Who is the goat of tennis ??

[Mr. Friscus]

As a tennis historian it’s hard

I have to say Roger Federer from 2003-2009 was the best ever for peek years.

The best career of all time has to go to Djokovic
He is closing in at 19 slams and is the best defensive player of all time . The best return of serve of all time . The most consistent champ ever

The best accomplishment is Nadal winning the most physical demanding event a total of 14 times or so , the French

I would say there's no way Djokavic is any clear-cut greatest of all time.

I'm fine with R-Fed being the man, especially in the time frame you mentioned, but I'm not even sure how you can put Djokovic's career over Federers.

Djokovic has a contextual problem. He really didn't truly flourish until Federer and Nadal dropped off a tick. Tennis has been in a stand-still for the past 4-5 years. There's no young phenoms coming up to usher in the next "Generation". By all means neither Federer, Nadal, or Djokovic should be still winning majors. It shows the vacuum of mediocrity in tennis right now, which Djokovic is taking full advantage of.

 

[Mr. Friscus]

Margie Court will never live down her disastrous loss to Bobby Riggs. Maybe that's unfair, but it's true.

I saw the limited video of that match. She looked uncomfortable and depressed. Maybe she was forced into doing it by someone, but gosh it would be hard to imagine that as a woman you'd be okay with phoning it in and laying down for a loud-mouthed over-the-hill guy...

 

[Mr. Friscus]

On the female side, there is really no question.

If you're referring to Serena, I disagree.

She faced minimal resistance on most of her run. She came after the golden age of more heavy hitters on the women's tour, such as Davenport, Vicario, and Seles, and the artists such as Graf and Hingis. She would face so many calm, petite players and just overpower them with physicality. Fitness is a skill, but I would say it's far more impressive for players who didn't rely on sheer power and dominated than merely being a freak athlete. Meanwhile, As mentioned earlier. . Graf, Evert, Navritalova, and Court all had historic all-time greats they had to beat. Williams largely did not.

 

[JLW]

Here is a tennis goat: