The Tennis Greats: Bjorn Borg

In any pantheon of the finest tennis players ever to pick up a racquet, there is no excuse for leaving out the name of Sweden’s Bjorn Borg. Noted by many for his rivalry with John McEnroe as well as his eleven Grand Slam titles, Borg was in many ways McEnroe’s polar opposite. Cool where McEnroe was calm, patient while McEnroe was aggressive, Borg was the kind of tennis player who simply had greater natural talent than virtually all of his opponents. No coach tried to change his unorthodox hitting style – they knew better than to do so.

To look at Borg one would not have thought that he was the great tennis player he undoubtedly was. A bow-legged running style may not have looked fast, but it was. A strong muscular frame may have suggested he could not play with grace and touch, but he did. His six French Open titles are a tour record, although this seems set to be surpassed by a very similar player in Rafael Nadal. His count of eleven Grand Slam titles is all the more surprising when one considers that Borg, like many of his contemporaries, routinely skipped the Australian Open.

This means that Borg never managed the full calendar Grand Slam or the career version of winning all four majors (the calendar version being all four tournaments in a year). However, for the quality of his game and his incredible battles with McEnroe – during which the American never lost his cool, perhaps becoming infused with some of his rival’s poise – he will be remembered for as long as tennis is played.

The Tennis Greats: John McEnroe

Although tennis is commonly seen as a “gentleman’s sport”, one of its finest exponents in the men’s game is a man who few people would have referred to as a gentleman. John McEnroe’s career is remembered by casual observers of the sport as being notable as much for his tirades and confrontational approach to umpires and line judges as it was for the tennis he played and the tournaments he won.

Now retired and in his early fifties, McEnroe himself admits that this reputation was well-earned, and indeed he was once nicknamed “Superbrat” in reference to it. It is a shame that people should remember this because on his day, McEnroe was a tennis player of incredible skill and grit. While casual fans might remember his “You cannot be serious” outburst at a Wimbledon umpire, aficionados of the game will also point to his seven Grand Slam titles and his even rivalry with the great Bjorn Borg.

McEnroe may also be seen as the greatest exponent of serve-and-volley tennis, a tactcial style exemplified by a player serving wide to get their opponent to move to one side of the court, and then dispatching their return into the open court on the other side. As this style of tennis has decreased in popularity, he may be seen as its last great exponent – and so much more. McEnroe now makes a living as a tennis commentator, an arena in which he is considered, much like in his playing days, as individual and highly skilled.

The Tennis Greats: Roger Federer

Roger Federer is widely heralded as the greatest tennis player of all time, earning the title from fellow professionals such as John McEnroe and Rafael Nadal. When one examines Federer’s incredible run of success as a player, it is hard to disagree. 

Federer holds the world record for the number of Grand Slam victories; at time of writing, he held 16 Grand Slams. He also holds the record for the longest consecutive appearances in Grand Slam semi finals, a run that was only ended in May 2010 when he lost to Robin Soderling in the quarter finals of the French Open. Federer has won the prestigious Wimbledon six times, as well as five US Open Grand Slams, four Australian Open titles and one victory on the clay courts at the French Open. He is only the third man in history to do the “career Grand Slam” and win all four Major Grand Slam tournaments. 

Federer was born in Switzerland, and still resides there with his wife Mirka and their twin daughters Myla and Charlene. As well as his prowess as a tennis player, Federer is considered one of the most sportsmanlike men on the tour, and is known for his grace and charm when being interviewed. His fellow players voted him the most sportsmanlike player on tour for two seasons in a row. 

The only crown to elude Federer is an Olympic Gold medal in singles competition. He did, however, win Olympic Gold in Doubles with fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, in 2008. 

The Tennis Greats: Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal is a Spanish tennis player, who has consistently ranked within the top two in the world.

Nadal was born in Mallorca (an island just off the Spanish mainland) in June 1986. He played both tennis and football as a child, but chose to specialize in tennis when he reached the age of 11. He was (and still is) coached by his Uncle, Toni Nadal – and it is Toni Nadal who is credited with making the most beneficial change to Rafael’s game.

Rafael Nadal is naturally right-handed, but he plays tennis with his left hand. This was a masterstroke by Toni Nadal, who decided that a left-handed player would be more threatening – a concept that has come to fruition. As a left-hander, Nadal is rare on the tour and thus has an immediate edge over his opponents, who are used to serving to a right-handed player – thus they are more likely to serve to his ‘strongest’ side.

Nadal has earned the nickname the ‘King of Clay’ due to his incredible run of victories on the surface. In 2010, he became the first man to win all three clay court Masters events (Monte Carlo, Rome and Madrid) along with the clay court Grand Slam, the French Open. That French Open title was his fifth win at the tournament; he has only lost there once, in 2009, due to injury. 

Nadal is not a one-surface player however; he has also won a Grand Slam on hard court (the Australian Open, in 2009) and the summer of 2010 saw him win his second grass-court Wimbledon title, all before the age of 25. 

« Previous Page