Greatest tennis player

[Samuel Eto'o]

Roger Federer

[Petrinha]

What kind of a pool is this ?! Missing few other guys or at least one more option for those who don't wanna vote for these 4 ... Bad bad :chucks:

[Chucka]

Laver i'd say, won 11 grandslams in 5 years, he had to stop after that or something, because of some shizz.

[Petrinha]

seriously Adam he is the best Tennis player i've ever seen ... his technique and style was fantastic

if he was playing now things would be totally different ...same applies for most of his generation .. the problem was they all came up at the same time
u had a very strong Swedish , French,American,Czech ,Australian ,German schools and players.. hell the Davis cup was like the WC today

I was lucky that i lived through the best Tennis generation ever .. the competition and styles was so different it was amazing .. there was no bad game and u couldn't predict who will reach the final...
there isn't an era with such massive talents and names in Tennis like the period between mid 80's and very early 90's ...

thumbs up!!!! finaly somebody who knows the game and summed it good
Let me write something about it, stretch it a bit more as am as well a big admirer of the great swede

[Petrinha]

Laver i'd say, won 11 grandslams in 5 years, he had to stop after that or something, because of some shizz.

The thing is that it's not only about the number if slams or tournaments somebody won but also about the style, rivals, conditiones and time when they played, surfaces and many other things that come into count here ... Laver was great, many experts d say he was best ever winning 2 times Gold slam, beeing number 1 for 6 years with amazing win-loss result etc tc, i will say sometiong about him too b ut d more concentrate on the players i actually watched in the real time

[el tren]

Pete was perfection. Perfect technique and athletic. Awesome precision and power at the same time. No flaws. Pete in his prime clearly > Federer.

[Petrinha]

Technicaly he was great(great amount of Slams, titles, good kick serve, not bad volley, good bcnd and fhand, best smash ever etc etc ... a nerd indeed ), and if id vote here among these 4 d probably be him, saw almost all of his matches i could etc ... but dunno, he is too much of a robot for me, machine, typical product of Lendl school i can say hehe, nerdy in all aspects, to be my fav he has lack of elegance, style and something for what i d say "yeah that only Pete has", u know something that distinguishes great from the best, special ones ... can't help it.
But what i admire him is the hardest work ever on the tour that compensated his lack of talent and his mental strenght in crucial times, well done

[Abaddon]

Pete was perfection. Perfect technique and athletic. Awesome precision and power at the same time. No flaws. Pete in his prime clearly > Federer.

no doubt.

[Petrinha]

- life on the net -



Stefan Edberg, defenately!! One and the only !! I adored him, his style, his elegance along with an attitude towards the game itself.
His first serve was not atomic like many serves nowdays but yet strong, fast, deep and perfectly placed.Even better was his second, full of spin with which he made more direct points.He had a great spinal backhand and less spinal foreheand that was his let's say „worst“ feature but stil his amazing best ever first volley covers it all.It looks so easy yet so effective from any position, wherever the rival shots he rarely missed it.Even we all know swedish tennis school produced some of the finest players, his hammer grip volley distinguished him from the rest of them who nourtured base line tennis, so his game can be summed in – LIFE ON THE NET

Most of the ppl, renomated and others hardly put him into top 5, even top ten(here, places are always shared between Federer, Sampras, Laver, Lendl and McEnroe mostly), on many top – scales he is 11th, but for me he was unique as never before saw that kind of tehnique & style, great balance of the body, good moves and quick legs.He didn't have many oscilationes in his game, only bad thing in my opion is lack of courage in tie breaks.
I first saw him play in Melbourne 1987 in 4R with Miroslav Mecir ... in finals he revenged aussie Pat cash for Davis cup loss ... same year won several big tournaments, Memphis, Rotterdam, Cincinaty, Stockholm ... that year was his ticket to the top ... in 1988 in R.Gaross loses from P.Roldan and then came his Wimbledon, he passes through Forget, Reneberg, Flach, Youl, Kuhnen, in sf again meets Mecir (wins in 5 set losing 1- 4 in the last).In the finals meets the „favourite“ Becker who eliminated Lendl and Cash before. If i remember well they played 2 days (yeah, bloody rain ), he wins in 4 sets, same year wins bronze in Seoul ... in 1989 he withdrew from Melbourne due to the back muscles, in RG comes to the finals where he unluckily loses from Chang in 5 sets, in Wimbledon beats McEnroe and goes again on Boris and loses in serve-volley game from both sides ... in Wimbledon 1990 after 9-7 in final set with Amos Mansdorf meets his arch-rival Boris again, and after leading 2-0 in sets loses 2 next, in 5th loses his serv, but wins at the end, my gosh, horror, i was in delirium, stil remember what i was wearing and where and with whome watched it. Somewhere at that time he became number 1, inheriting Lendl.







Apart from matches with Boris and Ivan there was one which i d characterize as one of his best if not best. At US open 1991, after beating Chang and Lendl in finals does the same to Courier passing through him like a truck with minimal errors and amazing percentage of the first serve and volley leaving Courier with his sax playing blues lol. etc...etc, just wrote some moments that got so vividly sticked into my memory bringing smile onto my face each time.



He was playing in time when Mac was leaving (many always compare their volleys, but Stefan's really can't be compared with nobody, Pat Rafter was the only who could have come close but didn't manage stil), and with all due respect to the times before him and after him, he came in times of the best amount of players ever ... Wilander, Lendl, Becker, Agassi, Muster, Kraicek, Stich, Courier, Sampras, Ivanisevic, Rafter, Korda, Bruguera, Kafelnikov etc etc and Ion Tiriac observing from the tribina lol ...(on the either side, although female tennis was never nor hard nor intersting as male i can say that at these times it was closer then ever with Navratilova, Seles, Graf, Capriati, Sanchez, Sabatini...). Those players were special as each was individual with it's own style, honestly i never saw such a diversity of tennis players since i know about tennis ... i am so happy and feel privilaged to be born in that period to see it and enjoy in it, in players and tournaments that were holiday of sport, when nobody could predict who d win as everyone was able to beat and be beaten, when there were no 2 even simmilar, when (and this will sound as a SF) if u close your eyes and concentrate on the sound of the player's moves and the ball hitting the ground, u could, if u know something about tennis world, know who is playing at the court ... something i think will never repeat again.... just simply beauty of the game.

I was so lucky to see him play twice, first time it was in Paris at RG in 1989 and second here in Zagreb during the Davis Cup with Yugoslavia in 1991, was amazing experience even Sweden was defeated high 4-1 putting clay surface which was not suitable for Stefan ... but seeing him play again was something so special to me ... u know, while all the other girls my age were dieing for Tom Cruise in Top gun, Rob Love in The Outsiders or Patrick Swayze in Dirty dancing or for any of those 80's rocks stars(just for the record i loved them too, without doubt ) i had such a childish crush for Edberg that was crazy hehe, so i don't even remember how the hell i came down to the court asking him an autograph after the match but i did, child dream has come true...

Heard that he is nowdays training kids back in Sweden(if not playing hockey, it was his 2nd passion).

As a great serve-volley player he was great in doubles too(with various players that shows his ability to accomodate different playing style, mostly with his friend from swedish team Anders Jarryd), on most tournaments he played both till the end.He was 4 times Davis Cup winner, only Golden slam winner as junior in 1983 that kinda made base for his career (although sucessful junior career is no guarantee for senior, just remember golden youngster Aaron Kirckstein, Kournikova too, but she chose another way ayway).
Also ppl often say he was boring, but why, only coz he didn't need to become yellow pages junkie to succeed ... from ppl that know him i heard he was much more of a stud that ppl knew(if he took Annette from his best friend Willander who knows what else could have been expected of him lol) ... but he never talked about it, we know him as Gentleman, don't we

In comparasion with Lendl or Sampras that u guys also mentioned here as best players i d say yes, they won more tournaments and grand slames, but for all i've sad i stil consider Edberg better. Lendl and Sampras were kinda simmilar, strong, muscular, both hard workers, they used to train 7-8-9 hours each day, so no wander Lendl became Pete's mentor inviting him often to his rancho where they practiced and practiced compensating bit lack of a talent in comparation with some other players.Here when i talk about Pete can't avoid mentioning Andre that always was and stil(even after the drug affaire) is the most talented player ever, always remember Bolliettieri characterising Andre as a brat who can party all night and stil win on the tour in the morning, something like Dennis Rodman in his best years.

Ivan had amazing and strong forehand, was ruling on the base line with great feeling for drop shot, although his backhand was not the best making him afraid going to ne net even when his coach Tony Roach was forcing his volley. No. 1 for a total of 270 weeks, breaking the record previously held by Jimmy Connors which has since been surpassed by Pete, who on the olther side had most unpredictable serve ever with lot of kick, playing with a whole body, good both forehand and backhand, not bad volley and amazing smash.It's funny how they both kept a booklet where they wrote notes about the rivals they played with, on which they based their game next time, what nerds hehe. But, while Ivan was, coz he sucked on grass, terrified of Wimbledon, posponing playing it for years and rather sunbathing in Miami drinking pepsi, Sampras was mentaly strong as a horse playing till the last atom in his body, i remember one tournament(not sure which, think was at masters though) he was throwing up but continuing to play(Muster was that kind too, especially after 5h on the clay field where any point lasts forever), same when his coach diagnosed with cancer.

Big Mac „U cannot be serious“ was great too with his legendary rivality with Borg and brilliant games with Nastase, Connors and Lendl. He will always be remembered when, at the age of 18 took the tennis world by storm making through the qualifying into the main draw at Wimbledon, and then all the way to the semi-finals where he lost in four sets to Jimmy Connors. It was the best performance ever by qualifier at a Grand Slam tournament, and a record performance for an amateur in the open era. Unfortunately, I didn't see much of him, but seen enough to say he was good, unique by temperament something like our Goran was.

Borg i saw only in reruns, amazing career of an one unusual fellow,king of Wibledon and RG in his era. It's just so scary thinking about what he could have accomplished if he hadn't walked away from the games so early.

And the great Aussie, Rod Laver, i can't talk of him with the same certainty as didn't live in his time but can only repat what othes say about him and those r quite amazing references.Number 1 for 6 years, 2 times Golden slam(although at that time Slams were not played on different surfaces each), 106-16 win-loss record, Wimbledon's first Open Era champion in 1968, beating fellow-Australian Tony Roche in straight sets in the final. Although he was not physically imposing by any standard, he developed a complete serve-volley game to go along with some of the best ground strokes the game has ever seen. So the majority of experts do say he may be the game’s most complete player ever.

Instead of conclusion ...
Sweden is famed for its tennis champions of the past such as Bjorn Borg and Matts Wilander and Stefan Edberg completed a trio of top stars for the country in a big style. Truly talented and a constant achiever from his junior times to Pro he reigned supreme during the late 80s and early 90's and eveyone loved him.From Milan in 1984 till Doha in 1995 he won 41 single and 18 double tornaments, been in 107 singles and doubles finals, played 54 consecutive Grand slams, winning 6 in the most toughest tennis times, with 1.089 matches in total making him true master of the game who knew how to use his strenght to achive his goals.

Once when he took off from his suspected fighting spirit he became a true champion, unique, an artist and a strategist providing a beautiful game with an elegant, wicked kick-serve and sharp razor volleys whose quality separates him from the mediocracy of the so-so volleyers.He is almost 190 cm tall, yet when on net his shoulders is always at the net-height, hiss foot work is beyond amazing rabbiting 2-4 times beween every shot. Despite his slim looking figure, he indeed had a power.He just went out and played fluid, graceful, classy tennis.



Today, Roger Federer may turn out to be that rare combination of class and talent.That's why i didnt speak about him today, one day when he retires maybe i will, who knows.
p.s.I really didn't wanna make an hommage to SE, just wanted to reply on badly made pool about best tennis player ever, but then when memories start coming out was too late to stop them ... and, honestly, i didn't want too

[La Furia]

Pete was perfection. Perfect technique and athletic. Awesome precision and power at the same time. No flaws. Pete in his prime clearly > Federer.

Tell that to everyone who faced him on clay.

The 90's were a much more competitive era than the 2000's, that is definitely in Pete's favor, but his clay record means I cannot consider him the GOAT. He was the best of a great era and so he's one of the best, but "perfection" doesn't describe his Roland Garros record.

[veryfatchocobo]

90's for sure was more competitive but technique is way much better now. I say Federer would've beaten Sampras in his prime.

[antonnn]

Laver was unlucky to be playing at a time where only amateurs could take part in Grand Slams, otherwise he'd have a record that nobody would break, legend. Out of the guys I've actually seen a pretty good amount of I'd say Sampras, Fed after him.

[La Furia]

90's for sure was more competitive but technique is way much better now. I say Federer would've beaten Sampras in his prime.

I could see Sampras beating Fed on grass, Sampras would easily have the best serve on the tour right now, maybe slower than Andy's but with much more variety. I think you are right on a hard court, Federer would of course cream him on clay.

[Abaddon]

I could see Sampras beating Fed on grass, Sampras would easily have the best serve on the tour right now, maybe slower than Andy's but with much more variety. I think you are right on a hard court, Federer would of course cream him on clay.

Federer would win on clay against Pete, but he'd get pwned on anything else.

[La Furia]

Federer would win on clay against Pete, but he'd get pwned on anything else.

Federer was one of the best serve returners of all time at his peak, the current Fed would be killed off of clay.