The legend maker. Review on Tennis

Many great players played in the days before tennis's Open era, many of whom are unknown by modern sports fans. Among them are ''Big Bill'' Tilden, Ellsworth Vines, Fred Perry, Don Budge, Bobby Riggs, Jack Kramer, Pancho Segura, Frank Sedgman, Pancho Gonzales, Ken Rosewall, and Lew Hoad. Any one of these eleven would probably be competitive in today's game. Other fine players of the pre-Open era include Maurice McLoughlin, ''Little Bill'' Johnston, the ''Four Musketeers'' (Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet, and René Lacoste), Vinnie Richards, Jack Crawford, Vic Seixas, and Tony Trabert. Among women two pre-Open era players are generally considered the greatest: Suzanne Lenglen and Helen Wills Moody.

Among the greatest male players of the Open era are Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, John Newcombe, Stan Smith, Arthur Ashe, Björn Borg, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Mats Wilander, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Jim Courier, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi and Roger Federer. Among the women are Margaret Smith Court, Billie Jean King, Evonne Goolagong, Chris Evert, Hana Mandlikova, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams, Serena Williams and Justine Henin-Hardenne.For approximately 35 years, from about 1920 to 1955, Bill Tilden was generally considered the greatest player who had ever lived, his only rivals being the 1930s Ellsworth Vines and Don Budge and the 1940s Jack Kramer. From the mid-1950s to about 1970 many people thought that Pancho Gonzales had claimed that title. Since then, champions of the Open era, first Rod Laver (1960s), Björn Borg (1970s) then John McEnroe (1980s), Pete Sampras (1990s) and finally Roger Federer (2000s) have been widely considered as being better than either Tilden or Gonzales. Even among experts, however, no overall consensus exists. Kramer, himself, for instance, who became a world-class player in 1940 and promoted the professional tour for many years, still believes that Vines was the greatest player ever. He has also stated that Gonzales was better than either Laver or Sampras.

Such is the state of this great game where legends are born every day