We all know a lot about Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe.
However, there are plenty of lesser lights in the game of tennis.
After going through well over 100 players, I have finally identified five who are lesser known but unique in their own way.
Marty Riessen
Many may not have even heard the name of this tennis player from Florida. Marty has a 6-7 career head-to-head record versus the incomparable Rod Laver.
Interestingly Laver won two, then Marty won two. And then they won one each until Laver won their 13th match to finish at 7-6. Marty did not have a great career having only won six singles titles. He reached the singles quarter finals four times, including once each at Australian Open and Wimbledon and twice at US Open.
However he was a competent doubles player with 53 titles, including the US Open and French Open. He also reached the doubles finals in the other two majors and was double runners up four times.
He also won seven Mixed doubles titles including a career Grand Slam with tennis great Margaret Court.
His uniqueness is his competitive tennis record with the incomparable Laver. He has been described as a player no one wanted to meat in the early rounds and had some memorable early wins including defeating Arthur Ashe at Wimbledon.
Miroslav Mecir
Mecir, nicknamed the Big Cat, retired from tennis at only 26 due to injuries.
Mecir won the 1988 Olympic Singles Gold Medal. He reached the Australian Open final once and semi-finals of the other two Grand Slams once each.
He has wins over every top player and stopped Mats Wilander from winning a potential Grand Slam by defeating him in the quarter final in Wimbledon in Mats’ best ever year. Mecir was called the Swede Killer for his unbelievable 7-3 head to head record against the far superior Mats Wilander.
He also defeated Edberg once at Wimbledon, though he lost twice to him there as well.
Slovodan Zivijinovic
He won only two singles titles and eight doubles titles and his highest rank was 19 in the world.
He is the only player from Serbia to be ranked world number one in doubles and he reached the semi-finals once each at Australian Open and Wimbledon.
Slobodan married Lepa Brena, Yogoslavia’s biggest ever commercial singing star, and their wedding was a huge media sensation.
Aaron Krickstein
He was the youngest ever player to break into the top ten, doing so at 17. For someone who was hit by injuries throughout his career he was ironically nicknamed ‘Marathon Man’ for his fifth set playing ability.
In his career he played as many as 35 five setters and won 27 of them. He won ten matches after losing the first two sets. In his career he had a highest ever ranking of six but achieved only two semi final finishes at the Grand Slams, once each at US Open and Australian Open.
I end my list of five with the Scud, Mark Philippoussis
Born of a Greek father and Italian mother, Scud was an Aussie champion who had a fearsome serve.
He was a top ten player with a highest ranking of 8. He is both a Wimbledon as well as a US Open Finalist, losing to Roger Federer and Pat Rafter respectively. His biggest achievement however were in Davis Cup when he helped Australia win in 1998 and 2003 versus France and Spain, where he won the deciding singles each time.
He could have been a great tennis player but it was not to be.
Johnno
Guest
Engishmen Jeremy Bates/Andrez Gomez from Equador and Isreal's Amos Mansdorf were all good decent players. Goran Pripic I liked to.
Ritesh Misra
Roar Guru
Terrific inputs. Jaroslav Drobny and Von Cramm . Thanks Drobny was the only player of Egyptian citizenship to win Wimbledon . He also won the French Open twice
Ritesh Misra
Roar Guru
Absolutely correct. the swedish decline is very sad. Joakim Nystrom and Mikael Pernfors were two more quality players from Sweden
Johnno
Guest
I always had a rick leach/Jim pugh fetish. they were a great doubles pair, Robert Seguso was a handy singles player, and a good doubles player, same applied to Swede Anders Jarryd reached a career high 5 in singles and no 1 in doubles. Jonas Bjorkman another swede was a good singles and doubles player. Made wimbledon semis in singles one year and won the men's doubles from memory. Ah Swedish Tennis from 1970-2005 was a great era. Sad to see there massive decline, the Czechs have declined in the men's but still not as much as the swedish mens tennis players.
clipper
Guest
Always loved Mecir - have mentioned him several times here - had a great record against Willander 7-3, so using the same logic as people have here with Fed and Nadal, that makes him a better player. Pity he had a chronic back problem, was great to watch. In the lesser known and unique players, I would add Jaroslav Drobny and Gottfried von Cramm. Drobny was one of the few that wore glasses, due to a hockey injury and won a medal for hockey at the Olympics. Started as a Czech, became an Egyptian before settling as British. Think he's still alive, in his mid 90's. The Nazis loved Gottfried, but he refused to be part of their game and was later charged for homosexual offences - with a Jewish boy - lucky he got out alive - mainly thanks to many other tennis stars coming to his rescue and the blame shifting to a 'sneaky Jew' corrupting him.
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
Thanks Johnno! I should probably have sacrificed Starc from this team and taken Benn! And I am being ripped apart on Cricinfo for that omission, but I am taking it in a good Mark Waugh the selector like stoic manner. ?
Ritesh Misra
Roar Guru
Suleimann Benn will indeed balance it out Anindya and Johnno
Johnno
Guest
Good team I really enjoyed it. I think though a spinner should have been added despite the quickies all being better but to balance it out, and none other than "Sulimenn Benn" to take that spot in the 11. Pakistan had like some 7 foot fast bowler but he wasn't much good. A good tall XI you picked Anindya a real hoot lolz
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
@Johnno - indeed you do, and that's why I also appreciate interactions with you on the back of my own pieces. On this note, you might enjoy this piece I had published recently on www.cricketcountry.com (As it would happen, Cricinfo also carried the piece a few days apart, but here is the first link) http://www.cricketcountry.com/articles/head-and-shoulders-above-the-rest-the-giants-of-cricket-571712
Johnno
Guest
Ritsh and Anindya and others, I also have an appreciation for slightly quirky things or obscure things or thoughtful things in sport or hearing about underdogs or talented players who have done touching stuff. Sport is not all about the so called really "lucky ones" Fed Nadal etc or headline grabbers there's more to sport than best ever players etc. But on that notes Paes has genuine claims to be best doubles player ever since 1980-onwards.
Anindya Dutta
Roar Guru
Nice one Ritesh! Mecir was a personal favourite. I used to love seeing him play. Extremely talented player. And outside India Leander is indeed a lesser known player. But agree with Johnno, what a doubles player he is and someone with huge fighting spirit and love for his nation above everything else, which is shown in the numerous fantastic Davis Cup victories he had over the years defeating players way above his grade in singles. He was just a different man when playing for his country.
Ritesh Misra
Roar Guru
Brilliant Inputs. Paes dream of world record doubles win shattered today. Terrific memory about Rosset and thanks for the details about the unknown Peruvian Jaime Yzaga
Ritesh Misra
Roar Guru
Thanks a lot Jeff. Yes. Great memories
Ritesh Misra
Roar Guru
Yes. Thanks for the corrections . Those were Typos. Did not know about Shlomo Glickstein. Thanks
Jeff dustby
Guest
Great memories
Jeff dustby
Guest
You had to add your own list to show your own knowledge johnno Congrats
Wascally Wabbit
Guest
Sorry, a couple of corrections. Miloslav ( we used to call him Milo ), not Miroslav And Slobodan not Slovovan - who Interestingly claimed that he had secretly dated Princess Di. My favourite "unknown", probably because of his name, was Shlomo Glickstein. He reached no.22 in the rankings, reached the quarters of a Slam and claimed Ivan Lendl as his biggest victory.
Johnno
Guest
A good list you have I have a few to Ritesh Misra Laendear Paes what a warrior he is. He is 43 44 this year, he and Hingis played at OZ open and were seeded they made quarter finals of mixed but are going around again this year. Paes also pinched a singles bronze at 96 Olympics. He's a great doubles player maybe best ever in last 30-35 years. Aaron Krickstein had a heap of talent, I always used to remember him having to play in a big bulky neck brace. Both him and David Wheaton had more talent and had potential to do more but it wasn't meant to be. Jaime Yzaga from wait for it "Peru" a tennis journeyman went on a giant killing run at Sydney Indoor and won the tournament, beating world no 1 Jim Courier/Goran Ivansievic/Petre Korda to win the tournament. All 3 of those guys won a grand slam title and achieved a top 3 ranking at some point Eg courier world no 1, and Korda/and Goran both got as high as no 2, Yzaga only ever reached as high as 18 in the 1980's. So it was a great story in sport that year that this guy from Peru won a big title. Swiss player Swiss Marc Rossett of course wining gold at 92 Olympics, a big guy 6'7 who could really serve as big a serve as Philliopouous or Greg Rusedski..