in term's of talent and ablity...rank your top five ladies of all time.

i'll go first.

venus
serena
martina
graf
billie jean king

What's this obsession with always having to rank everything.

:rolleyes:

:rolleyes:

1. Capriati
2. Seles
3. Pierce
4. Hingis
5. Davenport

It's hard for me to do..... anyway, here's my opinion.

The Greatest : Steffi Graf & Martina Hingis
The Great : Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles
Very Excellent : Serena Williams, Justine Henin, Lindsay Davenport, Arantxa S. Vicario
Very Good : Amelie Mauresmo, Natalie Tauziat, Mary Pierce, Jana Novotna, Venus Williams, Jennifer Capriati

...And I think Monica, Jennifer and Martina H. could have been much better if they hadn't semi-retirement during their prime due to injury or something.

Those are the girls I think are the top girls in tennis.
Go, girls!!!!
:D

It's hard for me to do..... anyway, here's my opinion.

The Greatest : Steffi Graf & Martina Hingis
The Great : Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles
Very Excellent : Serena Williams, Justine Henin, Lindsay Davenport, Arantxa S. Vicario
Very Good : Amelie Mauresmo, Natalie Tauziat, Mary Pierce, Jana Novotna, Venus Williams, Jennifer Capriati

...And I think Monica, Jennifer and Martina H. could have been much better if they hadn't semi-retirement during their prime due to injury or something.

Those are the girls I think are the top girls in tennis.
Go, girls!!!!
:D


No please, are you kidding? Tauziat at the same level as Mary, Amélie and Venus???? :eek: :rolleyes: :lol:

I can't rank, as I am too young to remember peak Graf or peak Navratilova.
But among those I know:

1. Serena
2. Hingis
3. Mary
4. Seles
5. Hénin

Don't know Capriati enough to put her in the list either.

Has everyone forgotten who Hana Mandlikova, Chris Evert, Margaret Court, Maureen Conolly, Suzanne Lenglen, Helen Wills Moody, and Evonne Goolagong were? And that's just off the top of my head.

Has everyone forgotten who Hana Mandlikova, Chris Evert, Margaret Court, Maureen Conolly, Suzanne Lenglen, Helen Wills Moody, and Evonne Goolagong were? And that's just off the top of my head.

Actually, I've never seen them play, so I can't judge! Except Evert, and long after she played. But these top 5 and stuff are always kind of a crap to me, as it is totally impossibile to compare, the surroundings, periods, styles, .... being so different!
It always makes me laugh when, for soccer, young kids say Zidane is the best player ever, except maybe Pelé and Platini... while they can't know them!

About Lenglen, the only thing we see is pictures of her finals in RG, but how can you judge how good she was? What her style was? Impossible. That's why I only refer to the players I've seen play and from the same or so generation! (and it can not even be accurate!)

I agree, It's hard to judge players 'talent' if I have never seen them play. I have been watching since the late 70's so...

1. Steffi
2. Navratilova
3. Hingis
4. Serena
5. Evert

It's hard for me to do..... anyway, here's my opinion.

The Greatest : Steffi Graf & Martina Hingis
The Great : Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles
Very Excellent : Serena Williams, Justine Henin, Lindsay Davenport, Arantxa S. Vicario
Very Good : Amelie Mauresmo, Natalie Tauziat, Mary Pierce, Jana Novotna, Venus Williams, Jennifer Capriati

...And I think Monica, Jennifer and Martina H. could have been much better if they hadn't semi-retirement during their prime due to injury or something.

Those are the girls I think are the top girls in tennis.
Go, girls!!!!
:D

I mostly agree but my my Greatest will include Evert and Navratilova, and my Great will include Serena, my very good will be Venus, Amelie, Mary, Capriati no Novotna and Tauziat.

I won't add any others because I don't have time to think about it too much now.

Navratilova
Graf
Court
King
Evert

NOTE: I never saw Helen Wills Moody play, so I can't really measure her. But 19 slams, at a time when they only played three a year, is ridiculously dominant.

I can thank the Tennis Channel for affording me the fortune of having witnessed Maureen Connolly on a tennis court. It was just breathtaking watching this ferocious and bubbly competitor tear apart her opponents and their aspirations of winning a match against her.

In fact I've been able to catch a few classic matches of Lenglen and Wills Moody, how gracious and elegant were these tennis champions. Lenglen was so balletic it was just mesmerizing to watch her move around the court.

So I guess in terms of historical and all time significance:
Lenglen
Connolly
Goolagong
Hingis
Mandlikova
Navratilova for her volleys and lefty serve (skills in general)

Venus } These two exemplify Athleticism at it's best: ferocious movement with combined authority and grace.
Serena
Davenport (cleanest ball striking of the modern day game)

Graf needs a special place of her own she was just the modern tennis prototype, if you want to be a tennis player watch her play, and learn from her footwork and mobility on the court and her achievements speak for themselves. :worship:

i have a feeling this thread might get carried away and end up focusing on players' achievements rather than ability and talent as proposed

Serena
Capriati
Henin
Venus
Graf

1. Serena
2. Venus
3. Graff
4. Navratilova
5. Capriati

..and i meant number 5, Seles. my bad.

Let's list our faves - edition 21434565. :D

These are my five... no particular order:

Billie Jean King
Steffi Graf
Martina Navratilova
Jennifer Capriati
Martina Hingis

1. Serena
2. Venus
3. Seles
4. Graf
5. Hingis/Nav/Juicy

1. Martina Navratilova
2. Chris Evert
3. Steffi Graf
4. Margaret Court
5. Evonne Goolagong Cawley

i have a feeling this thread might get carried away and end up focusing on players' achievements rather than ability and talent as proposed
How else can you measure a player's ability and talent?

A talent for winning is all that ultimately matters. ;)

Make a list of the best players in history and you're as close as you can get to a list of the most talented. Some others may have had just as much potential, but than you're talking about unfulfilled talent. I guess one can make an argument that some of the recent supremely talented finesse players have the excuse that they could have won (even) more if they hadn't have to deal with the pace made possible by racket technonology. Having said that, playing power tennis to the max is also a skill.