Greatest Players of All Time - according to Tennis Abstract

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Greatest Players of All Time - according to Tennis Abstract

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Exre wrote:
Did not expect Billie Jean to be below Arantxa and Lindsay but here we go. Another nice profile:

www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2022/10/27/the-tennis-128-no-28-billie-jean-king/

Hi Exre - agreed, I was surprised she was this low, and below those players!

And welcome to the Forum!!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

And welcome from Finland in particular!!

My first ever Davis Cup watching match in person was GB v Finland way back in the late 80's ( I think) at Bristol on grass. I remember players like Rahnasto , Paloheimo from back in the day!

Exre · Improver

JonH comes home wrote:
And welcome from Finland in particular!!

My first ever Davis Cup watching match in person was GB v Finland way back in the late 80's ( I think) at Bristol on grass. I remember players like Rahnasto , Paloheimo from back in the day!

Wow!

I am too young to have seen any of the Finnish stars who preceded Jarkko Nieminen although I of course know these names as well as Aki Rahunen and Leo Palin.

Jarkko of course quite quickly became the most successful Finnish player in history. Emil Ruusuvuori now clearly looking like he'll be at least the 2nd best Finnish player of all time, but time will tell if he can reach the heights of Jarkko. As I recall Jarkko was probably even a little bit better at the same age.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Exre wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
And welcome from Finland in particular!!

My first ever Davis Cup watching match in person was GB v Finland way back in the late 80's ( I think) at Bristol on grass. I remember players like Rahnasto , Paloheimo from back in the day!
Wow!
I am too young to have seen any of the Finnish stars who preceded Jarkko Nieminen although I of course know these names as well as Aki Rahunen and Leo Palin.
Jarkko of course quite quickly became the most successful Finnish player in history. Emil Ruusuvuori now clearly looking like he'll be at least the 2nd best Finnish player of all time, but time will tell if he can reach the heights of Jarkko. As I recall Jarkko was probably even a little bit better at the same age.

This is the match I went to - 1988 - it was the Doubles on the Saturday, with Ivan Lendl playing a singles exhibition versus Mark Petchey ( I think) as well

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Davis_Cup_Europe/Africa_Zone_Group_I#Great_Britain_vs._Finland

Leo Palin was a name I also do remember as a name from the 80's as well, before the Swedes took over Scandi tennis!

The Helsinki Challenger each year is one of the top on that circuit and I am sure they had an ATP event there at one time or another?

Exre · Improver

JonH comes home wrote:
Exre wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
And welcome from Finland in particular!!

My first ever Davis Cup watching match in person was GB v Finland way back in the late 80's ( I think) at Bristol on grass. I remember players like Rahnasto , Paloheimo from back in the day!
Wow!
I am too young to have seen any of the Finnish stars who preceded Jarkko Nieminen although I of course know these names as well as Aki Rahunen and Leo Palin.
Jarkko of course quite quickly became the most successful Finnish player in history. Emil Ruusuvuori now clearly looking like he'll be at least the 2nd best Finnish player of all time, but time will tell if he can reach the heights of Jarkko. As I recall Jarkko was probably even a little bit better at the same age.
This is the match I went to - 1988 - it was the Doubles on the Saturday, with Ivan Lendl playing a singles exhibition versus Mark Petchey ( I think) as well
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Davis_Cup_Europe/Africa_Zone_Group_I#Great_Britain_vs._Finland
Leo Palin was a name I also do remember as a name from the 80's as well, before the Swedes took over Scandi tennis!
The Helsinki Challenger each year is one of the top on that circuit and I am sure they had an ATP event there at one time or another?

I don't think there was ever an ATP tournament. I recall watching a program on the topic. The Helsinki challenger (Tali Open) is a newer one but the biggest one in the country. However, the Tampere Open is apparently the longest running Challenger event in history going on since 1982.

Tennis is a relatively minor sport in Finland. Sweden of course has always produced more players and has had their 250 even in Stockholm for a long long time. Even so I don't know quite how they produced so many Grand Slam winners and further quality players with just a population of 10 million. The other Nordic countries are only now maybe catching up a bit.

-- Edited by Exre on Thursday 27th of October 2022 02:26:08 PM

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

JonH comes home wrote:
28th is Billy Jean King

www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2022/10/27/the-tennis-128-no-28-billie-jean-king/

I had BJK as 16th in my list and do think she should be higher than 28th, she won 12 major titles in singles, a host more (a record?) in doubles as well, was a trail blazer beyond tennis. ANd she had longevity in abundance, played some of the best ever that will appear here like Court, Navratilova, Evert etc etc.

But I havent read the narrative yet and it may well be there are v good reasons she isnt higher!!

I had Billie- Jean no. 18 on my list which I thought maybe too low .Not sure whether her Grand Slam singles record counts against her. She won the Aussie Open in the pre-Open era and was a finalist on just one other occasion. Similarly she only played in one French final which she won in 1972. However many singles finals at Wimbledon and US both in the preOpen and Open era.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Exre wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Exre wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
And welcome from Finland in particular!!

My first ever Davis Cup watching match in person was GB v Finland way back in the late 80's ( I think) at Bristol on grass. I remember players like Rahnasto , Paloheimo from back in the day!
Wow!
I am too young to have seen any of the Finnish stars who preceded Jarkko Nieminen although I of course know these names as well as Aki Rahunen and Leo Palin.
Jarkko of course quite quickly became the most successful Finnish player in history. Emil Ruusuvuori now clearly looking like he'll be at least the 2nd best Finnish player of all time, but time will tell if he can reach the heights of Jarkko. As I recall Jarkko was probably even a little bit better at the same age.
This is the match I went to - 1988 - it was the Doubles on the Saturday, with Ivan Lendl playing a singles exhibition versus Mark Petchey ( I think) as well
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1988_Davis_Cup_Europe/Africa_Zone_Group_I#Great_Britain_vs._Finland
Leo Palin was a name I also do remember as a name from the 80's as well, before the Swedes took over Scandi tennis!
The Helsinki Challenger each year is one of the top on that circuit and I am sure they had an ATP event there at one time or another?
I don't think there was ever an ATP tournament. I recall watching a program on the topic. The Helsinki challenger (Tali Open) is a newer one but the biggest one in the country. However, the Tampere Open is apparently the longest running Challenger event in history going on since 1982.
Tennis is a relatively minor sport in Finland. Sweden of course has always produced more players and has had their 250 even in Stockholm for a long long time. Even so I don't know quite how they produced so many Grand Slam winners and further quality players with just a population of 10 million. The other Nordic countries are only now maybe catching up a bit.

-- Edited by Exre on Thursday 27th of October 2022 02:26:08 PM

Yes, Tampere, that is the one I was thinking of as a big well known event on the Challenger circuit!

As an aside it got me thinking about Borg and I did some googling and found this.

This is a list of exhibitions that Borg played through his career - now, remember, the Grand Prix circuit at the time had as many events as todays ATP circuit. Borg would have played 20-30 events per season back in the mid 70's, he was prolific at that time before he burnt out. But he also played enormous numbers of exho matches as this list shows - and globally as well.

#prodigious!

https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/bj%C3%B6rn-borg-exos-74-87.234431/

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

Henri Kontinen who won the mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 2016 with Heather Watson was the first Finnish man to win a Wimbledon title. Birgitta Lindstrom from Finland won the Girls singles at Wimbledon in 1966.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2022/10/29/the-tennis-128-no-27-arantxa-sanchez-vicario/

27th is the Spanish star, ASV - I had her as 32nd, so pretty aligned.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Arantxa won 6 womens doubles and 4 mixed slams also; a hefty haul.

www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2022/10/29/the-tennis-128-no-27-arantxa-sanchez-vicario/

I remember running a club tennis tournament where wed contrived finals day to be opposite the 1995 womens final. It was an epic, which Graf won against ASV in a long final set and most of the players ended watching
The Wimbledon final in the club house whilst our sad event got little attention !

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

JonH comes home wrote:
www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2022/10/29/the-tennis-128-no-27-arantxa-sanchez-vicario/

27th is the Spanish star, ASV - I had her as 32nd, so pretty aligned.

I had her at 32 as well. Steffi prevented her winning Wimbledon.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

I see Jeff has put up a decent schedule for the next 4 in the list, first of which is tomorrow and the following 3 over the next week.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

I got an email notification saying 26th is Lindsay Davenport (doesnt seem to be on TA site yet though, so cant post link. I had Lindsay 34th in my list. I think both myself and Gameover had her and ASV close to each other so thats proven correct !

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Lindsay was one of my favourites and still is as a commentary pundit. Seems a lovely person and the write up Jeff, is nicely done