Greatest Players of All Time - according to Tennis Abstract

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

RE: Greatest Players of All Time - according to Tennis Abstract

indiana · Tennis legend

As Jon indicated himself earlier short careers aren't going to help players at all here. Borg will be nowhere close with Jeff as Jon seems to well know

At least Jon recognised the correct leader of the Fed / Nadal / Djokovic generation - though Djokovic will be higher overall.

Who do you folk actually think Jeff will have as top man and top woman?

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
As Jon indicated himself earlier short careers aren't going to help players at all here. Borg will be nowhere close with Jeff as Jon seems to well know
At least Jon recognised the correct leader of the Fed / Nadal / Djokovic generation - though Djokovic will be higher overall.
Who do you folk actually think Jeff will have as top man and top woman?

Djokovic and Serena

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

GAMEOVER wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
GAMEOVER wrote:
JonH comes home wrote:
Gameover - we have the same list left, where have you rated these 24 names on your list??
Some of these will finish lower but here we are:-
Laver
Connolly
Federer
Lenglen
Djokovic
Wills Moody
Nadal
Graf
Sampras
Serena
Budge
Navratilova
OUT
Evert
McEnroe
Court
Borg
OUT
Tilden
Seles
Rosewall
OUT
Gonzales
OUT
The OUTS were Agassi, King, Hart and Sharapova
The players who still might appear but I rated lower are Lendl, Connors, Venus Williams, and Marble.

The biggest gap is Borg ! My 1 is your 17!
Is this because Borg is your favourite player?

Quite possibly as it was my favourite era. Id say mcenroe was my favourite player but I always rated Borgs French and Wimbledon back to backs the highest achievement

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Rosewall was another big difference I see!

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

Just seen that Jimmy Connors is No 24.

GAMEOVER · Satellite level

I had Jimmy Connors at 27 but Jon you were closer at 23.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Indeed - in the right ball park !

www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2022/11/04/the-tennis-128-no-24-jimmy-connors/

So, Jimmy was also one of my favourites - my era I suppose. Street fighter, I used the Wilson T2000 myself because of Connors but chose to serve volley as I didnt have the patience to play from the back!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

I never saw Connors in the flesh sadly. His Benson and Hedges final at Wembley was one of theatre that I recall on TV, playing 5 sets of mayhem with McEnroe.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

23rd is Alice Marble - I had Alice in my list at 42nd so was some way out

www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2022/11/07/the-tennis-128-no-23-alice-marble/

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

indiana wrote:
INow posting in the correct thread ...

Interesting that among the men there appears to be only one player left to come up born between 1960 ( Lendl ) and 1981 ( Federer ) and then 5 more years to 1986 ( Nadal ).

We have the Connors / Borg / McEnroe / Lendl era and really just Sampras (1971) of true note until the Federer / Nadal / Djokovic / Murray era. Such as Becker and Edberg were very good but have been put in their place.

So.I guess when looking at Sampras's successes the fact that his general contemporaries were part of a relatively crap era before the latest crap era has to be taken into account and no doubt his ELO figures will take this into account to a large extent. I guess Federer also got a wee bit of a start against that poorer era.

Ah, if Andy had been around a decade or two sooner just think what prizes he might have clocked up. So pleased though that Jeff's exercise has him as high as he is even wirh 'just' 3 Slam titles and ( not neing biased, honest ) think that that s a good reflection on his methodology.

Ii guess in the great, crap great etc rhere was also an earlier gap between Laver (1938) and Connors (1952) and some not so great olayers tyen too that picked up a few Slam titles. I do hope for our future tennis enjoyment that there will be a new great era to come along quite soon.

I think Jeffs methodology is very good and much better than mine which is a mix of instinct , who I liked personally and how many big titles they won - not just slams but big titles at pro Level. But as a fan only, its nigh impossible to judge really if Tilden or Laver or Borg or Federer was better - how can we really know? Jeffs methodology really addresses that well, so far at least. The colour narratives are excellent and bring some of these historic players to life and , as an exercise, Jeff deserves massive credit.

I still think there is a book in here somewhere!

Jan · Hall of fame

I still think there is a book in here somewhere!

Definitely. I've thought that for a while too.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Jan wrote:
I still think there is a book in here somewhere!
Definitely. I've thought that for a while too.

two customers then!!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

I noticed that of the 22 players left, assuming we are right with the names that they will be, it will be 12 men and 10 women to come. If we add that to those already listed, we will end up with 66 women and 62 men in the 128, so pretty event spread but slightly more to the women. I wonder how the 128 breaks down by era or decade and whether any end up dominating. Instinct tells me we have had a lot of 1930's and 40's players, a lot fewer from the 80s and 90s and early turn of this century?

indiana · Tennis legend

JonH comes home wrote:
Jan wrote:
I still think there is a book in here somewhere!
Definitely. I've thought that for a while too.
two customers then!!

Go on, I'll buy it too.