To celebrate TENNIS Magazine’s 40th anniversary, we’ve chosen the 40 best players of the last four decades.  Here are numbers 8 through 5.

8. Rod Laver
Photo by Michael Cole

Here’s the disclaimer, for those of you who can’t believe they’re seeing Rod Laver at No. 8: Our Top 40 list focuses on the players’ achievements in the last 40 years, which required that we discount Laver’s pre-1965 accomplishments, including his first Grand Slam, in 1962. Even so, a single feat of the red-headed left-hander is enough to land him high on this list: a second Grand Slam, in 1969.

Laver grew up in Queensland, Australia, and was as tough as he was scrawny. His nickname, “Rocket,” was bestowed on him in a fit of sarcasm by Harry Hopman, the architect of Australia’s tennis dynasty in the 1950s and ’60s. Although Laver topped out at 5-foot-8 and never cracked the 150-pound mark during his heyday, he hit the ball fiercely, with a mastery of spin. He lived to attack the net, yet Laver had a bulletproof backcourt game as well as the daring of a born shot-maker.

Laver achieved everything worth doing in the game. He was a brilliant doubles player, a man for all surfaces and seasons, and one of the founding fathers of the Open era. His are the footprints now being followed by another versatile, supremely gifted player, Roger Federer.—PETER BODO

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
> Won 11 major titles
> Won the Grand Slam twice, in 1962 and ’69.
> In ’69, won an Open era men’s record of 17 titles

7. Jimmy Connors
Photo by Michael Cole

When Jimmy Connors faced Ken Rosewall in the 1974 U.S. Open final, he didn’t beat him. He embarrassed him, 6-1, 6-0, 6-1. That’s the way Connors rolled—the man across the net, even a legend like Rosewall, was an enemy unworthy of mercy.

In Jimmy’s world, tennis was a thinly disguised street fight. He stayed near the baseline, a hatchet man in tight shorts and a mop-top haircut. You had only to close your eyes and listen to the constant squeaking of his shoes to understand how furiously he ran down his opponents. When strokes failed him, Connors would mess with your mind. If he needed extra time to catch his breath, he took a seat. If he felt like riling up the crowd, he argued a call. But here’s the thing: This mama’s boy—he learned the game from his mother, Gloria, in Belleville, Ill.—made you feel you were a part of the match, which explains how he emerged as the 38- year-old sentimental favorite at the 1991 U.S. Open. In that career-defining run, Connors staged two amazing comebacks and blazed his way to a semifinal showing that riveted a worldwide audience. While his contemporaries were well into their retirements, Jimbo was still collecting singles trophies—109 in all, more than any other player in men’s tennis history. —JAMES MARTIN

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
> Won eight major titles
> Only player to win the U.S. Open on three surfaces (grass, clay, hard)
> Ranked in the Top Ten for 16 straight years (1973–’88)

6. Margaret Court
Photo by Michael Cole

Few players were as unsuited for basking in tennis’ glamorous new Open era as Margaret Court, but none dominated the game like this shy Aussie. As with Rod Laver, Court’s standing in our Top 40 doesn’t account for her prolific seasons of the early 1960s, during which she won nine major singles titles.
 
A gangly girl from the country town of Albury, New South Wales, Court was determined to develop her strength and coordination in order to make ultimate use of her 6-foot frame and long limbs. She was one of the first woman players to use a cross-training routine, which helped her build an athletic, attacking game suited to grass, the predominant surface at the time. The results were stupendous; the lead item on her résumé is a calendar-year Grand Slam in 1970.

That year, Court won 21 of 27 tournaments and broke triple figures in the win column (104-6). Lifetime record against icon Billie Jean King? 22-10. Majors? She won a few: 62 combined singles, doubles, and mixed titles, the record. At her best, Court smothered opponents using her serve-and-volley skills on fast surfaces. Yet she also outlasted Chris Evert in the French Open final of 1973, 6-4 in the third. Although at times she could collapse from anxiety, it was a tendency that made her ability to conquer her nerves even more impressive. She may be the least lionized among tennis’ international cast of retired superstars. —PETER BODO

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
> Won 24 major singles titles and 62 majors overall, both records
> Only player to win a Grand Slam in singles (1970) and mixed doubles (1963)

5. Bjorn Borg
Photo by Michael Cole

The word that comes to mind is incomparable. Right from his debut in 1972, Bjorn Borg was something new in tennis. In a game dominated by clean-cut, net-rushing Americans and Australians, Borg, a 16-year-old with shoulder-length blond hair, strode silently out of tiny Sweden and became an international heartthrob. He hit his forehand with an unfashionable Western grip and his backhand with a no less outré two-handed hold on the racquet. And he roamed far behind the baseline, where he could rally longer than anyone ever has.

Borg shed his matinee-idol status for a champion’s mystique. His style—flowing hair plastered under a headband, tight shorts, and a face that never, ever, changed expression—remains, 30 years later, the iconic tennis look. It also made him a source of mystery. The icy Swede was said to keep his weight at precisely 160 pounds and have a resting heart rate that hovered around 30.

If anything, the facts outdo the legend. No man has been as dominant as Borg. The “Angelic Assassin” has the highest Grand Slam winning percentage of any man (.898). From 1978 to ’81, he entered 12 majors on three surfaces and reached the final of 11 (winning seven). And in the most pressure-filled event of all, Davis Cup, Borg shone brightest, leading Sweden to its first title in 1975 and winning an astounding 33 straight singles matches. Like all things Borg, it’s a feat that tennis fans are unlikely to witness again. —STEPHEN TIGNOR

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
> Won 11 major titles
> Last man to win the French Open and Wimbledon back to back, which he did three straight times (1978–’80)