Former world No. 1 and current commentator John McEnroe recently offered his thoughts on the five best players in tennis history. McEnroe produced a list consisting of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Pete Sampras, Rod Laver, and Novak Djokovic, with Federer topping his chart.
“Federer, overall, consistency-wise, is the best player ever,” the 57-year-old said in an interview with WFAN Radio in New York. “If you put Nadal, who is to me the other guy…those two if they played one-on-one and both guys were playing their best, I would say Nadal matches up better with Federer. Overall, I think Federer’s been more consistent. Nadal’s been more injury-prone.
“Sampras would be the best fast-court player. Djokovic, to me, has moved up to number five all time. Rod Laver, who is my idol, is still there.”
Federer is the all-time leader in Grand Slam singles titles with 17, followed by the 14 of Nadal and Sampras. Djokovic is tied for fourth with 12th and Laver is tied for sixth with 11. Laver twice won all four in the same year–in 1962 and 1969.
Only seven current players have major titles: Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Andy Murray (3), Stan Wawrinka (3), Juan Martin Del Potro (1), and Marin Cilic (1).
“There’s a void that’s about to occur because of what’s happened with Federer and Nadal,” McEnroe added. “I mean, they’re at the end, right? You can’t imagine them going on more than a year or two. Djokovic and Murray are the two best (right now), but they’re not getting younger. I know 29 sounds young, but they’re (only) going to have another couple years, you anticipate.”
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Well not much to debate about J.Mac’s list. I agree that Sampras is the best fast court player; Fed mid to fast; Djoko on slow courts and Rafa on clay. Laver on grass maybe since he played his slams mostly on grass?
Seems everybody has a different opinion on whos the best, i must admit its one criteria of tennis i care very little about, much prefer the idea that we have many all time greats, past and present ….
I Must admit to hankering for both Andy and Stan now to both complete a career GS, Stan to win W, and Andy to win an AO and FO, but what id really like is for both to get another 3 GS, to tie Becker, Edberg, Vilas, Guga, and id also love for Rafa to win another GS anywhere to overtake Sampras of course 😉 ….