100 Greatest of All Time

100 Greatest of All Time was a sports television series of five one-hour episodes, produced and first aired by the Tennis Channel in March 2012. It presented a list of 100 tennis players to be considered the greatest of all time, both men and women. The series was hosted by Jack Nicklaus, Jerry Rice, Wayne Gretzky, Lisa Leslie and Carl Lewis.[1] Many retired tennis luminaries provided commentary, including Rod Laver, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Björn Borg, John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Pete Sampras, and Andre Agassi.

Background

An international panel of tennis experts determined this ranking of 62 men and 38 women.[1] The United States was credited with the most great players (38), followed by Australia (17), France (7), Great Britain (6) and Czechoslovakia (5). Forty-three players made the list from the Americas, 39 from Europe and 18 from Oceania.

Grand Slam singles titles (Australian, French, Wimbledon and US tournaments) column figures reflect number of wins as of March 2012 when the list was published. In addition to that, the pre-Open Era Pro major tournaments (three professional events) were included: the U.S. Pro Championships (first held in 1927), French Pro Championship (first held in 1930) and Wembley Championships (started in 1934). Only male tennis players that turned from amateurs to pros were able to participate in those.[lower-alpha 1] The Open Era started in 1968 and all three pro majors tournaments were quickly relegated to lesser events and were all defunct by the 1990s.

Prior to 1924, the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) recognized two other events as world championships. The "World Hard Court Championships" (WHCC) and the "World Covered Court Championships" (WCCC). Between 1913 and 1923 Wimbledon was known as the World Grass Court Championships (WGCC), also sanctioned by the ILTF.

In 1924 ILTF designated the Australasian, French, British and American championship tournaments as the new four majors. 1925 was the first season held with all these four major tournaments opened to all amateurs.

Achievements

The Grand Slam, winning all four Grand Slam tournament singles titles (Australian, French, Wimbledon and US) in one calendar year was achieved six times by five different players: Don Budge in 1938, Maureen Connolly in 1953, Rod Laver in 1962 & 1969, Margaret Court in 1970 and Steffi Graf in 1988.

The Pro Grand Slam, winning all three professional slam singles titles (U.S., French and Wembley) in one calendar year was achieved by Ken Rosewall in 1963 and by Rod Laver in 1967.

† Anthony Wilding is the only Triple World Champion. In 1913, he won all three ILTF singles titles, the World Covered Court Championships (WCCC), the World Hard Court Championships (WHCC) and Wimbledon Championships (also known as World Grass Court Championships or simply WGCC).

Top 100 ranking per Tennis Channel in 2012

Rank Name Gender Nationality Majors
ILTF chps.Pro SlamGrand Slam
(March 2012)
Total
(Current)
1Roger Federer  SUI1620
2Rod Laver ‡ ◊ ‡ AUS81119
3Steffi Graf FRG/ GER2222
4Martina Navratilova TCH/ USA1818
5Pete Sampras USA1414
6Rafael Nadal ESP1020
7Björn Borg SWE1111
8Margaret Court AUS2424
9Chris Evert USA1818
10Billie Jean King USA1212
11Don Budge USA4610
12Andre Agassi USA88
13John McEnroe USA77
14Serena Williams USA1323
15Jimmy Connors USA88
16Bill Tilden USA141015
17Roy Emerson AUS1212
18Ivan Lendl TCH/ USA88
19Monica Seles YUG/ USA99
20Ken Rosewall AUS15823
21Boris Becker FRG/ GER66
22Venus Williams USA77
23Fred Perry GBR2810
24Suzanne Lenglen FRA4812
25Stefan Edberg SWE66
26Justine Henin BEL77
27Maureen Connolly USA99
28Arthur Ashe USA33
29Helen Wills USA1919
30Martina Hingis  SUI55
31John Newcombe AUS77
32Lew Hoad AUS145
33Mats Wilander SWE77
34Jack Kramer USA235
35Pancho Gonzalez USA12214
36René Lacoste FRA77
37Evonne Goolagong Cawley AUS77
38Maria Bueno BRA77
39Althea Gibson USA156
40Novak Djokovic SCG/ SRB517
41Guillermo Vilas ARG44
42Jim Courier USA44
43Lindsay Davenport USA33
44Arantxa Sánchez Vicario ESP44
45Kim Clijsters BEL44
46Henri Cochet FRA31711
47Jean Borotra FRA44
48Frank Sedgman AUS257
49Ilie Năstase ROU22
50Tony Trabert USA257
51Doris Hart USA66
52Jack Crawford AUS66
53Tracy Austin USA22
54Manuel Santana ESP44
55Gustavo Kuerten BRA33
56Stan Smith USA22
57Jennifer Capriati USA33
58Alice Marble USA55
59Margaret Osborne duPont USA66
60Virginia Wade GBR33
61Neale Fraser AUS33
62Hana Mandlíková TCH44
63Lleyton Hewitt AUS22
64Ellsworth Vines USA538
65Pancho Segura ECU404
66Bobby Riggs USA336
67Fred Stolle AUS22
68Helen Hull Jacobs USA55
69Louise Brough USA66
70Patrick Rafter AUS22
71Maria Sharapova RUS35
72Gottfried Von Cramm// FRG22
73Jaroslav Drobný TCH33
74Tony Roche AUS11
75Pauline Betz Addie USA55
76William Renshaw GBR77
77Molla Mallory USA88
78Ashley Cooper AUS44
79Gabriela Sabatini ARG11
80Marat Safin RUS22
81Vic Seixas USA22
82Yevgeny Kafelnikov RUS22
83Jan Kodeš TCH33
84Norman Brookes AUS33
85Yannick Noah FRA11
86Anthony Wilding NZL369
87Mary Pierce FRA22
88Amélie Mauresmo FRA22
89Dorothea Lambert Chambers GBR77
90Bill Johnston USA134
91Shirley Fry Irvin USA44
92Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS22
93Nicola Pietrangeli ITA22
94Andy Roddick USA11
95Thomas Muster AUT11
96Manuel Orantes ESP11
97Pat Cash AUS11
98Bunny Austin GBR00
99Ann Haydon-Jones GBR33
100Michael Chang USA11

Notes:

  • Bolded players are still active today.
  • Empty spots in the table mean player did not participate in any of those tournaments.

See also

Notes

  1. except for 1960 U.S. Pro Tennis Championships where also women could have participate. Althea Gibson won the event

References

  1. "Tennis Panorama News". Tennis Panorama. Retrieved 2012-03-23.
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