Chomping on Tennis Channel's 100 Greatest list
I love lists. They're arbitrary, debatable, and just so fiendishly fun to craft. Whether it's John Cusack's High Fidelity anti-hero recounting his Top 5 this-or-that in music or the inevitable Greatest of All Time (GOAT) lists in sports, the conversations—rich, animated, even heated—catalyzed are to be relished.
So it goes with Tennis Channel's 100 Greatest of All Time rundown. From Roger Federer to Michael Chang, with most all men's and women's greats in between, this list largely gets it right. Key word: largely. Because the beautiful thing about any list is that it's never perfect. (The same goes with the mixtapes of our favorite songs that some of us who are "of age" recorded off the radio back in the day.)
I digress. Tennis Channel's list includes 62 men and 38 women, although the Top 10 is split evenly, perhaps at the bidding of Billie Jean King, with Title IX numerals blinking in her eyes.
Here are the Spin's Top 5 disagreements with the TC 100 list:
5. Monica Seles at No. 19: While it's pleasing that she made the Top 20, and one has to take everyone on this list for the victories they factually achieved, that she won seven of nine Grand Slam events in a series (not even competing in one) speaks volumes above and beyond a mere grunt. As has been said, "The longest book in the world is The Book of If." The Spin's estimate at what Seles' all-time Slam take would've been: 20. And Graf's haul: 16. But time will never tell.
4. Chang at a measly No. 100: In a world devoid of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, he'd have run the table a few times. Even so, factual record at hand, his No. 2 career-high ranking and multiple turns as a Slam finalist make him better than this. He seems to have made the mistake of winning big early, at the 1989 French Open. Sidebar: Andy Roddick at No. 94 discredits a former No. 1 and Slam champ who would have a couple Wimbledon trophies in a world without Federer.
3. No. 40 Novak Djokovic behind No. 30 Martina Hingis: Put simply, no way. Both have five Slams. However, Hingis never went 9-1 in a single season against, say, Venus Williams and Serena Williams. The Djoker did it against this list's No. 1 and No. 6 players. And while Hingis' nine Slam doubles titles are notable, these rankings hardly has anything to do with doubles, as the "Woodies" (Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde) and "Bros" (Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan) are nowhere in sight.
2. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario at No. 44: Drastically overrated. Yes, she won four Slam singles titles, appearing in the finals of four others. But that's just one Slam more than Sharapova or Capriati, and the truth is that she filled a void during the Seles-less years, barely holding a candle to Graf. (Recall that Martina Navratilova dubbed the WTA Tour in Seles' absence as "Steffi and the seven dwarves." ASV has 29 career titles to Sharapova's 24. No. 45 Kim Clijsters should leapfrog her to boot.
1. No. 6 Rafael Nadal ahead of No. 9 Chris Evert: While Rafa's career is hardly over, and he's playing the role of Djokovic's best man time and again, the fact remains that he holds 10 Slam singles titles to Evert's 18, and that alone should place her higher for now.
Now speaking of (No. 10) Billie Jean, here's a clip featuring her and, inevitably, Bobby Riggs from the ongoing PBS-AOL "Makers" series.
Ah, tennis—you've come so far.
YOUR TURN, Spinmeisters: What do you take issue with on Tennis Channel's list? What did this "international panel" get right?
—Jonathan Scott (Find me on Twitter @jonscott9.)
So it goes with Tennis Channel's 100 Greatest of All Time rundown. From Roger Federer to Michael Chang, with most all men's and women's greats in between, this list largely gets it right. Key word: largely. Because the beautiful thing about any list is that it's never perfect. (The same goes with the mixtapes of our favorite songs that some of us who are "of age" recorded off the radio back in the day.)
I digress. Tennis Channel's list includes 62 men and 38 women, although the Top 10 is split evenly, perhaps at the bidding of Billie Jean King, with Title IX numerals blinking in her eyes.
Here are the Spin's Top 5 disagreements with the TC 100 list:
5. Monica Seles at No. 19: While it's pleasing that she made the Top 20, and one has to take everyone on this list for the victories they factually achieved, that she won seven of nine Grand Slam events in a series (not even competing in one) speaks volumes above and beyond a mere grunt. As has been said, "The longest book in the world is The Book of If." The Spin's estimate at what Seles' all-time Slam take would've been: 20. And Graf's haul: 16. But time will never tell.
4. Chang at a measly No. 100: In a world devoid of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, he'd have run the table a few times. Even so, factual record at hand, his No. 2 career-high ranking and multiple turns as a Slam finalist make him better than this. He seems to have made the mistake of winning big early, at the 1989 French Open. Sidebar: Andy Roddick at No. 94 discredits a former No. 1 and Slam champ who would have a couple Wimbledon trophies in a world without Federer.
3. No. 40 Novak Djokovic behind No. 30 Martina Hingis: Put simply, no way. Both have five Slams. However, Hingis never went 9-1 in a single season against, say, Venus Williams and Serena Williams. The Djoker did it against this list's No. 1 and No. 6 players. And while Hingis' nine Slam doubles titles are notable, these rankings hardly has anything to do with doubles, as the "Woodies" (Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde) and "Bros" (Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan) are nowhere in sight.
2. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario at No. 44: Drastically overrated. Yes, she won four Slam singles titles, appearing in the finals of four others. But that's just one Slam more than Sharapova or Capriati, and the truth is that she filled a void during the Seles-less years, barely holding a candle to Graf. (Recall that Martina Navratilova dubbed the WTA Tour in Seles' absence as "Steffi and the seven dwarves." ASV has 29 career titles to Sharapova's 24. No. 45 Kim Clijsters should leapfrog her to boot.
1. No. 6 Rafael Nadal ahead of No. 9 Chris Evert: While Rafa's career is hardly over, and he's playing the role of Djokovic's best man time and again, the fact remains that he holds 10 Slam singles titles to Evert's 18, and that alone should place her higher for now.
Now speaking of (No. 10) Billie Jean, here's a clip featuring her and, inevitably, Bobby Riggs from the ongoing PBS-AOL "Makers" series.
Ah, tennis—you've come so far.
YOUR TURN, Spinmeisters: What do you take issue with on Tennis Channel's list? What did this "international panel" get right?
—Jonathan Scott (Find me on Twitter @jonscott9.)
