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100 Greatest of All Time

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Television series about tennis players This article is about a television series about tennis players. For similarly-named listings or shows, see 100 greatest. For film, see The Greatest of All Time.
100 Greatest of All Time
GenreSports
Presented by
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes5
Original release
NetworkTennis Channel
ReleaseMarch 2012 (2012-03)

100 Greatest of All Time was a sports television series of five one-hour episodes, produced and first aired by the Tennis Channel in March 2012. It presented a list of 100 tennis players to be considered the greatest of all time, both men and women. The series was hosted by Jack Nicklaus, Jerry Rice, Wayne Gretzky, Lisa Leslie and Carl Lewis. Many retired tennis luminaries provided commentary, including Rod Laver, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Björn Borg, John McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Pete Sampras, and Andre Agassi.

Background

An international panel of tennis experts determined this ranking of 62 men and 38 women. The United States was credited with the most great players (38), followed by Australia (17), France (7), Great Britain (6) and Czechoslovakia (5). Forty-three players made the list from the Americas, 39 from Europe and 18 from Oceania.

Grand Slam singles titles (Australian, French, Wimbledon and US tournaments) column figures reflect number of wins as of March 2012 when the list was published. In addition to that, the pre-Open Era Pro major tournaments (three professional events) were included: the U.S. Pro Championships (first held in 1927), French Pro Championship (first held in 1930) and Wembley Championships (started in 1934). Only male tennis players that turned from amateurs to pros were able to participate in those. The Open Era started in 1968 and all three pro majors tournaments were quickly relegated to lesser events and were all defunct by the 1990s.

Prior to 1924, the International Lawn Tennis Federation (ILTF) recognized two other events as world championships. The "World Hard Court Championships" (WHCC) and the "World Covered Court Championships" (WCCC). Between 1913 and 1923 Wimbledon was known as the World Grass Court Championships (WGCC), also sanctioned by the ILTF.

In 1924 ILTF designated the Australasian, French, British and American championship tournaments as the new four majors. 1925 was the first season held with all these four major tournaments opened to all amateurs.

Achievements

The Grand Slam, winning all four Grand Slam tournament singles titles (Australian, French, Wimbledon and US) in one calendar year was achieved six times by five different players: Don Budge in 1938, Maureen Connolly in 1953, Rod Laver in 1962 & 1969, Margaret Court in 1970 and Steffi Graf in 1988.

The Pro Grand Slam, winning all three professional slam singles titles (U.S., French and Wembley) in one calendar year was achieved by Ken Rosewall in 1963 and by Rod Laver in 1967.

Anthony Wilding is the only Triple World Champion. In 1913, he won all three ILTF singles titles, the World Covered Court Championships (WCCC), the World Hard Court Championships (WHCC) and Wimbledon Championships (also known as World Grass Court Championships or simply WGCC).

Top 100 ranking per Tennis Channel in 2012

Rank Name Gender Nationality Majors
ILTF chps. Pro Slam Grand Slam
(March 2012)
Total
(Current)
1 Roger Federer   SUI 16 20
2 Rod Laver ‡ ◊ ‡  AUS 8 11 19
3 Steffi Graf  FRG/ GER 22 22
4 Martina Navratilova  USA 18 18
5 Pete Sampras  USA 14 14
6 Rafael Nadal  ESP 10 22
7 Björn Borg  SWE 11 11
8 Margaret Court  AUS 24 24
9 Chris Evert  USA 18 18
10 Billie Jean King  USA 12 12
11 Don Budge  USA 4 6 10
12 Andre Agassi  USA 8 8
13 John McEnroe  USA 7 7
14 Serena Williams  USA 13 23
15 Jimmy Connors  USA 8 8
16 Bill Tilden  USA 1 4 10 15
17 Roy Emerson  AUS 12 12
18 Ivan Lendl  TCH/ USA 8 8
19 Monica Seles  YUG/ USA 9 9
20 Ken Rosewall  AUS 15 8 23
21 Boris Becker  FRG/ GER 6 6
22 Venus Williams  USA 7 7
23 Fred Perry  GBR 2 8 10
24 Suzanne Lenglen  FRA 4 8 12
25 Stefan Edberg  SWE 6 6
26 Justine Henin  BEL 7 7
27 Maureen Connolly  USA 9 9
28 Arthur Ashe  USA 3 3
29 Helen Wills  USA 19 19
30 Martina Hingis   SUI 5 5
31 John Newcombe  AUS 7 7
32 Lew Hoad  AUS 1 4 5
33 Mats Wilander  SWE 7 7
34 Jack Kramer  USA 2 3 5
35 Pancho Gonzalez  USA 12 2 14
36 René Lacoste  FRA 7 7
37 Evonne Goolagong Cawley  AUS 7 7
38 Maria Bueno  BRA 7 7
39 Althea Gibson  USA 1 5 6
40 Novak Djokovic  SCG/ SRB 5 24
41 Guillermo Vilas  ARG 4 4
42 Jim Courier  USA 4 4
43 Lindsay Davenport  USA 3 3
44 Arantxa Sánchez Vicario  ESP 4 4
45 Kim Clijsters  BEL 4 4
46 Henri Cochet  FRA 3 1 7 11
47 Jean Borotra  FRA 4 4
48 Frank Sedgman  AUS 2 5 7
49 Ilie Năstase  ROU 2 2
50 Tony Trabert  USA 2 5 7
51 Doris Hart  USA 6 6
52 Jack Crawford  AUS 6 6
53 Tracy Austin  USA 2 2
54 Manuel Santana  ESP 4 4
55 Gustavo Kuerten  BRA 3 3
56 Stan Smith  USA 2 2
57 Jennifer Capriati  USA 3 3
58 Alice Marble  USA 5 5
59 Margaret Osborne duPont  USA 6 6
60 Virginia Wade  GBR 3 3
61 Neale Fraser  AUS 3 3
62 Hana Mandlíková  TCH 4 4
63 Lleyton Hewitt  AUS 2 2
64 Ellsworth Vines  USA 5 3 8
65 Pancho Segura  ECU 4 0 4
66 Bobby Riggs  USA 3 3 6
67 Fred Stolle  AUS 2 2
68 Helen Hull Jacobs  USA 5 5
69 Louise Brough  USA 6 6
70 Patrick Rafter  AUS 2 2
71 Maria Sharapova  RUS 3 5
72 Gottfried Von Cramm Germany/Germany/ FRG 2 2
73 Jaroslav Drobný  TCH 3 3
74 Tony Roche  AUS 1 1
75 Pauline Betz Addie  USA 1 5 6
76 William Renshaw  GBR 7 7
77 Molla Mallory  NOR/ USA 8 8
78 Ashley Cooper  AUS 4 4
79 Gabriela Sabatini  ARG 1 1
80 Marat Safin  RUS 2 2
81 Vic Seixas  USA 2 2
82 Yevgeny Kafelnikov  RUS 2 2
83 Jan Kodeš  TCH 3 3
84 Norman Brookes  AUS 3 3
85 Yannick Noah  FRA 1 1
86 Anthony Wilding  NZL 3 6 9
87 Mary Pierce  FRA 2 2
88 Amélie Mauresmo  FRA 2 2
89 Dorothea Lambert Chambers  GBR 7 7
90 Bill Johnston  USA 1 3 4
91 Shirley Fry Irvin  USA 4 4
92 Svetlana Kuznetsova  RUS 2 2
93 Nicola Pietrangeli  ITA 2 2
94 Andy Roddick  USA 1 1
95 Thomas Muster  AUT 1 1
96 Manuel Orantes  ESP 1 1
97 Pat Cash  AUS 1 1
98 Bunny Austin  GBR 0 0
99 Ann Haydon-Jones  GBR 3 3
100 Michael Chang  USA 1 1

Notes:

  • Bolded players are still active today.
  • Empty spots in the table mean player did not participate in any of those tournaments.

See also

Notes

  1. except for 1956 & 1960 U.S. Pro Tennis Championships where also women could have participate. Pauline Betz and Althea Gibson won one event each respectively

References

  1. ^ "Tennis Panorama News". Tennis Panorama. Retrieved 2012-03-23.

External links

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