Tennis may have started out as a gentleman's game, but it is has evolved into a full-blown competitive sport where opponents grunt, slam, sprint and smash with everything they have in an effort to out-duel their opponent. Tennis has evolved not only as a sport, but as a business as well.
Gone are the days of conservative, "proper" tennis attire. Nike, Reebok, and other athletic giants have turned the courts into a fashion show for the world, paying top players millions of dollars to showcase their attire. Equipment has also undergone several upgrades over the years. Gone are the heavy wooden rackets with catgut strings. Now Air Carbon Titanium Mesh and other equally "space age" technologies rule the day. The size, strength and athleticism of the players has increased in step with the technical advancements, and the pace at which the game is played nowadays is truly breathtaking. No doubt the greats of yesteryear would be quickly dispatched by even the average professional these days. Such is life and the evolution of sport. Still, when compiling the list of the top 10 male tennis players of all time I had to look at the dominance of players in the era they played in. To take a player from the 50s and suddenly drop him into a match in 2008 would hardly be fair. With that in mind, here is a list of the best male tennis players to ever pick up a racket:
1 - Roger Federer
2 - Pete Sampras
3 - Roy Emerson
4 - Rod Laver
5 - Bjorn Borg
6 - Ivan Lendl
7 - Jimmy Connors
8 - John McEnroe
9 - Boris Becker
10 - Bill Tilden
Gone are the days of conservative, "proper" tennis attire. Nike, Reebok, and other athletic giants have turned the courts into a fashion show for the world, paying top players millions of dollars to showcase their attire. Equipment has also undergone several upgrades over the years. Gone are the heavy wooden rackets with catgut strings. Now Air Carbon Titanium Mesh and other equally "space age" technologies rule the day. The size, strength and athleticism of the players has increased in step with the technical advancements, and the pace at which the game is played nowadays is truly breathtaking. No doubt the greats of yesteryear would be quickly dispatched by even the average professional these days. Such is life and the evolution of sport. Still, when compiling the list of the top 10 male tennis players of all time I had to look at the dominance of players in the era they played in. To take a player from the 50s and suddenly drop him into a match in 2008 would hardly be fair. With that in mind, here is a list of the best male tennis players to ever pick up a racket:
1 - Roger Federer
2 - Pete Sampras
3 - Roy Emerson
4 - Rod Laver
5 - Bjorn Borg
6 - Ivan Lendl
7 - Jimmy Connors
8 - John McEnroe
9 - Boris Becker
10 - Bill Tilden
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