The top 10 tennis players elected by The Sun
By By IAN TUCKEY (The Sun)
Updated: 2005-07-05 08:49

3 PANCHO GONZALES

RARELY has a sport been dominated so long and so utterly as by Gonzales from 1951 to 1962.

To many - especially those tired of the Sampras-led 'wham-bam' era - he is the classiest player of all time.

But strong-serving Gonzales, who had an immaculate all-round game and powerful return, is not contending our No1 spot because he turned pro in 1949.

That made the American ineligible to play in the Slam tournaments - as "Open tennis" only came in 19 years later - and difficult to evaluate in terms of career titles.

But he easily beat every Wimbledon champ during his golden decade and might have won perhaps 20 Grand Slams had he stayed amateur.

4 ROD LAVER

THE only player to win two clean sweeps of the Grand Slams - in 1966 and '69 - Laver had a superb record worthy of his complete game.

The Australian left-hander claimed 11 Slams, including Wimbledon four times.

And his career total of 47 titles, plus 21 finishes as runners-up, produced one of the most dominant eras tennis has ever seen.

Laver also introduced the type of fierce top-spin shots that later became the trademarks of 1980s legends Bjorn Borg and Guillermo Vilas.

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