Rod Laver

Rodney George "Rod" Laver (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) was born on August 9 of 1938. He is an Australian former tennis player who holds the record for most singles titles won in the history of tennis, with 200 career titles. He was the World No. 1 player for seven consecutive years, from 1964 to 1970 (from 1964 to 1967 in the professional circuit). He is the only tennis player to have twice won the Grand Slam (all four major singles titles in the same year) – first as an amateur in 1962 and second as a professional in 1969. He is the only male player and was the first player, male or female, to have won the Grand Slam during the open era (in 1988 Steffi Graf also achieved this feat). Laver won a total of twenty major tournaments, including eleven Grand Slam tournament titles and nine Pro Slam titles. In 1967, Laver also won the Professional Grand Slam. In addition he won nine Championship Series titles (1970–75) the precursors to the current Masters 1000. Laver won and excelled on all the surfaces of his time (grass, clay and wood/parquet), and was ranked as the best professional player in the world during the five-year period he was excluded from the Grand Slam tournaments Rod Laver is the second and last male player to win each major title twice in his career. Only Roy Emerson and Margaret Court had won all four Grand Slam tournaments twice before Laver in the history of tennis. Laver is regarded as one of the greatest tennis players yet seen. Within his slams there are also 6 in doubles and 3 in mixed doubles.

Country	Australia
Residence	Carlsbad, California, United States
Born	9 August 1938 Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight	N/A
Turned pro	1962
Retired	1979
Plays	Left-handed; one-handed backhand
Career prize money	US$1,564,213   View ATP Profile

Ivan Lendl

Ivan Lendl was born on March 7, 1960. He is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player. Originally from Czechoslovakia, he became a United States citizen in 1992. He was one of the game's most dominant players in the 1980s and remained a top competitor into the early 1990s. He is considered to be one of the greatest tennis players of the 20th century. Lendl's game relied particularly on strength and heavy topspin from the baseline and helped usher in the modern era of "power tennis". He himself described his game as "hitting hot", a relentless all-court game that was coming to dominate in tennis. Lendl captured eight Grand Slam singles titles. He competed in 19 Grand Slam singles finals, a record surpassed by Roger Federer in 2009. He reached at least one Grand Slam final for 11 consecutive years, a record shared with Pete Sampras, with the male primacy of 8 consecutive finals in a slam tournament (a record shared with Bill Tilden at US Open). Before the formation of the ATP Lendl reached a record 12 year-end championships (equaled by John McEnroe). He won two WCT Finals titles and five Masters Grand Prix titles, with the record of 9 consecutive finals. He also won a record 22 Championship Series titles (1980–89) the precursors to the current ATP Masters 1000. Lendl first attained the world no. 1 ranking on February 28, 1983 and bolstered his claim to the top spot when he defeated John McEnroe in the 1984 French Open final. For much of the next five years, Lendl was the top ranked player until August 1990 (with a break from September 1988 to January 1989 when Mats Wilander was at the top). He finished four years ranked as the world's top player (1985–1987 and 1989) and was ranked no. 1 for a total of 270 weeks and set a new record previously held by Jimmy Connors, since broken by Pete Sampras and Roger Federer. In 2011 he became Andy Murray's coach.

Country	Czechoslovakia (1978–1992) United States (1992–present)
Residence	Goshen, Connecticut, US (1992– ), Vero Beach, Florida, US (2004– )
Born	March 7, 1960 Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)
Height	1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	79 kg (170 lb; 12.4 st)
Turned pro	1978
Retired	December 20, 1994
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Career prize money	$21,262,417  View ATP Profile

John McEnroe

John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. was born February 16, 1959. He is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. During his career, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles (three at Wimbledon and four at the US Open), nine Grand Slam men's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title. McEnroe also won a record eight season ending championships, comprising five WCT Finals titles and three Masters Grand Prix titles from twelve final appearances at these two events, a record he shares with Ivan Lendl. He posted the best single season win-loss record in the Open Era in 1984 at 96.47% (82/3). In addition he won 19 Championship Series top tier events of the Grand Prix Tour that were the precursors to the current Masters 1000. He is best remembered for his shot-making artistry and superb volleying; for his famous rivalries with Björn Borg, Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl; for his confrontational on-court behavior which frequently landed him in trouble with umpires and tennis authorities; and for the catchphrase "You cannot be serious!" directed toward an umpire during a match at Wimbledon in 1981. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1999, and is regarded as one of the great tennis players of the 20th century. McEnroe is the older brother of Patrick McEnroe, who is also a former professional tennis player and the former Captain of the United States Davis Cup team, a position in which John served previously. They also both are now often commentators for Grand Slam tennis television coverage in the United States, and John McEnroe is also a commentator on Wimbledon for the BBC.

Country	United States
Residence	New York City
Born	February 16, 1959 (age 53) Wiesbaden, West Germany
Height	5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Weight	165 lb (75 kg)
College	Stanford Cardinal
Turned pro	1978
Retired	1992
Plays	Left-handed (one-handed backhand)
Career prize money	US$12,547,797   View ATP Profile

Jimmy Connors

James Scott "Jimmy" Connors was born on September 2, 1952, in East St. Louis, Illinois and is a former world no. 1 tennis player from the United States. Connors won eight Grand Slam singles titles and two Grand Slam doubles titles with Ilie Năstase. He was also a runner-up seven times in Grand Slam singles, a doubles runner-up with Năstase at the 1973 French Open, and a mixed doubles runner-up with Chris Evert at the 1974 US Open. He held the top ranking for a then-record 160 consecutive weeks from July 29, 1974 to August 22, 1977 and an additional eight times during his career for a total of 268 weeks In 1974, Connors became the second male in the open era to win three or more Grand Slam singles titles in a calendar year (Rod Laver being the first in 1969 and having been joined since by Mats Wilander, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic). Connors is also the only man to win U.S. Open singles championships on grass, clay, and hard courts. Connors won a record 109 ATP tournaments, 15 more than Ivan Lendl, and over 30 more than Roger Federer and John McEnroe. His career win-loss record of 1242–277 (81.76%) is third after Björn Borg (82.7%) and Ivan Lendl (81.8%), and he holds the record for total number of wins for a male player. Connors won three year-end championship titles, including two WCT Finals and one Masters Grand Prix. He also won 18 Championship Series titles (1973–1984). He was the first male player to rank no. 1 for more than 200 weeks in total and the first male player to be no. 1 for more than five years in total. He is the only male player to win more than 100 singles titles during his career. He also holds the record for most major quarterfinals (41) reached.

Country	United States
Residence	Santa Barbara, California
Born	September 2, 1952 East St. Louis, Illinois
Height	1.77 m (69.69 in)
Weight	68 kg (150 lb)
Turned pro	1972
Retired	1996
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	US$8,641,040    View ATP Profile

Andre Agassi

Andre Kirk Agassi (born April 29, 1970) is a retired Iranian- American professional tennis player and former World No. 1 (Agassi was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, to Emmanuel "Mike" Aghassian and Elizabeth "Betty" Agassi. His father, a former Olympic boxer for Iran, is of Armenian and Assyrian descent and changed the family name to Agassi after his migration to the United States). Andre Agassi was one of the game's most dominant players from the early 1990s to the mid 2000s. Generally considered by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Agassi has been called the best service returner in the history of the game. Described by the BBC upon his retirement as "perhaps the biggest worldwide star in the sport's history", Agassi compiled performances that, along with his unorthodox apparel and attitude, saw him cited as one of the most charismatic players in the history of the game and is credited for helping to revive the popularity of tennis during the 1990s.In singles tennis, Agassi is an eight-time Grand Slam champion who competed in 15 Grand Slam finals, and a 1996 Olympic gold medalist. His four Australian Open titles are an Open Era record (shared with Roger Federer). He is one of four male singles players to achieve the Career Grand Slam (all four Grand Slam championships) in the Open Era and one of seven in history, the first of two to achieve the Career Golden Slam (Career Grand Slam and Olympic gold medal), and the only man to win the Career Golden Slam and the ATP Tour World Championships (won in 1990): a distinction dubbed as a "Career Super Slam" by Sports Illustrated.[3] Agassi was the first male player to win all four Grand Slams on three different surfaces (hard, clay, and grass), and the last American male to win the French Open (1999)[14] and the Australian Open (2003).[15] He also won 17 ATP Masters Series titles, and was part of a winning Davis Cup team in 1990 and 1992.[4] Agassi was troubled by personal issues during the mid-to-late 1990s and sank to a career low of World No. 141 in 1997, prompting many to believe that his career was over.[16] Agassi, however, returned to World No. 1 in 1999 and enjoyed the most successful run of his career over the next four years. He won a total of 8 Grand Slams titles: 4 Australian Open, 1 French Open, 1 Wimbledon and 2 U.S Open.

Full name	Andre Kirk Agassi
Country	USA
Residence	Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Born	April 29, 1970 Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	80 kg (180 lb)
Turned pro	1986
Retired	September 3, 2006
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	US$31,152,975   View ATP Profile

Pete Sampras

Peter "Pete" Sampras (born August 12, 1971) is a retired Greek American tennis player ( His mother immigrated from Sparta, Greece, and his father was born in the United States to a Jewish mother and Greek father.) and former world number 1. During his 14-year tour career, he won 14 Grand Slam singles titles ( 2 Australian Open titles, 7 Wimbledon titles and 5 U.S. Open titles) and became recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Sampras debuted on the professional tour in 1988 and played his last top-level tournament in 2002 when he won the US Open, defeating rival Andre Agassi in the final. He was the year-end world no. 1 for six consecutive years (1993–1998), a record for the Open Era. His seven Wimbledon singles championships is an Open Era record shared with Roger Federer, while Sampras' five US Open singles titles is an Open Era record shared with both Federer and former World No. 1 player Jimmy Connors. Sampras is the last American male to win Wimbledon (2000) and the ATP World Tour Finals (1999).

Country	United States
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Born	August 12, 1971 Potomac, Maryland
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	170 lb (77 kg)
Turned pro	1988
Retired	2002
Plays	right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Career prize money	US$ 43,280,489    View ATP Profile

Roger Federer

Roger Federer , born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss professional tennis player who as of July 2012 is ranked World number 1 by the ATP. Several sports analysts, tennis critics and former and current players consider him to be the greatest tennis player of all time. He owns several men's world records of the Open Era: holding the number 1 position for more than 286 weeks overall; a 237-consecutive-week stretch at the top from 2004 to 2008; winning 17 Grand Slam singles titles; reaching the finals of each Grand Slam tournament at least five times (an all-time record); and reaching the Wimbledon final eight times. He is one of seven men, and one of four in the Open Era, to capture the career Grand Slam, and one of three (with Andre Agassi and Rafael Nadal) to do so separately on clay, grass, and hard courts. Federer also shares the Open Era record for most Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open with Agassi (4 titles), at Wimbledon with Pete Sampras (7 titles) and at the US Open with Jimmy Connors and Sampras (5 titles). Federer's ATP tournament records include winning six ATP World Tour Finals, playing in the finals at all nine ATP Masters 1000 tournaments, and, matching Agassi, winning seven. Federer has appeared in 24 men's Grand Slam finals, with ten in a row, both records, and appeared in 18 of 19 finals from the 2005 Wimbledon Championships through to the 2010 Australian Open. He is the only man to reach the semifinals of 23 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments, from the 2004 Wimbledon Championships through the 2010 Australian Open. At the 2012 Wimbledon men's championship, he reached his 32nd Grand Slam semi-final, 33rd consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final, and seventh trophy, all records. He has also won the most matches, 244, in men's Grand Slam tournaments. He also won the Olympic gold medal in doubles with his compatriot Stanislas Wawrinka at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and the silver medal in singles at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. He spent eight years (2003–2010) continuously in the top 2 in the year-end men's rankings and nine (2003–2011) in the Top 3. His rivalries with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, making for a "trivalry", are considered some of the greatest of all time. Federer has won the ATPWorldTour.com Fans' Favorite Award a record nine times straight (2003–2011) and the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award (voted for by the players) a record seven times (2004–2009, 2011), both being awards indicative of respect and popularity. He also won the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year Award in 2006. In 2011, in a South African poll, he was voted the second most trusted and respected person in the world, next to Nelson Mandela. He was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for a record four consecutive years (2005–2008). Federer is at times referred to as the Federer Express, shortened to Fed Express or FedEx, and the Swiss Maestro, or just Maestro.

Country	Switzerland
Residence	Wollerau, Switzerland
Born	8 August 1981 (age 30) Basel, Switzerland
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Turned pro	1998
Plays	Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
Career prize money	$72,918,077 1st All-time leader in earnings

Rafael Nadal

Rafael Nadal Parera; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. As of 6 August 2012, he is ranked No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time; his success on clay has earned him the nickname "The King of Clay", and has prompted several experts to regard him as the greatest clay court player in history. Nadal has won eleven Grand Slam singles titles, including an all-time record seven French Open titles, the 2008 Olympic gold medal in singles, a record 21 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments, and was also part of the Spain Davis Cup team that won the finals in 2004, 2008, 2009 and 2011. He completed the Career Grand Slam by winning the 2010 US Open, being the seventh player in history, and the youngest of four in the Open Era, to achieve it. He is the second male player to complete the Career Golden Slam (winner of the Career Grand Slam and the Olympic gold medal) after Andre Agassi. Rafael Nadal has at least two Grand Slam titles on each of the three surfaces (hard court, grass, and clay), the second player to achieve this feat after Mats Wilander. He was the second male player to win any Grand Slam tournament seven times, matching Pete Sampras's and Roger Federer's seven Wimbledon titles. Nadal had a 32-match winning streak in 2008, starting at the 2008 Masters Series Hamburg to the 2008 Western & Southern Financial Group Masters and Women's Open, which included titles at Hamburg, the French Open (where he did not drop a set), Queen's Club, his first title at Wimbledon, and the Rogers Cup. In 2012, by winning the Monte-Carlo Masters, he became the only player to have won eight consecutive editions in any tournament during the history of tennis, and only the second player to win a single tournament for a total of eight times during Open Era. Nadal is the first male player in tennis history to simultaneously hold Grand Slam tournament titles on clay, grass and hardcourts. He is also the first (and only player to date) to win three consecutive Grand Slam titles on three different surfaces. Nadal was ranked world No. 2, behind Roger Federer, for a record 160 consecutive weeks before earning the top spot, which he held from 18 August 2008 to 5 July 2009. He regained the world No.1 ranking on 7 June 2010, after winning his fifth French Open title. He held it until 3 July 2011, when Novak Djokovic replaced him as world No. 1. Nadal has held the No. 2 ranking for an ATP record 241 weeks (as of 9 July 2012). Other nicknames: "Rafa", "Rafalet", "El matador".

Full name	Rafael Nadal Parera
Country	Spain
Residence	Manacor, Majorca, Balearic Islands, Spain
Born	3 June 1986 Manacor, Majorca, Balearic Islands, Spain
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	85 kg (190 lb)
Turned pro	2001
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	$50,061,827   View ATP Profile