TUYWPI: GOAT

Who is the Greatest of All Time?

Fed has 16 slams and has played all three surfaces as well as any single player ever. If it weren't for Rafa, Roger would have won three or four more French Opens. Ahhh yes, Rafa. Who owns a .66 win percentage over Roger. And only six fewer slams. Is he the best? He still has four or five years to get more major trophies. And now where do we place Djoker?

Borg quit when he was twenty-four. Could've won a handful more, and he almost never played Australia. Pete dominated grass like no one else, when the courts were faster. And on hardcourts, when he was on, was simply electric. He hit the ball with more sheer force than anyone (Though Rafa's buggy whip is a sight to behold).


 Laver won all four in a year. TWICE. And he spent a good chunk of his prime playing professional events which, at the time, did not include the Slam events. How many more could he have won? Four? Six? TEN? A MILLION??????!!?!?!?

How about Andre? Had to play Pete all the time and walked onto the court with the weight of the damn world on his shoulders. Still won eight Slams. And is the last player to revolutionize the game with his approach to returning. Wilander won 7 slams, made 4 more finals, and played simultaneous with Lendl, Edberg, Becker, McEnroe and Connors. He's not number one but is he better than Rafa? Oh, did I say Lendl? He won eight slams and made the finals in NINETEEN! Runner-up eleven times!!! Never got a Wimby plate, but was like clockwork to make the semis for almost the entire 1980's. And Edberg. For God's sake the guy was spectacular for nearly a decade, won six slams, beat Becker on grass twice, and beat Sampras in a night final in New York. How does he rate? What about pre-Slam era? Ken Rosewall was ranked in the top-20 for twenty-five consecutive years!

All of these considerations and variables would take a great deal of time to formulate into some kind of coherent calculus. So I'll simply offer my relatively amateurish assessment of overall greatness in a boring list. At least it will mean something to me.

1. Roger Federer
2. Pete Sampras
3. Rafael Nadal
4. Bjorn Borg
5. Rod Laver
6. Ivan Lendl
7. John McEnroe
8. Andre Agassi
9. Mats Wilander
10. Jimmy Connors

We'll go further 11-20:

Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker, Djokovic, Ashe, Vilas, Newcombe, Nastase Pre-Slam: Emerson Budge, Tilden, Rosewall.