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In this post, we will check out the top 10 greatest men’s tennis players of all time.

Tennis is one of the most popular sports in the world, and the men’s game has produced some of the most talented and memorable players of all time.

From the early days of Pete Sampras to modern-day legends like Roger Federer, the sport has witnessed many great players who have left a lasting impact on the game.

These players have pushed the limits of what is possible on the court, with their impressive skills, unmatched athleticism, and unwavering determination.

In this article, we will be taking a look at the top 10 greatest men’s tennis players of all time. These players have been chosen based on their achievements, longevity, and impact on the sport, and are widely regarded as the best of the best in the world of tennis.

Top 10 Greatest Men’s Tennis Players Of All Time

10 Andre Agassi

Andre Agassi is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. His records speak for themselves. he is an eight-time Grand Slam champion and a 1996 Olympic gold medalist.

He is known for his groundstrokes and rockstar looks. No player can charm the tennis court the way Agassi does in his time. It’s just impossible to make a top 10 list without the great Andre Agassi.

Through the Open Era, Agassi was the first tennis player to win four Australian Open singles titles. The record was a record later outdone by Novak Djokovic when he got his fifth title in 2015.

Agassi is also the second of five male singles players to manage the Career Grand Slam in the Open Era next to Rod Laver and before Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Djokovic.

The tennis has never seen the finest strikers of a ball better than Agassi for a long time. Many greats of the game predicted that Agassi would be the next big thing in tennis during his era.

Agassi was the first man to accomplish all four Grand Slam singles tournaments on three different surfaces (hard, clay and grass). He was also the last American man to conquer both the French Open (in 1999) and the Australian Open (in 2003).

It would not be wrong to say that he was the stand-out performer during the 90s. Agassi is still rated as one of the greatest and most fabulous tennis players of all time. Agassi is number 10 in our list of top 10 greatest men’s tennis players of all time.

9 John McEnroe

John McEnroe is an American former professional tennis player. He was appreciated for his shot-making and volleying skills. Many rated McEnroe as one of the best tennis players of all time.

Nobody can play tennis better on hard courts until its name is McEnroe. His passionate approach and unusual reaction made the whole world admire or hate him.

McEnroe achieved the world’s No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles. He had finished his career with a total of 77 singles and 78 doubles titles which endures the highest men’s combined total of the Open Era.

He won a total of seven Grand Slam singles titles (four at the US Open and three at Wimbledon), nine Grand Slam men’s doubles titles (five at Wimbledon and four at the US Open), and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title (at the French Open).

His singles match record of 82–3 in 1984 outlasts the best single-season win rate of the Open Era. He has played with a highly competing nature.

The fans still remember his iconic battle with Jimmy Connors. He was designated the ATP Player of the Year and the ITF World Champion three times each: 1981, 1983, and 1984.

There is only one word to describe McEnroe and that is “Great”. Nobody can ever doubt his talent and legacy and he is surely one of the best tennis players to ever grace the game.

John McEnroe was one of the biggest tennis players of the 80s. He is surely a champion and a unique player when it comes to placing every shot. McEnroe is number 9 in our list of top 10 greatest men’s tennis players of all time.

8 Jimmy Connors

Jimmy Connors is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He kept the top ATP rankings for a record 160 consecutive weeks. He has done that from 1973 to 1977 which includes a long span of 268 weeks.

During his prolonged and yielding career, he has created some of the top records. Three of them in prominent Open Era men’s singles are 109 titles, 1,557 matches played, and 1,274 match wins. 

If you talk about tennis in the 1970s you have to talk about Jimmy Connors. No one ruled tennis more during the mid-1970s better than Jimmy Connors.

In 1974, he matched the second man in the Open Era to win three major titles in a calendar year and was not allowed to compete in the fourth, the French Open.

He was banned from representing in the French Open in 1974 due to his connection with World Team Tennis, and this stopped him from a potential Grand Slam course.

Connors’s consecutive 160-week reign from 1974 to 1977 as the No. 1 men’s player is later broken by another great Roger Federer. Connors is number 8 in our list of top 10 greatest men’s tennis players of all time.

7 Ivan Lendl

Ivan Lendl is a Czech-American former professional tennis player. He was rated as world No. 1 for 270 weeks and accomplished 94 singles titles.

He won eight Grand Slam titles and was runner-up a joint record 11 times which was tied with the two greats of the modern era Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

Lendl was the most commanding player of the 1980s. He is known for his powerful groundstrokes and topspin forehand. He retained the number one ranking for 270 weeks, which was a record at that time.

The Czech international achieved to spent a total of 270 weeks as world No. 1 player during his time which makes him one of the greatest tennis players to ever play the game.

During his career, he secured an unbelievable 94 singles titles which include eight Grand Slam titles (3 French Open, 3 US Open, and 2 Australian Open) making him at number 3rd on the all-time list in terms of titles in the Open Era.

After retirement, he graced as a tennis coach for many players. Indistinct, he assisted Andy Murray to win three major titles and relinquish the No. 1 ranking.

6 Bjorn Borg

Bjorn Borg is a Swedish former world No. 1 tennis player. It was the time between 1974 and 1981 when he came into the limelight. He became the first man in the Open Era to win 11 Grand Slam singles titles (six at the French Open and five consecutively at Wimbledon).

Sadly he was never able to win the US Open despite being on the four finals appearances. He is the first male tennis player to win five Wimbledon titles in the Open Era.

His long-haired look and his tennis display can mesmerize any fans around the world. Borg dominated the game in the late 1970s and had some significant matches. He managed to win Wimbledon, and he had done that consecutively for five years from 1976 to 1980.

Borg also won four consecutive French Open titles (1978–81) and is completely unbeatable with 6–0 in the French Open finals. He completely dominated the french open during his time.

Borg is one of two male players, accompanying Roger Federer, to emerge in the French Open and Wimbledon finals for four consecutive years (1978–81) and the only man to win both of them in three consecutive years (1978–80).

He was retired at an age of just 26, leaving behind the legacy which is still unmatchable. Borg was the first player to win six French Open singles titles. He is regarded as the No. 1 player in the world for 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1980.

His dominance on the clay and grass courts is still hard to find. Borg is rated as number 6 in our list of top 10 greatest men’s tennis players of all time.

5 Pete Sampras

Pete Sampras is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He started playing professional tennis in 1988 and ended his career at the 2002 US Open.

He defeated his longtime rival Andre Agassi in the final. Sampras won 14 major singles titles during his career, which was an all-time record at the time of his retirement.

He also has seven Wimbledon titles, two Australian Opens, and a joint Open Era record of five US Open titles. Sampras name in the history books can be easily judged by the titles he has.

He was number one in the world rankings for six consecutive years. That shows the dominance of the great Pete Sampras on the tennis court. He also won the 14 Grand Slam titles which was a record at the time.

Sampras won 64 singles titles in total. He first entered the world No. 1 ranking in 1993 and held that position for a total of 286 weeks.

He is regarded as the most successful player of the 90s. His dominance on the grass courts was matchless.

4 Rod Laver

Rod Laver is an Australian former tennis player. Laver was listed as the world No. 1 tennis player in nine different years, which is still the most world No. 1 rankings for any player in tennis history.

Truly he is one of the gems in tennis history. He was the No. 1 ranked professional from 1964 to 1970, fording four years before and three years after the start of the Open Era in 1968.

It’s difficult to compare Laver with the modern-day greats and it’s impossible to make a top 10 list without his name. Laver’s 198 singles titles are the most in tennis history.

He shone on all of the courts he played during his career which includes grass, clay, hard, carpet, and wood.

One of the greatest feats of his career is that he has excelled in all 4 grand slam tournaments twice in his career.

Laver won 11 Grand Slam singles titles. He is still acknowledged as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Laver is rated as number 4 in our list of top 10 greatest men’s tennis players of all time.

3 Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic is a Serbian professional tennis player. He is currently ranked as world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

Djokovic has been the most dominant player in tennis history holding the No. 1 position for a record total of 341 weeks. He also finished number 1 ranking in ATP with a joint record on six occasions.

He has won 20 Grand Slam men’s singles titles which is an all-time joint record and with the current performance, he surely gonna past that feat soon.

Overall, he has accomplished 85 ATP singles titles, including a record nine Australian Open titles and a joint record of 36 Masters events. Djokovic is the only player in the Open Era to accomplish a double career Grand Slam.

It would not be wrong to say that he is currently the best player in the world. His 2016 French Open classic final helped him to became the eight-man to achieve a career in Grand Slam.

At just the age of 20, he disrupted Roger Federer’s and Rafael Nadal’s streak of 11 consecutive majors to win his first Grand Slam title at the 2008 Australian Open.

He is a top player who can perform at any surface and he has proved that over the years. He is also the only player who dominated against the greats like Federer and Nadal in head-to-head matches.

In 2015 Djokovic done the unthinkable by reaching fifteen consecutive finals, which includes all four major finals and eight Master’s finals, winning three majors and a season record of six masters’ events as well as the ATP Finals.

The following year, he won the 2016 French Open to achieve the non-calendar year Grand Slam and the career Grand Slam. He also matched Rod Laver by holding all four major titles at once and was the only one in history to do so on three different surfaces.

By winning the 2021 French Open, he became the first man in the Open Era to achieve the career Grand Slam twice.

2 Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is ranked world No. 6 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

He has been ranked No. 1 in the ATP rankings for 209 weeks and has achieved year-end No. 1 five times. Nadal is the only player in history to have been ranked ATP world number one in three decades, in the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s.

Nadal has a total of 20 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, which is an all-time record shared with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

At 35 years of age, he is still hunting for the next title and it is safe to say that the King of Clay will surely gonna bounce back and achieve it soon.

Nadal is considered the greatest clay-court player of all time. Nadal’s dominance on clay can be highlighted by 62 of his 88 ATP singles titles that came on the same surface.

His 81 consecutive wins on clay are the longest single-surface win streak in the Open Era. Certainly, the stats show why he is the greatest clay-court player ever.

It’s very difficult to compare the players with different generations however Nadal has proven year after year why he is considered being the best to ever grace the game.

After defeating Djokovic in the 2010 US Open final, the 24-year-old Nadal became the youngest male tennis player in the Open Era to achieve the career Grand Slam, and also became the first male tennis player to win three Grand Slams on three different surfaces (hard, grass and clay) the same calendar year.

With a total of 13 French Open titles and twenty grand slams, there is no one who can defy Rafa’s greatness.

1 Roger Federer

Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player. He is ranked No. 9 in the world by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

He has won a total of 20 Grand Slam men’s singles titles, which is an all-time record shared with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

Federer has been world No. 1 in the ATP rankings for a total of 310 weeks including a record 237 consecutive weeks and has finished as the year-end No.1 five times. 

At an age of 40, he is still dominating the big players and winning titles. From 2004 to 2008, Federer ranked as the number 1 player for 237 consecutive weeks. The record seems to be unbreakable for any player in the future.

At the age of 27, he also excelled in Pete Sampras’s record of 14 Grand Slam men’s singles titles at Wimbledon in 2009.

Roger is still has a lot of potentials to secure another Grand Slam number 21, but we will have to wait and see how the thing goes. Injuries really stopped Roger to excel at the highest level.

His dominance in the 2000s witnessed him make 18 of 19 major finals between 2005 and 2010. He has also won the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award a record five times.

There is no uncertainty that Roger Federer has won his place in the records books as one of the greatest tennis players of all time.