List Editor: George.

Greatest Tennis Players (Men)

1. Rod Laver
2. Bill Tilden
3. Roger Federer
4. Pete Sampras
5. Bjorn Borg
6. Don Budge
7. Jack Kramer
8. Pancho Gonzalez
9. Jimmy Connors
10. John McEnroe
11. Ivan Lendl
12. Rafael Nadal
13. Roy Emerson
14. Ken Rosewall
15. Andre Agassi
16. Lew Hoad
17. Ellsworth Vines
18. Bobby Riggs
19. Fred Perry
20. Rene Lacoste
21. Henri Cochet
22. Mats Wilander
23. Boris Becker
24. Pancho Segura
25. Jack Crawford
26. Tony Trabert
27. Stefan Edberg
28. John Newcombe
29. Ilie Nastase
30. Guillermo Vilas

Honorable mentions: William Renshaw, Tony Wilding, William Larned, Laurie Doherty, Richard Sears, Max Decugis, Jim Courier, Reggie Doherty, Jaroslav Drobny, Jean Borotra, Manolo Santana, Karel Kozeluh, Gottfried von Cramm, Arthur Ashe, Norman Brookes, Budge Patty, Vinnie Richards, Hans Nusslein, Lleyton Hewitt, Gustavo Kuerten, Andy Roddick, Patrick Rafter, Stan Smith, Frank Sedgman, Jan Kodes, Neale Fraser, Adrian Quist, Ted Schroeder, Marat Safin, Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Michael Chang, Thomas Muster


Greatest Tennis Players (Women)

1. Martina Navratilova
2. Margaret Smith Court
3. Steffi Graf
4. Chris Evert
5. Suzanne Lenglen
6. Helen Wills Moody
7. Billie Jean King
8. Serena Williams
9. Maureen Connolly
10. Monica Seles
11. Evonne Goolagong
12. Venus Williams
13. Justine Henin
14. Pauline Betz
15. Maria Bueno
16. Martina Hingis
17. Dorothea Douglass Chambers
18. Doris Hart
19. Helen Jacobs
20. Lottie Dod
21. Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling
22. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario
23. Molla Mallory
24. Hana Mandlikova
25. Lindsay Davenport

Honorable mentions: Simone Mathieu, Virginia Wade, Tracy Austin, Shirley Fry, Thelma Long, Esna Boyd, Jeanne Matthey, Jennifer Capriati

thank you for having Seles in the top 10...and i cant help it...i will hate Steffi forever.....I just feel that incident made all other female players around jittery and allowed her to sweep the way she did.....wrong i may be, but thats how i feel....

nice to see Nadal in an elevated position....though Id have thought he;d be at 14 just above Agassi....

Bjorn Borg was such a pimp

No question. Many elements of his game were literally decades ahead of almost everybody else in the world.

Rosewall >> Emerson
Court > Navratilova
Clijsters should make honorable mentions at least.

x100

Emerson had an awesome record of 28 grand slam titles, 16 singles, 12 doubles. Rosewell is a legend and may have a case to be ahead but just wondering why you think by so much?

Emerson won all of his grand slams in the years when only amateurs were allowed to play. All of the best players were playing pro tennis. And unlike Laver, for example, Emerson did not join the pro tour in the 60's to compete against the best players. And when the sport rejoined (so to speak) and the open era began his record against the best players, even guys who were then a bit past it like Gonzales was not that good and he didn't win anything.

Rosewall on the other hand was a top 20 player every year from 1952 to 1977 - his longevity is unmatched. He spent his best years in the pro tour in the late 50's and 60's and won 15 pro slam championships. He also won 5 grand slams before turning professional, and then another 3 after the open era began more than a decade later and he beat the best players in the world doing so.

He has a losing record against Laver, but not by a huge amount...and well, that's obviously nothing to be ashamed about.

I think he beats Emerson easily.

a case? hes not even in rosewall's league. yeah he won 12 singles, but they were all against amatuers. in this time rosewall won 15 pro slams. in the open era emerson was found out by the real players, rosewall went on to win another 4 slams (and a wimbledon final at age 40) staying extremely competitive

Fair enough i didn't realize the amateur factor. Rosewall had a long career and was no1 for quite a bit, though he never won Wimbledon which must haunt him.

Fair enough RV, thanks for clarifying.

Found their head to head records against Laver:

Laver 79 Rosewall 63
Laver 47 Emerson 18

Pretty big difference really.

Also, Laver's head to head's against some other greats of his era:

Laver 35 Gonzalez 19
Laver 37 Hoad 16
Laver 21 Ashe 3
Laver 16 Newcombe 5

Definitely deserves to stay number 1. Maybe if Federer can get back to the top again and beat Nadal in a couple more grand slams he might have a shot. And Nadal could have a shot at it if he stays injury free and dominates for another 3 years.

Rosewall really stands up there, and yes i agree that Laver deserves his No1, i cant see Federer recapturing his best again to take his mantle, and Nadal whilst he is amazing still has plenty of work to do.

To be fair, it's hard to form any sort of equivalency between pro and amateur slams. Sure, pro slams were played against the best players in the world, but they also were 3 or 4 rounds long, not the 7 that amateur slams usually were. This got rid of the possibility of early-round upsets. Also, since the pro tour was so much smaller, guys played each other all the time and had more opportunities to get used to each other's styles. Not so in the much larger amateur tour.

That said, Rosewall is clearly superior to Emerson.

Tud, those are precisely the reasons why I don't think it's set in stone that Laver should be ahead of Federer. And I'm no Fed fan.