Who is the greatest of all time?

Having spent the first half of my life living in Wimbledon, I have been privileged to follow some historic matches - especially the Borg/McEnroe/Connors golden age.  I never thought we'd see anyone emulate Borg's 5 consecutive Wimbledon titles, but today we saw the "Fed Express" dig deep to achieve the unachievable.  Does this make him the greatest player of all time - to win 5 Wimbledon titles on the bounce in this era of physical and technical perfection? 

My vote goes to Bjorn Borg - for two reasons:

1) Borg also won the French open 6 times (and 3 times concurrently with Wimbledon).  To dominate clay court and grass for such a long period is the true test of class and having the complete game.  Federer hasn't won in France.  Neither did Sampras, McEnroe or Connors.

2) Borg had to contend against other great players....McEnroe, Connors, Vilas, Nastase to name a few.  Federer's only real competitor is Nadal.

Feel free to cast your vote (see the sidebar to the left)....

Comments

[Phil Fersht]

I'll publish the final results of the poll shortly, but the winners were:

1) Borg
2) Sampras
3) Federer

We'll offer a special "Services to Tennis from the Outsourcing Industry" medal to Vijay :)

[Sunil Modi]

Phil,

Where is Vijay Amritraj?

Sunil

[Chris Barney]

As an alternative measure, perhaps we should consider the old "lead in pencil" test. Whilst many of the older contenders have had multiple wives, I reckon McEnroe is in front with his 6 kids. Too early to tell for Federer but someone like Nastase might be a runaway, if unofficial, winner..!