5 Greatest Men's Tennis Players Of All Time

Serbian tennis player, Novak Djokovic. (Photo: Twitter/@DjokerNole)

JAKARTA - Currently there are so many extraordinary talents in the world of tennis. They compete at various major tournament levels whose competition continues to increase.

The competitiveness of various tournaments has forced tennis players to push their ability to reach extreme limits. Therefore, playing at the top of the world and winning titles is clearly a special achievement.

All professional players certainly have dreams like this. Some players who are very talented can even make this dream come true several times in their careers.

Routinely lifting the prestigious title in the course of the career makes some players considered the best in their time. So, who is the best tennis player of all time?

This question has always been the subject of debate from time to time because there are so many tennis players who can be included in this list. However, here are the five most successful players in history.

Roger Federer

Country: Switzerland

Born: August 8, 1981

Becomes Professional: 1998

Single Champion Title: 103

Grand Slam Title: 20

Federer was considered one of the best players of his time and may be the most famous player in the world. This Swiss tennis player became an active tennis player on a professional tour in 1998.

Federer started playing his first ATP tournament at the age of 17 and achieved the success of his first tournament in 2001. Together with Martina Hingis, he won the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia.

Federer drew more and more attention when he defeated 7-time and unbeaten champion Pete Sampras in the last 16 of Wimbledon. This match is considered one of the important moments in his tennis career.

Two years later, Federer realized his dream at Grand Slam by winning the title in the prestigious Wimbledon tournament. Shortly after, he won his second major tournament by winning the Australian Open.

He then won the French Open in 2009. It was Federer's only title from the tournament because he always lost to Nadal who was the 'King of the Land of the Watch'.

Federer has a total of 103 individual titles to date. This figure includes 20 Grand Slam titles, a total of only two of Nadal and Djokovic as record holders.

Rafael Nadal

State: Spain

Born: June 3, 1986

Become A Professional Player: 2001

Title Of Single Champion: 85

Grand Slam Title: 19

Right in front of Novak Djokovic is Spain's Rafael Nadal as the second best player of all time. Nadal started his career as a professional tennis player in 2001.

He originally played in several Future Series tournaments in his home country. In the following years, the first success began to appear. The man from Manacor managed to record several final appearances at the Challenger tournament.

In 2004, Nadal managed to make his first surprise when he beat Andy Roddick in the Davis Cup final and won the title with his team. Since then, Nadal's career has climbed sharply.

With his extraordinary fighting spirit, he won four consecutive wins in France Open from 2005 to 2008. Nadal also won the title at Wimbledon and gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.

Nadal's signature is a strong foreplay with extreme topspins. This blow is one of the best foreplays on the tour and is feared by his opponents.

In general, Rafael Nadal is considered a clay field specialist. So far, he is the absolute record holder at Roland-Garros and many other clay field tournaments.

Overall, Nadal holds as many as 14 trophies in French Open. A rather difficult record to pass by any tennis player in the near future.

Novak Djokovic

Country: Serbia

Born: 22 May 1987

Becomes Professional: 2003

Title Of Single Champion: 79

Grand Slam Title: 17

This Serbian superstar joined ATP Tour as a professional player in 2003. In his early days, Djokovic played in the smaller Challenger tournament before he ventured into a bigger tournament and Grand Slam.

In 2005 he participated in Australia's first Grand Slam tournament, but was immediately eliminated in the first half. Three years later he made the breakthrough by winning the event.

2011 was Djokovic's most successful year after he won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments in a season. Djokovic's special moment was his win at Wimbledon.

Djokovic then repeated his achievements in 2011 for the second time in 2015 by winning the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Opens. After going through many attempts, Djokovic then won the French Grand Slam Open in 2016 and 2021, respectively.

Apart from Ivan Lendl, Djokovic is the only tennis player who managed to get the Golden Masters, winning the nine Masters tournaments. Djokovic currently collects 22 Grand Slams, the same as Rafael Nadal's.

Pete Sampras

Country: United States

Born: August 12, 1971

Becomes Professional: 1988

Retired 2002

Title Of Singles Champion: 64

Grand Slam Title: 14

In fourth place is the American tennis player, Pete Sampras. The tennis player, known as Pete's "Pistol", started his professional career at the age of 17.

Two years later he created a sensation when he managed to become the youngest player to win the United States Open. On the way to get the title, he defeated, among other things, names like John McEnroe and Andre Agas.

Sampras is known for hitting a backhand using one hand and service style, and his aggressive volley. This unconventional style of play irritated many of his opponents.

Sampras won several single titles, namely Australia Open, Wimbledon, United States (US) Open, and Davis Cup. For Wimbledon he collected seven titles, the number that previously made him hold records.

In 2002 Sampras completed his career by winning the US Open. At that time, he defeated compatriot Andre Agas in a four-set match in the final.

In essence, Sampras won 14 Grand Slam titles and was ranked No. 1 in world ranking for 286 weeks. He was also inducted into the Hall of Fame Tennis Internasional in 2007.

Rod Laver

Country: Australia

Born: August 9, 1938

Becomes Professional: 1962

Retired 1979

Title Of Single Champion: 200

Grand Slam Title: 11

Rod Laver ranks 5th in the ranking of the best tennis player of all time. This Australian has set a number of records in his career, some of which are still surviving today.

On his career debut in 1962, he was able to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in one season. However, since becoming a professional player one year later, he has been banned from participating in official tournaments.

Therefore, from 1963 to 1967 he was unable to participate in most tennis tournaments. The situation then began to benefit Rod Laver since the start of the Open Era (Open Era) in 1968.

He was able to build success in 1962 and repeated success on the Grand Slam calendar. Overall, Rod Laver won 200 individual titles in his career.

The titles include 11 Grand Slams owned, namely 3 Australian Open, 2 French Open, 4 Wimbledon, and 2 US Open. He is also the world number one for seven years from 1964/1970.