
And Tag Ridings wins Korn Ferry event on PGA Tour in Colorado. Good day. I really respect the way Tag has continued to grind to keep supporting his family of five on Tour. He was a great Razorback – 3-time All-SEC – and nearing Senior Tour age although he won’t have any status.
Geez. One of those arguments. I wonder how many years Tom Brady would have made it in the NFL if he played in the 70s. You can’t compare eras. Totally unfair.
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Roger Federer is the greatest tennis player of all time, in my view. In his prime, he was untouchable. Djokavic is great, for sure. But Federer was the best.
Serena Williams is the best woman player of all time. She hit it like a man, and she could run, too.
When you ignore the numbers, it can be purely subjective and everyone will have their best. Laver, Borg, Sampras, Federer and Nadal all can claim that.
I have heard the “prime” argument before, Federer’s problem is that his prime as defined by Federer fans, didn’t last very long. It started at age 24 and ended before 29. And even in those years, he couldn’t beat Nadal more than once in a major. He has a horrible head to head record against Rafa. Federer was on his way to massive number of slams. Unfortunately Rafa came along and then Djokovic matured.
Anyway as a huge tennis fan, I have enjoyed this golden era of men’s tennis with three of the greatest players playing at the same time. What the three have accomplished together will never be matched. 60 majors and 98 masters titles together is ridiculous. They have shut out rest of the field.
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Interesting summary of the top 10 male tennis players. Fortunate to have grown up watching most of them play. All subjective & difficult to compare when some played at an extremely high level but only for a comparatively brief tenure - as you noted.
Always hoped that UofA’s Chip Hooper would eventually become one of the pro elites.
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That is exactly how I would rate the Top 10.
Man, I loved Chip Hooper’s game. He was #1 collegian at one time. I remember he almost qualified to play US Open.
Another player who made Razorback history was the late Peter Doohan, who won the NCAA doubles title along with Pat Serret (I think it was Pat) and had that famous second round win over defending champion at Wimbledon.
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Somewhat miss the old days of colorful court antics of Ilie Nastase, Jimmy Connors, & John McEnroe. No one knew what to expect from them during tournaments. Have to give McEnroe & his tantrums a lot of credit for improving the quality of umpires & tennis authorities who were not as professional in those years & which has since improved the sport.
Totally agree, McEnroe and Connors were must see TV. Never forget Nastase- McEnroe match at the open.
Chip did a little (OK, a lot) too much partying and not enough tennis. I interviewed him once in his dorm room and I’m pretty sure he was completely obliterated for the interview – at about 2 p.m.
Trivia: NFL tight end Austin Hooper is Chip’s nephew.
Did not know either of that. First piece is why he didn’t make it very far plus he had some kind of knee injury, I recall.
I am glad US Soccer is standing up for the three England player that missed PKs and are receiving racial abuse in the social media in England.
English soccer fans are toxic & obnoxious to say the least.
Oh, I don’t know. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if an African-American Hog missed two free throws to keep us out of the Final Four and exactly the same thing happened to him.
That reaction you suggest by Hog fans would surprise me.
Hog fans may be rabid, but they are neither racists nor abusive to their own players.
I live with Chip Hooper, Peter Doohan and Clark Diehl one year.
It was never dull,
I thought we were speaking on modern day men’s tennis - as i right now.
Except when they set their vehicles on fire. 
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Seven of Federer’s major wins were before Nadal and Novak were factors and a bunch of those were against guys that nobody will argue are all time greats - Safin, Phillaposous, Bagdatis, Hewitt, and Roddick. Good players but easy pickings for Federer.
Both Nadal and Novak had to deal with each other and Roger.
- Novak
- Rafa
- Federer
I was a Jimmy Connors fan and he was not allowed to play the French Open in his prime from 1974 -1979 and only played the Australian Open twice and many other players skipped it as well due to poor facilities and it was during the year end Holidays. Finally, they improved facilities and moved the tournament to February making it a major on par with the other three.
Makes Apples to Apples comparisons tough when it comes to major wins.
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