Top 13 male tennis players of all time

#7 Bjorn Borg

Bjorn Borg after winning the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship 1977

The 'Ice-Man' as he was famously called, Bjorn Borg won his first Grand Slam title at the French Open in 1974 as a teenager.

He is very well-known for his rivalry with contemporary and fellow tennis great John McEnroe. Their match-ups were the stuff of legend owing to their contrasting styles and personalities.

Borg on one hand was calm, composed and rarely showed any emotion on court. McEnroe on the other was a maverick who regularly got into altercations with umpires and opposition players.

Borg's Slam tally includes 6 French Open triumphs (1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981) and 5 Wimbledon Championships (1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980).

Borg retired at the young age of 26, while he was still at the peak of his powers. Tennis pundits widely believe that if Borg had carried on playing till at least he was 30, he would won a lot more Grand Slam titles, and the troika of modern players who are at the top of the pile in the Grand Slam titles department would still be chasing his number.

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#6 Rod Laver

Rod Laver unveilling the The Laver Cup Trophy

Rod Laver is considered by many as the 'GOAT', mainly, for two reasons:

He won 11 Grand Slam titles and remains, till date, the only player to have completed the Calendar Slam not once but twice. It is just amazing that he achieved this feat seven years apart.

For five of those seven years he was banned from competing in the Grand Slams because he decided to join professional tennis. If he were to have been allowed to compete for those five years, he might have finished with a Grand Slam tally of well over 20.

Laver completed his Career Slam at the age of 24 by winning the US Open in 1962, the same year he completed a Calendar Slam. Although Federer, Nadal and Djokovic have all come close to winning the Calendar Slam, they haven't yet been able to emulate Laver.