I was unable to watch all of today's Wimbledon men's tennis finals. I saw a lot of the third and fourth sets and very little of the fifth.
So I missed out on what many are saying is the best match perhaps ever. I saw enough to know a lot of people underestimated the potential of Rafael Nadal.
That won't happen again. He now has five major titles, four on his favored clay, and now this win over a player who is among the three best grass court players ever -- with Pete Sampras and Bjorn Borg.
Because my system is weighted toward dominance, and Federer has three of the six greatest years ever already on his record, Roger already is the greatest men's player ever in the open era. Nadal, though, has made a remarkable climb and has now moved into the top 10.
Here are the 32 greatest men's players of the open era:
Rank, Player, Country, Years, Total
1. Roger Federer, Switzerland, 2003-2008, 106.50
2. Pete Sampras, United States, 1990-2002, 92.63
3. Bjorn Borg, Sweden, 1974-1981, 90.42
4. Ivan Lendl, Czechoslovakia, 1981-1991, 86.07
5. Jimmy Connors, United States, 1973-1991, 85.57
6. John McEnroe, United States, 1979-1992, 81.72
7. Mats Wilander, Sweden, 1982-1988, 68.92
8. Andre Agassi, United States, 1988-2005, 65.32
9. Boris Becker, Germany, 1985-1996, 62.07
10. Rafael Nadal, Spain, 2005-2008, 61.33
11. Stefan Edberg, Sweden, 1985-1993, 59.37
12. Jim Courier, United States, 1991-1995, 52.67
13. Rod Laver, Australia, 1968-1971, 50.00
14. John Newcombe, Australia, 1968-1976, 48.60
15. Ken Rosewall, Australia, 1968-1974, 39.33
16. Guillermo Vilas, Argentina, 1975-1982, 36.12
17. Jan Kodes, Czechoslovakia, 1970-1973, 35.00
18. Arthur Ashe, United States, 1968-1977, 32.58
19. Lleyton Hewitt, Australia, 2000-2005, 30.17
20. Marat Safin, Russia, 2000-2008, 29.00
21. Illie Nastase, Romania, 1971-1976, 28.83
22. Gustavo Kuerten, Brazil, 1997-2001, 25.33
23. Pat Rafter, Australia, 1997-2001, 24.50
24. Stan Smith, United States, 1968-1980, 23.50
25. Yevgeny Kafelinikov, Russia, 1996-2000, 23.00
26. Pat Cash, Australia, 1984-1988, 22.00
27. Michael Chang, United States, 1989-1996, 21.67
28. Andy Roddick, United States, 2003-2007, 20.67
29. Sergei Bruguera, Spain, 1993-1997, 20.33
30. Goran Ivanisevic, Croatia, 1990-2001, 19.83
31. Michael Stich, Germany, 1991-1996, 18.83
32. Johan Kriek, South Africa, 1981-1982, 18.00
Now, yesterday I published my updated list of the 32 greatest women's players. I was working on a different way to rank players -- which I'll put out later this week -- when I discovered some of my career totals were off.
Last year I added points for semifinals and inserted some rows on my spreadsheet. That altered the totals on several players. After fixing the mistake I found Venus Williams is still just outside the all-time top 10. I think she'll manage to make at least one more final and move back in to the 10 best. But for now here are the corrected standings:
Rank, Player, Country, Years, Points
1. Martina Navratilova, Czechoslovakia, 1974-2006, 165.63
2. Steffi Graf, Germany, 1985-1999, 154.13
3. Chris Evert, United States, 1971-1989, 113.40
4. Margaret Smith-Court, Australia, 1968-1975, 96.75
5. Monica Seles, Yugoslavia, 1989-2002, 92.85
6. Billie Jean King, United States, 1968-1983, 88.14
7. Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, Australia, 1971-1980, 83.35
8. Serena Williams, United States, 1998-2008, 71.00
9. Martina Hingis, Switzerland, 1996-2006, 65.47
10. Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario, Spain, 1989-2000, 64.35
11. Venus Williams, United States, 1997-2008, 63.77
12. Justine Henin, Belgium, 2001-2007, 62.14
13. Hana Mandlikova, Czechoslovakia, 1980-1987, 47.65
14. Lindsay Davenport, United States, 1996-2005, 47.40
15. Maria Sharapova, Russia, 2004-2007, 31.97
16. Jennifer Capriati, United States, 2001-2002, 29.93
17. Virginia Wade, England, 1968-1977, 28.92
18. Tracy Austin, United States, 1979-1981, 28.55
19. Mary Pierce, France, 1994-2005, 27.15
20. Gabriela Sabatini, Argentina, 1988-1991, 27.03
21. Amelie Mauresmo, France, 1999-2006, 25.00
22. Kim Clijsters, Belgium, 2001-2005, 23.76
23. Conchita Martinez, Spain, 1994-2000, 22.69
24. Jana Novotna, Czechoslovakia, 1991-1998, 21.55
25. Ann Haydon-Jones, England, 1968-1969, 20.17
26. Kerry Melville-Reid, Australia, 1970-1977, 15.61
27. Virginia Ruzici, Romania, 1978-1980, 15.40
28. Svetlana Kuznetsova, Russia, 2004-2007, 15.22
29. Ana Ivanovic, Serbia, 2007-2008, 14.76
30. Helena Sukova, Czechoslovakia, 1984-1993, 14.74
31. Mimi Jausovec, Yugoslavia, 1977-1983, 14.41
32. Mary-Joe Fernandez, United States, 1989-1997, 13.33
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