Who Is The Best Tennis Player?
There’s no easy answer to the question, “Who is the best tennis player?” The sport has seen many greats over the years, and it’s hard to compare players from different eras. However, we can take a look at some of the greatest players in history and try to determine who is the best of the best.
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal is a professional tennis player from Spain. He is currently ranked No. 1 in the world by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles, the second most in history for a male player, as well as a record 35 ATP Tour Masters 1000 titles, 20 ATP Tour 500 titles, and 12 Davis Cup titles.
Early life and background
Rafael Nadal Parera was born on 3 June 1986 in Manacor, Balearic Islands, Spain, to Sebastián Nadal, a businessman who owns an insurance company, a glass and window company, and manages real estate properties, and Ana María Parera, a housewife. His uncle, Miguel Ángel Nadal, is a retired professional footballer who played for RCD Mallorca, FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team. Nadal’s father built him a tennis court in their backyard when he was three years old. Upon his uncle’s suggestion at age eight that he should play competitive tennis after watching him hit balls with Pepe Sánchez during social games at their home, thechild prodigy began tennis lessons with local coach Francisco Foguet. When Nadal was 12 years old he won an under-12 regional tennis championship at a club in Bocairent. He then began his ascent to becoming one of the greatest players of all time by winning The European Tennis Championships for Boys Under 18 Singles & Under 12 Singles. In 2004 he became the youngest man ever to win The French Open (beating out Michael Chang’s record).
Professional career
Rafael Nadal has been a professional tennis player since he was 15 years old. He has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles, the second most in history for a male player, as well as being the only male player to win all four Grand Slams on three different surfaces. Nadal has also won 36 ATP Masters 1000 titles, 19 ATP 500 titles, and 11 Davis Cup titles, making him the most successful tennis player of all time on clay.
Major achievements
Rafael Nadal has won 85 ATP singles titles, 20 Grand Slam singles titles, four Olympic gold medals, and three Davis Cup titles. In addition, he has also held the year-end world No. 1 ranking three times (in 2008, 2010, and 2017).
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 3 in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has won 20 Grand Slam singles titles—the most by any male player—and has held the world No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for a record total of 310 weeks.
Early life and background
Roger Federer was born on August 8, 1981, in Binningen, Switzerland. His father, Robert Federer, is Swiss-German, and his mother, Lynette Durand, is South African. He has one sister, Diana. He holds both Swiss and South African citizenship. Growing up, Federer played tennis in his backyard with his father. When he was 10 years old, his parents gave him a framed photograph of Pete Sampras serving at Wimbledon that he would later keep hanging above his bed. At 11 years old he took tennis lessons at a nearby club from former Davis Cup player Josef Lejderman who – impressed with Federer’s natural talent – predicted that Federer would become number one in the world within two years. This did not happen for another eight years.
Federer began to play more tennis as he entered puberty and started competing against grown men in local tournaments when he was just 12 or 13 years old. At 14 he began tennis training at the Swiss National Tennis Center (known as the “smoke-free Waggershausen”) under Martina Hingis’ former coach Fritz Buehning and relished playing on the country’s top clay courts. When Buehning retired in 1997, Peter Carter became Federer’s new coach; Carter remained as his coach until 2002 when Tony Roche took over the role.
Professional career
Roger Federer (born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 3 in men’s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has won 19 Grand Slam singles titles, the most in history for a male tennis player, and has been ranked inside the top 10 continuously for 305 weeks, both records for a male tennis player.
Major achievements
Roger Federer has won a record 20 Grand Slam titles, including eight Wimbledon singles crowns, six Australian Open titles, five US Open titles and one French Open title. He is also a record-equalling six-time ATP Player of the Year and has won a record five ITF World Champions benefits.
Novak Djokovic
Djokovic is currently ranked No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He is the first Serbian player to be ranked No. 1 by the ATP. Djokovic has won 16 Grand Slam singles titles, five ATP Finals titles, four Wimbledon men’s singles titles, three Australian Open men’s singles titles, and one French Open men’s singles title.
Early life and background
Novak Djokovic was born on May 22, 1987, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia), to Serbian parents Srđan and Dijana. His father owned a pizza parlour and his mother was a professional swimmer. Growing up, he played tennis with his younger brother Marko and childhood friends Janko Tipsarević and Viktor Troicki. He loved skiing and differed from other children in his school by not drinking or smoking. When he was four years old, his parents put a tennis racket in his hands and within a year he began attending a special tennis school, the “Red Star”, where he trained with Jelena Genčić. He started playing competitive junior tournaments when he was eight years old, winning several age group events before moving on to the 12-and-under division when he was nine. In 2003, at age 16, Djokovic won the Junior Davis Cup for Serbia & Montenegro , defeating Chile’s Maciej Sakowicz in the final held in Palm Springs California .
Djokovic is an active supporter of UNICEF .
Professional career
Djokovic has won numerous awards, including the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year in 2015 and 2011. He is one of only eight men to have won all nine of the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, and he is also the only player to have won ATP Masters 1000 tournaments on all three surfaces (hardcourt, clay, and grass). He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2020.
Major achievements
Throughout his career, Djokovic has won numerous prestigious titles, including 15 Grand Slam singles titles, 5 ATP Finals titles, and 3 Wimbledon singles titles. He is one of only eight men to have won all four of the major tennis tournaments, and he is the only player in history to have won all nine of the ATP Masters 1000 tournaments. In addition to his individual accomplishments, Djokovic has also been a member of Serbia’s winning Davis Cup team in 2010.
Andy Murray
Andy Murray is a Scottish professional tennis player from Dunblane, United Kingdom. Murray represents Great Britain in his sport and is a three-time Grand Slam tournament winner, two-time Olympic gold medalist, Davis Cup champion, and the winner of the 2016 ATP World Tour Finals. He is also the first British man to win multiple Wimbledon singles titles since Fred Perry in 1936. So, who is the best tennis player?
Early life and background
Andy Murray was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of Judy Murray (née Erskine) and William Murray. His maternal grandfather, Roy Erskine, was a professional footballer in the late 1950s. Murray is a supporter of Hibernian Football Club, one of the teams his grandfather represented. Murray began playing tennis at age three when his mother Judy took him to play on the local courts. He played in his first competitive tournament aged five and by aged 11 he had become British under-12 champion.
At age 15, he competed in his first senior tournament, the Toyota Grass Court Championships in June 2004. He reached the second round of the junior event at Wimbledon that year. Murray’s mother worked as a tennis coach while she was on the road with him. She quit her job as his full-time coach when he turned pro in 2005 due to shortage of time because he started touring well before he reached the age of 18. At that time she was already working with Jamie Baker, who was then British No 3 player (and later peaked at No 38), and it soon became clear that this arrangement would not continue indefinitely as both Andy and Jamie shepherded their way up the rankings together.
Professional career
Andy Murray OBE (born Andy Murray 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland currently ranked world No. 127 in men’s singles as of 23 March 2020. Murray represents Great Britain in his sporting activities and is a three-time Grand Slam tournament winner, two-time Olympic champion, Davis Cup champion, winner of the 2016 ATP Tour Finals, and former world No. 1.
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Murray played tennis from a young age and competed on the professional circuit since turning pro in 2005. He has been ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and has won 32 ATP Tour titles including three Grand Slam tournaments: the 2013 US Open, 2016 Wimbledon Championships, and 2016 London Olympics. He also defeated Novak Djokovic to win his first ATP Masters 1000 title at the Miami Open in 2009. Murray has reached eleven major singles finals, including five consecutive appearances at the Wimbledon finals between 2013 and 2017 – a record for most frequent appearances as a finalist at any Grand Slam tournament during that time-span – and became the first British player since 1977, and the first British man since 1936, to lift the Wimbledon singles title by defeating defending champion Djokovic in straight sets in 2013.
Murray is also a two-time Olympic gold medallist having won the men’s singles tournament at both the 2012 London Olympics and again at the 2016 Rio Olympics , becoming only the second player after Rafael Nadal to achieve this distinction. In addition he won a silver medal for Great Britain in mixed doubles at the 2016 Summer Olympics . He is also one of only four players – along with Roy Emerson , Fred Perry , Novak Djokovic – to have won two gold medals or more at the same Olympic Games .
Major achievements
Andy Murray is a Scottish professional tennis player from Dunblane, Stirlingshire. He is a former world No. 1 singles player, currently ranked No. 243 in the world, and has won three Grand Slam titles, two Olympic gold medals, and the ATP Tour Finals.
In 2016, he was knighted for his services to tennis and charity. He has also been runner-up in five other Grand Slam finals: the 2008 US Open, the 2010 Australian Open, the 2011 Wimbledon Championships, the 2013 French Open, and the 2016 Wimbledon Championships. He has reached 17 other Grand Slam finals in which he was defeated. Murray is also a Davis Cup champion, helping Great Britain win the trophy in 2015 for the first time since 1936.
Other notable players
Although there have been many great tennis players throughout the years, some have Rise to the top of the rankings and stayed there for extended periods of time. These players have worked their way to the top through a combination of hard work, talent, and dedication to the sport.
Pete Sampras
Pete Sampras is widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. He was a dominant player in the 1990s, winning 14 Grand Slam singles titles and finishing the year ranked No. 1 a record six times.
Born in Washington, D.C., Sampras moved with his family to California at an early age and began playing tennis at age three. He turned professional in 1988, and his career took off quickly: In 1990, he won his first Grand Slam tournament (the U.S. Open) and finished the year ranked No. 6 in the world. The following year, he captured Wimbledon—his first of seven titles at that prestigious event—and ascended to the No. 1 ranking for the first time.
Sampras continued to rack up wins throughout the decade: He won the Australian Open in 1994 and 1997, and he captured back-to-back U.S. Open titles in 1995 and 1996 (he’d go on to win that tournament again in 2002). All told, Sampras retired with 64 singles titles to his credit; only Roger Federer has more victories among men’s players in the Open Era (since 1968). Sampras was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2007.
Andre Agassi
Andre Agassi is a retired professional tennis player who was one of the game’s most dominant players in the 1990s. He won eight Grand Slam singles titles and was the first men’s player to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in a career. He also won an Olympic gold medal in 1996. After his retirement from tennis, Agassi became a philanthropist and founded the Andre Agassi Foundation for Education.
Björn Borg
Björn Borg ( Swedish pronunciation: [bjœːɳ bɔrj] ( listen); born 6 June 1956) is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. Between 1974 and 1981, he became the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slam singles titles (six consecutive Wimbledon championships and five consecutive French Open championships), although he never won the US Open in his prime; overall, he reached a record 16 Grand Slam finals. He remains the only player ever to win both Wimbledon and the French Open in the same calendar year three times (1978, 1979 and 1980), winning all three times on grass courts.
Borg’s greatest rivalry during his amateur years was with fellow Swede Vitas Gerulaitis, with whom he had match winning streaks of 18 (1977–78) and 20 (1979–81) matches. Although they never met on clay, Borg’s record of 11Open Era clay court titles would not be surpassed until Rafael Nadal won his 12th title at Roland Garros in 2014. Borg also won a record 16 participations at Roland Garros – 10 of which were consecutive – equalling Guillermo Vilas’ record for most participations at any Grand Slam tournament.
In 2006, Tennis magazine ranked Borg as number 21 on its list of greatest players of the past 40 years.[4] In 2009, Huffington Post called him “the greatest tennis player who never lived”.[5]
