Then, there is the variety of court surfaces, each favoring some specific skill sets the grass courts are fast and highly favorable to those more adept at big serves and volleys. The clay courts at the French Open in Paris, by contrast, are slow and demand greater stamina. Some have changed over the years (Australian Open had US Open courts have changed from the earlier Grass Courts to the concrete surfaced hard courts). And finally, there is the transition from the era before 1968 when the major tournaments were limited to the amateurs. It was then opened up to all – the Open Era. This made quite a significant impact, particularly on men’s tennis. Players like Laver, Emerson, Hoad, Rosewall, and others lost a few valuable years of competition. Rosewall, in fact, could not play amateur tennis from 1957 to 1967. I also discovered that other than the US Open, the 3 other Majors were not held from 1940 to 1944 due to the Second World War.

For my ‘study,’ I decided to concentrate on the players of more recent vintage, and thus, primarily the Open Era. That, unfortunately, would leave out some all-time greats like Rod Laver or Ken Rosewall and from an earlier era, Bill Tilden, and Donald Budge, the first winner of the Grand Slam. Budge only had a 5-year run from 1934 to 1938. And within that short time period, he won 6 major titles consecutively from 1937 to 1938. And I have focused entirely on the 4 Majors, fully aware that some tournaments like the Olympics and the year-end WTA Championships have gained much in stature over the years. I also want to note that I rate the Wimbledon and the US Open to be of a higher stature compared to the Australia and the French Opens, due to their consistently high level of universal participation.

I have made the above table to aid in a closer inspection. The table was made possible almost entirely due to the valuable comprehensive information provided on the Internet, including Wikipedia. The table above is interesting. Some players have clearly proved their mettle on some particular surface compared to the rest. Most striking is the success of Rafael Nadal on the slow French Open courts in Ronald Garros, Paris. He was there 14 times out of his total of 22. This is indicative of his superior stamina but not as adept at fast serve and volleys as required in others, particularly on the grass courts in Wimbledon. In the case of Margaret Court and her 11 wins in the Australian Open, I wonder if it is not due to a paucity of competition in those early years as many women may avoided the long trip Down Under. In this context, perhaps the most interesting is the case of Bjorn Borg. He won 6 French titles on the slow clay and 5 Wimbledon titles on the fast grass – but never won the Australian or the US Open (where he reached the Finals on 3 occasions). Borg incidentally had a shorter career (10 years) compared to the rest and only participated in the Australian Open only once.

Now for my conclusions. I have every reason to conclude that Novak Djokovic is the Greatest Men’s singles tennis player of our time if not of all time. He has won 24 major titles, a record. He has distinguished himself by winning on all surfaces more than once. And he still probably has a few more years left. For women, the issue may be a little more complicated and more subjective. I would personally rate Serena Williams as the greatest Women’s Singles Tennis player of our time if not for all time. She clearly has a better all-round record compared to Margaret Court with her total of 13 wins in Wimbledon and the US Open, compared to Margaret’s 8 wins. In addition, she can boast of a record of 10 Runner-ups compared to Margaret’s five. Steffi Graf’s case is perhaps a little more contentious. She has only one less total win (22 versus Serena’s 23). Her record is well distributed over the 4 surfaces, including a total of 12 wins in Wimbledon and US Open. Perhaps I cannot readily rid myself of the thought of what might have been if the unfortunate occurrence of the stabbing of Monica Seles had not occurred. Steffi and Monica were very competitive prior to that event.