Best Tennis Players in the last decade?

[CrashedCarDriver]

not me for one

racquet sports are not my forte because of my weak(er) eyesight

anyway if i were to put together 10 of the best in 10 yrs

Men
1. Sampras- when he was on, it was just demeaning to play him
2. Hewitt- wants to win every point, wants to get in your face
3. Agassi- most deadly return of serve, you get what you give, back- and twice as hard
4. Rafter- was arguably the most athletic player in the last decade
5. Becker- Boom Boom was going to blow you away with his power game, but also had a lot of other shots as well
6. Edberg- Great Serve-Volley, Great Backhand
7. Courier- had only 1 shot, and used it to full effect, but when others found out he only had 1 shot...
8. Ivanisevic/Stich- were the best serves, but looks like players of this calibre are a thing of the past. it shows too: 2 grand slams in total
9. Kuerten/Muster- never saw them win any tournaments, but i hear they were pretty good on clay.
10. Chang- the little road runner, had no shots to speak of. but was arguably the fastest man on court in his time

No Spanish ClayCourt Specialists- so i suppose they'll probably think this thread is biased like the seeds system at Wimbledon?

Trivial Grand Slam Winners- Krajicek- he won Wimbledon (what the?), Thomas Johannson- who won the 2002 australian men's open?

Women- harder to find, easier to classify
1. Graf- arguably the most dominant player in the last 20 years
2. Venus Williams- part of the craze that 'the power game' gets it done
3. Seles- how can anyone forget that grunt?
4. Davenport
5. Capriati
6. Hingis- played the game like it was chess

er... im struggling here

is navratilova a generation behind?

promising players- dokic, clijsters, henin

least exciting players- martinez, sanchez-vicario
not even close- kournikova

dont you just hate it when idiots like rios are right?

------------------
Life is A Mystery
Everyone Must Stand Alone
I Hear You Call My Name
And it feels like...

Home

 

[The_Sweetest_Thing]

I love tennis threads...


Is Bjorn Borg too late for this?

I'm agreeing with you on all you choices here. Kuerten, as good as he is, IS a clay court specialist--nearly. Every so often he redeems himself, but if he could just win one hardcourt slam...

Agassi - Best all around player
Hingis - Best all around player (or was. What's up with her?)

What about Serena Williams? Wasn't she the first black woman to win a slam?

Rafter - (why is he retired)...had such an amazing last year. I wouldn't put Ivanisevic on the list of best players tho. Luckiest maybe.

Kafelnikov - Always in the top ten. Always a contender. Never counted out.

How bout Lindsay Davenport? First to really bring in the power game....though not as to as much of an extent as Venus.

And Elena Dementieva...has so much promise. She's in the top twenty, has made it so far. If only she could break through...

[This message has been edited by The_Sweetest_Thing (edited 03-26-2002).]

 

[brettig]

Originally posted by CrashedCarDriver:
not me for one

Trivial Grand Slam Winners- Krajicek- he won Wimbledon (what the?), Thomas Johannson- who won the 2002 australian men's open?

Your picks are pretty right besides this- Krajicek was a formidable player at his best, but he had some horrible luck with injuries. And I think Johansson plays Hewitt's game better than anyone else bar Hewiit himself, so hes pretty high quality- and hes much better than Chang imo

 

[Angela Harlem]

I wouldn't have a clue to rate them. I'll just agree with you guys!

A side note Sweetest, back in....71 or something (?) Evonne Goolagong Cawley won Wimbledon. She won it again later, then 4 Australian opens and one French I believe. She was or is rather, an Aboriginal Aussie. Dont know if she classifies as 'black' exactly...but lol, she was the 1st person of colour maybe? Or woman from Aus, anyway...I dunno, I'm rambling.

 

[The Wanderer]

it's a bit too early in the game I think to put Hewitt at #2 on that list, how can you honestly have him rated ahead of players like Agassi, Edberg, Rafter and Becker?

Sweetest_Thing, how could you have the audacity to say Goran Ivanisevic is one of the "luckiest players" of the last decade??? he may not be one of the top 10, but he was never lucky, he only lost to Sampras like 4 or 5 times in the Semis or Finals of a Slam (including a US Open Semis)

Serena Williams has to be on that list, and Capriati has moved ahead of Davenport, Sanchez-Vicario was boring, but very consistent for many years, what about Jana Navotna and Mary Pierce?

 

[brettig]

Originally posted by The Wanderer:
it's a bit too early in the game I think to put Hewitt at #2 on that list, how can you honestly have him rated ahead of players like Agassi, Edberg, Rafter and Becker?

Id be prepared to rate him higher than Pat at this stage...as much as i love Pat i think that Hewitt is on the way to becoming one of the greats of any era.

 

[The_Sweetest_Thing]

Originally posted by The Wanderer:

Sweetest_Thing, how could you have the audacity to say Goran Ivanisevic is one of the "luckiest players" of the last decade??? he may not be one of the top 10, but he was never lucky, he only lost to Sampras like 4 or 5 times in the Semis or Finals of a Slam (including a US Open Semis)

Goran just never seemed, to me, to be very consistent. His game was always struggling through injury. He'd have a good year, a bad year, a great year, a shitty year. Don't get me wrong: when he was on he was VERY very good. One of the best there was. But it's those in between phases that get me....

On the other hand, Agassi went to # 14- in the world, so maybe I'm being hypocritical. I have seen the light.

Novotna should be on that list. And probably Pierce too, although her strange disappearance from the world of tennis leaves much to be desired.

 

[Salome]

Originally posted by CrashedCarDriver:
Trivial Grand Slam Winners- Krajicek- he won Wimbledon (what the?)

okay, being dutch I am a bit biased, but in defense for Krajicek, it's stranger that he didn't menage to win more than one Grand Slam then that he won Wimbledon

the year he won Wimbledon he played some magnificent tennis and defeated both Stich and Sampras by just being the better player on the court
his injuries did prevent him from meeting his possibilities

personally I think Sampras and Agassi really stood out this past decade

------------------
Salome
Shake it, shake it, shake it

 

[Saracene]

If it was up to me I'd kick all those damn heavy hitters out of women's tennis for good. Some people may like it but IMO they just make women's tennis dull, dull, dull.

 

[CrashedCarDriver]

Originally posted by Saracene:
If it was up to me I'd kick all those damn heavy hitters out of women's tennis for good. Some people may like it but IMO they just make women's tennis dull, dull, dull.

what?

you'd rather watch a conchita martinez/ arantxa sanchez-vicario epic instead?

your train of thinking boggles

 

[mikal]

If I wouldn't have choked at the State Tournament my senior year, I would have put myself on that list.

 

[The Wanderer]

Hewitt didnt look like the best player in the world last night against Federer

 

[brettig]

It ended a streak of 22 consecutive wins in matches in the states, somehow i think he was due!

 

[The Wanderer]

like he was "due" for the chicken pox back in January

 

[brettig]

exactly!

anyways, u trying to say Federer is better?

 

[The Wanderer]

no brett, I'm saying that Luke Skywalker is better than Brad Pitt

 

[brettig]

But is he better than Mark Hamill?

 

[speedracer]

Random quote:

"Nobody beats Vitas Gerulaitis 17 times in a row!"

-Vitas Gerulaitis, after snapping a 16-match losing streak to Jimmy Connors