Who was the best tennis player ever?

Answer 1

For males, the answer to this question depends upon a number of factors:

If singles alone is to be considered, the most number of Grand Slam titles has been won by Roger Federer.

However, Rod Laver is the only man in history to have won the true Calendar Grand Slam twice; further, the prime titles that he won when playing professional tennis have not been accounted for as part of the slam tally. Thus he also lost about six years of his best tennis to the ranks of professional tennis in a day when amateur and professional competitions were separated.

On the other hand, if singles and doubles slam titles are treated equally, Roy Emerson has won the most titles of any man in history at 28 in total: he has also won the most doubles Grand Slam titles. Many in fact, consider him to be the greatest doubles player that ever lived. He also held the record for some time of the most singles titles held by a male player.

For females, Margaret Court, at a total of 62 titles, undisputably leads the way as the greatest female player in history. She also became the first women's tennis player during the Open tennis era to win the Calendar Grand Slam in singles. She also won the Calendar Grand Slam in Mixed Doubles as well.

At 24 singles grand slam singles titles and 38 doubles titles, she stands to claim the crown as both - the greatest ladies' singles player in history and the greatest doubles player.

She is the only person to have won all 12 Grand Slam events at least twice - that is, all four major singles titles, all four same-sex doubles titles and all four mixed doubles titles.

The International Tennis Hall of Fame states, "There has never been a tennis player to match (her)."