This has been considerably tougher than the Men’s list, since I feel there are clearly two planes, one with the each incomparable top four, and the remaining six who seem to have very little to separate each other . I certainly think, this ranking is going to elicit more contradicting opinions, so, bring it on folks!

10.Martina Hingis - When Graf was fading out, the tennis world had gotten used to a single woman dominating the court and it was no surprise that this teenager, who claimed to be named after Navratilova herself, usurped the throne nonchalantly setting in the wake, a series of “youngest ever…” records. But, the early start led to an early demise, when injured and scandalized with drug abuse, Hingis was forced to quit the game prematurely. More than her entry, it was on her exit thus that a void was created at the top, leading to a series of pretenders, none of whom have adequately impressed. The dainty Swiss Miss today is a forgotten star; her countrymen have since then found, Roger Federer.

9. Justine Henin – What can you say about a great player who decided at her very best, that enough was enough? The fragile Belge belied her competence against Serena and Venus with a peanut sized frame. With a perfect backhand, nimble toes reaching out to complete volleys and a harsh, ruthless forehand, Henin was just about to capture the throne, when in the midst of it all, she called it quits. Henin battled personal troubles, injuries, accidents and illness to make it to the top. When she reached there, I suppose she no longer wanted it.

8. Serena Williams – During the interregnum after Graf, Serena Williams has come across as the most impressive women’s player by far. Not only has she won herself all the four majors, she has radically altered the game with her brutal, assaulting style that would easily be competitive even in the men’s game. If ever there was a move to make the women’s game a grueling five set one, it would suit Serena best. However, a complete lack of consistency and apparent fitness problems keep Serena from being at her best in most contests and also keep her eighth in these rankings.

7. Monica Seles – While Graf ascended the throne of women’s tennis with her supreme technique and crisp style, a pint sized double handed pretender from troubled Yugoslavia was grunting her way up with sheer aggressiveness and unmatched agility. Just when Graf’s throne was up for grabs, tragedy struck and Seles became the victim of the most infamous regicide in tennis, effectively “assassinating” her career. An overweight emotionally drained Seles made a return after her backstabbing incident only to feel ill at east on the court and never ever to play at her best. Needless to say, the world never got to see the best of Seles and thus she never achieved what she could have. Despite a short career, her achievements merit a place on this top-ten list.

6. Evonne Goolagong Cawley – It was not easy to notch up 14 grand slams in an era when Margaret Court was ceding way to Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. It was even tougher when key opponents like Billie Jean King and Navratilova were starting to use power and aggression over speed and skill. Evonne Goolagong Cawley was the last of the Aussie greats, winning 14 grand slams across three majors, narrowly missing out, four times in New York.

 5. Billie Jean King – Billie Jean is best remembered for her infamous victory over Bobby Riggs. While Riggs had earlier beaten the top ranked Margaret Court, thus adding to his chauvinism, Billie Jean King’s power and aggression foreshadowed much of what the William’s sisters would do to tennis in the future. Billie Jean amassed twelve grand slams across all majors with forceful ground strokes and  aggressive lobs which allowed her to dominate both in doubles and singles. Billie Jean, rather curiously never won the Australian Open in the Open Era, winning it instead in 1968 when it was still called the Australian Championship.

4. Chris Evert – Chris Evert has the best win-loss record in the history of the game and has a career grand slam to her name. Chris Evert also appeared in the most number of finals ever and never lost in the first round of a tournament. She is best remembered for an intense rivalry with Martina Navratilova, while ruling the clay court, often caving in at the grass of Wimbledon to the left hander.

3. Steffi Graf – Graf reached her peak form rather early, winning her famous Golden Slam way back in 1988, coupling all four majors with the Seoul Olympic Gold. Graf’s effortless game was rarely challenged and she was perhaps the most complete player in recent times, equally at ease across all surfaces. Graf also holds the all time record for maximum time spent as the top ranked player, a record 377 weeks. However, Graf put the game at loss when she decided to call it quits in 1999 when she felt her rankings were slipping although many felt she still had years left in her.

2. Margaret Court-Smith - Margaret Court dominated the game effortlessly for more than a decade, winning all possible majors both in doubles and in singles both before and after the Open Era began. Court also is one of the few mothers to have won a grand slam, US Open 1973. The all time record that still stands in her name is that of 24 grand slam singles titles. Her all pervasive achievements in singles and double, have not ever been equalled either, except by one person.

1. Martina Navratilova –The all start resumes of Margaret Court and Martina Navratilova seem eerily similar, a cut above the rest. Martina Navratilova is the only other player, apart from Court to have dominated both the singles and the doubles games equally, earning her the “boxed” set of Grand Slams, winning all four majors in singles and doubles. She was perhaps the best known serve and volley player in the women’s game.  There are two reasons why I put Navratilova above Court, one is that Navratilova had the fortune of winning on hard court, the other is sheer longevity, playing her last match at nearly fifty, and who can forget that emotional Wimbledon final in 1994 at 37?

After 252 weeks, Roger Federer will finally lose the number 1 spot to Rafael Nadal. New contributor Hari thinks its a good time to rank the best male tennis players of the open era.

10. Jimmy Connors: The games first showman, shows up at the top ten rankings as the winner of the maximum number of ATP tour titles. He did manage a couple of Wimbledon titles and was often stopped by the peak performance of Bjorn Borg. Despite Connors never winning the French Open, he could be called an all court player since he did dominate the US Open which was played on clay back then. He is in fact one of the three players, Andre Agassi and Mats Wilander being the others, to have won grand slams on hard courts, clay and on grass.

9. Rafael Nadal: The charming Rafa makes it as the world’s best ever clay courter and the latest achiever of tennis’ toughest double – back to back grand slams on grass and clay. The mighty Majorcan has also broken the jinx of past clay court titans like Gustavo Kuerten and Sergi Bruguera and adjusted himself to all court play. Rafa’s journey has just started and if all goes well and he avoids injuring himself, we could well be witnessing some historic achievements.

8. John McEnroe: He is given credit for elevating serve and volleying into a fine art and then making centre court more than just an exhibition of tennis talent. Most old timers, lament the fact that tennis has become too much of a gentleman’s game since the exit of the foul mouthed super brat. His grand slam exploits notwithstanding, McEnroe was also one of the greatest ever double’s players. And so if you question his ranking, ‘You cannot be serious!’<

7. Andre Agassi: While most players start in their late teens and peak in their early twenties, Andre Agassi was the exception, improving as he aged like pure wine. In an era when big servers dominated, Agassi became the world’s greatest ever baseliner and proved his point winning all four majors albeit in different years. Personal troubles led to inconsistent performances in his early career and the tennis world could have actually missed out on seeing his very best

6. Ivan Lendl: A genuine all rounder, Lendl was no specialist in any court but instead honed his skills to be equally sound on any surface. However, Ivan Lendl ended up the game’s greatest runner up.Winning the Australian, French and US Opens, he made the final of Wimbledon twice, against unheralded (at that time), Boris Becker and Pat Cash, only to choke on both occasions. Had he one any match out of those, his ranking would have been higher than 6 on this chart

5. Ken Rosewall: Since this is an Open Era ranking, it is easy to forget the all pervasive achievements of the Australian. There were no hard courts at that time but Ken Rosewall was unarguably the best proponent on both grass and clay during the sixties. It was after the Open Era began that Rod Laver stole his thunder . Complications surrounding him being a professional player disallowed him from many key tournaments throughout his career. And so, his open era performances were often on the wrong side of thirty. Nevertheless, Rosewall’s backhand has never yet been equaled, as has his long twenty five year career. Rosewall makes it here as an exception to the Open Era rule since although his best performances might not have been during the Open Era, he certainly did play in it as the second best at a time when the world’s best ever player was king.

4. Pete Sampras : Pistol Pete changed the game like no one else ever has. Apart from the elegance that all the players on this list have, Sampras’ key weapon was his power. Sampras dominated the tennis world for an entire decade, possessed possibly the greatest serve ever and was never beaten at his best. If he ever was, it was attributed to under par performance due to some injury. But his gross underachievement on clay keeps him ranked at 4

3. Roger Federer: Take the old world charm of a Fred Perry, the baseline skills of Agassi, the poise of Borg and the supreme technique of Pete Sampras, Roger Federer has been often called the most complete tennis player of all time. He also is the fastest achiever of the modern era running up very close to Sampras’ grand slam record in almost half the time. The Sampras vs Federer question is a hard one to answer. I put Federer above the Floridan for him being at least the second best clay court player for most of his career and not having lost at his best to anyone other than Rafael Nadal. And he still has his chances.

2. Bjorn Borg: The Iceman ruled the courts as a baseliner when serve and volleying was the norm. He used both his hands when self respecting professionals were expected to slice their backhands with one hand. In a world that was fast changing tilting towards power over grace, Borg defied with elegance, chasing down the ball with the rarest of anticipation that one has to be born with, not acquired, returning at angles never again seen, winning points (and hearts) without ever breaking a sweat, Borg made tennis look easy. He ruled grass and clay with equanimity and came excruciatingly close four times on hardcourts. Following two successive grand slam upsets, the impassive Swede silently drew back from competing saying that he did not wish to be number 2. Well, on this list, he is.

1. Rod Laver: The only player ever to have won the Grand Slam in the strictest sense of the word in 1969 and 1962 (amateur) is almost an automatic choice to be number 1 for most tennis experts. He is renowned for his feather touch serve and volleying, wristy groundstrokes and being the inspiration for a whole generation of players from where sprang John McEnroe and Pete Sampras. Though the latter generation’s power would probably have beaten Laver had they ever met, it is Laver’s dominance at his time that keeps him at the top and not how he would have fared against future generations.

- Psycho

(the moderators don’t understand why he wants to be called that!)        

It’s that time of year again folks: the long, dreary grandslam event filled with Spaniards sliding around the red clay, chasing down every ball like their life depends on it and occasionally displaying some dazzling tennis.

The men’s draw:  Rafa’s victory inevitable

And this year, we are probably going to see an exciting men’s draw. After all somebody needs to lose to Nadal in the final. Unlike the last two years, Federer has had a very poor start to his season and seems in rather human form. This kind of slump will take some recovering from given that he has not experience such sustained failure over the last few years. Nadal is entering the tournament playing as well as he has ever on clay. It would be a foolish man who would bet against him even given a tricky match against Nalbandian and a potential semi-final against Djokovic.

But what will be interesting to see is who will be across the net from him during the finale. At this point, while I don’t rule Federer out, his draw isn’t improving the odds. He could potentially face Wawrinka or Gasquet in the quarters and Ferrer or Robredo in the semi-finals. These are tough clay court matches and given current form, I wouldn’t be surprised if Federer lost in the semis to say, Ferrer. As for Djokovic, he is playing well and should make it to the semis. I don’t think he has developed the clay court game to beat Nadal yet. Even given the form he is in, I expect on Nadal to beat him in four sets at the most.

The women’s draw will definitely be more interesting. Henin has absolutely dominated this tournament over the past few years and her absence opens up the tournament. Personally, I would love to see Sharapova win. But she doesn’t seem patient enough to play out the long rallies and she also doesn’t slide around as well on clay. Ivanovic is playing well and the nervousness of being on the big stage would’ve reduced by the time she reaches the clay courts of Paris. I would pick her to be a finalist. And I pick Kuznetzova to be her opponent. Sharapova v Kuznetzova will be an interesting semi-final. Both of them prefer the hard courts to clay but I think on a good day, Kuznetzova’s power will see her past Sharapova on clay. Final pick, Ana Ivanovic. A final word: the Williams sisters have shown time and again that they will pull surprises out of the bag and you discount them at your own peril.

Do you agree with our picks? Who do you think is going to reign on clay this season? Let us know.

The French Open began on the 27th in less than perfect conditions. The tournament this year has been affected by rain, cloudy skies and windy conditions, reminding us of the tricky weather situation last year when the first week had damp conditions and the second week of the tournament was bright and sunny. The first 2 rounds went as per predictions with a few upsets thrown in.

The biggest upset so far has been the straight set elimination of Fernando Gonzalez, the fifth seed at the hands of Radek Stepanek. Stepanek went on to lose to unheralded French player Edouard Roger-Vasselin in five sets in the next round.

Americans not finding their feet on clay

Seeded American players were also bitten by the upset bug, as third seed Andy Roddick and eighth seed James Blake were sent packing by Igor Andreev and Ivo Karlovic respectively. Seven more American followed their two high-profile countrymen out of the tournament. Andre Agassi was the last American men’s singles champion at the French Open in 1999 and the only champion before him was Courier in 1992. It looks like there wont be an American champion for quite some time to come.

But there is good news for American tennis as the Williams sisters are playing their part pretty well. Both progressed to the third round where Venus would play Jelena Jankovic (who has already beaten Venus this year) - and Serena plays Michaella Krajicek.
Elsewhere, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the prime contenders for the title are making good progress, with neither dropping a set in their first two matches. Federer might face his first challenge in the form of former Roland Garros Champion Juan Carlos Ferrero or Mikhail Youzhny in the fourth round, while Nadal’s fourth round foe could be former world no.1 Lleyton Hewitt.

Sania Update
From the Indian perspective, Sania Mirza was knocked out in straight sets in the second round by Anna Ivanovic. Not really a surprise considering how much she hates playing on clay and the fact that she has been recovering from an injury. She should do much better in the grass in England.