Tim Henman reached the Wimbledon semis 4 times in 5 years, and was also in the semis of the French and US Opens once each. What have those of you dissing his achievements ever done to come within a yard of that? He was a great player. If he's a failure, British sport needs more failures like him.

Sally Wilkins, Carlisle,

Why mix results from real tennis with women's tennis. The two are just not comparible.

That said, I was always mesmerised by Evonne Goolagong. It was like watching ballet on the tennis court.

grahamr - Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Greg: 50yrs ago, a player say ranked 5th in USA would've automatically been one of the best in the world. Today, 5th wont get you in top 20. Half of top 20 females come from east Europe (NOT many played back then). The finalists are black Americans. How many blacks played 50yrs ago? That's why .

Jan, London, UK

The points system should factor in the number of times a player played at Wimbledon, divided into their total. Maureen Connolly (45 points) never lost in 3 years at Wimbledon, before a riding accident ended her career, and should rate above Virginia Wade who amassed 46 points over 15 or 16 years.

Niall Sullivan, Chester, UK

Gaogian, you're right. Lenglen won 6, but only 3 in the period being covered (from 1922). The stupidity of this starting point is that we lose Tony Wilding, The 2 Dohertys, Lottie Dodd, Charlotte Cooper/Sterry, Blanche Bingley, Dorothea Douglass/Lambert Chambers and William Renshaw. Crazy!

Niall Sullivan, Chester, UK

I thought the Bunny Austin was the last British man to appear in the Wimbledon Singles Final!

John Burleigh, Monte Carlo, Monaco

Jan of London - what is your point? What does a players nationality have to do with his or her standing in the all time great list?

Greg, London,

Navratilova is the greatest tennis player ever. Period

Giovanni, Ragusa, Italy

I find your rating system fair: hurrah for navratilova!

Giovanni, Ragusa, Italy

The present mens No 100, would beat all of the women mentioned on this list. Womens tennis is,by definition, a second rate product. It is pointless to draw up a list comparing men and women champions,....its like comparing an Formula 1 car with a Fiat Panda.

Rod, Glasgow, U.K,

What an irrelevant, vapid farce of an exercise. The slavish allocation of points in such a way tells us virtually nothing about the relative merits of players across the decades. A poll of distinguished experts from a wide cross-section would have provided far more accurate and interesting results.

Stephen, London, UK

Many of the top modern day players should be ranked higher than those of yesteryear simply because there are far more countries now playing tennis, making it even harder to qualify. China who only recently started playing, now has a woman who's reached (at least) the semi final's.

Jan, London, UK

Although pertaining only to Wimbledon, this may be the worst attempt at a greatest-ever ranking of players I've ever seen. It's always absurd to group men and women together, and it's equally absurd not to give more weight to recent champions. Federer & Sampras are clearly 1, 2 on the men's side.

Michael, Sunnyvale, CA,

The absurdity of the rating system adopted is best shown by the words from the article (above) -

........." while Roger Federer could edge above Bjorn Borg into 11th with a sixth successive men's crown...... "

The playing standard (every sport not just Tennis) is rising year-by-year.

Horamite, Heathfield, England, U.K.

When we see replays of past years "classics" and "stars", even as recently as the 70's and 80's, we can see those heroes of yesteryear would not live with today's top players. And that applies to every sport, whether singles or team games.

To suggest that women tennis champions are better......

Horamite, Heathfield, England, U.K.

Your rankings make absolutely no sense. You choose to rank Federer 16th on this list when he has won 5 titles in a row which only 2 others have ever done. You are obviously very biased.

Dinesh, San Jose,

Ever heard of Anthony Wilding who won a total of eight Wimbledon titles (four singles, and four doubles). He also won a number of tennis championships around the world, including tournaments in Christchurch, Melbourne, Paris and Johannesburg.

Ian, Auckland, New Zealand

You wouldn't compare male footballers with female footballers so why do so with tennis players? To suggest that the five greatest Wimbledon performers ever are all women is laughable.

Paul, London, UK

Of course Tim Henman should be in there, there have only been 17 champions in the open era so the fact that he never won it shouldn't rule him out of the top 100. Based on his statistical record he probably should be higher.

Dan , Derby, UK

Tim Henman 68th, you must be joking! I'm surprised he even made the top 100.

David, Paris, France

The man Wimbledon loved to hate. McEnroe’s three Wimbledon singles titles came in 1981, 1983 and *1934*

- Quite a broad time range there.

Emmerson, Liverpool ,

Corrective factors should be applied, such as for the standard of competition at the time and whether the figures relate to a full or partial career - there are probably many more things that experts of the history of the game could cite. A panel could use this rough approximation as a starter.

Clifford Denton, Norwich, UK

Historians of the game such as John McEnroe would be embarrassed to see how low Rod Laver ranks on this list. Two grand slams in succession - with a 5 year forced hiatus when he turned pro. Just comment that Laver, Federer, Borg and Sampras were amongst the great Wimbledon players of the Open era.

Tony L, Jakarta, Indonesia

I think the 30th of the list is wrong ,just because"Suzanne Lenglen " had got 6 Champion in 1919 ,1920 ,1921,1922; 1923; 1925
.piease check it .If I am right,you list may have a change.please write to me .

gaoqian, shanxi xi an, China

I dislike the way the words "Grand Slam" are used, far too loosely in my view. I see someone is described as winning all four geographcal Grand Slams. That is surely the Grand Slam! Rod Laver was the last person to do the Grand Slam, indeed I believe he did it twice.

A. Anderson, Norwich, United Kingdom

I would put Maureen Connolly higher than 43.

True she did win Wimbledon only 3 times, but she did that by the age of 19 - a feat no other player has achieved. She entered nine single 'Slams" and came out Champion each time. Indeed, she lost only 4 times in her short career which ended at 19!

Kevin, Bangkok,

What about Anthony Wilding? He won a total of 8 finals including 4 mens singles titles in consecutive years and 4 mens doubles finals. He doesn't even appear in the list!

Mike Beasley, Redhill, United Kingdom

It's nice that a list with both men and women, has a little of both at the top spot.

Frank, chicago, usa

ken rosewall left handed?? Are you kidding?

paulo cleto, sao paulo, brasil

Lacoste was the Crocodile, not the alligator.

Drew Adams, Biloxi,

actually conchita martinez should have 28 points,

salvador, zaragoza, spain

Unfair on the guys who were forced to turn professional or Hoad would be No 1. But interesting. S. Kent

stephen atkins, maidstone, kent

It has too be -

1. Dennis Wise
2. Vinnie Jones

Harry Bassett, London, England

No Anna Kournikova - travesty!

Rozza, Newcastle, UK

Divide the number of points scored by the number of times they played at Wimbledon.
Little Mo would be unbeatable and far ahead of Navratilova

John S, London,

Of course the system is flawed. That's its beauty

Gerry, Clydebank,

The system is flawed primarily because a guy like Jimmy Connors played for the longest time and gets a lot of points in this system, while Borg retired at 25 and has a lot less years to count. There has to be maximum 10 best results or something that need to be counted here.

Veera, Los Angeles,

This means nothing! How can the likes of Tim Henman feature on this list while the likes of A.W.Gore who won 3 times + an Olympic Gold or R.F. Dohertyho won 9 times doesn't. Also how can you mix men with womans game.

Richard Thomson, London, England

Your system is flawed. How can a two-time champ like Connors be considered a "greater Wimbledon player" than 5 time champ Borg?

And how can you compare women's tennis with mens?

Kieran, Dublin,

what a big pile of non sense......borg, sampras and federer should be at the top and by far

nick, london,

Lewis Hoad below Neil Fraser ? Maureen Connolly below Hilde Sperling Virginia Wade and umpteen others and this was the player who never lost a grand slam singles match !

Haridas, Lucknow, India

Amazing!
How do you grade a player who was unable to play for five years: who won it the two years before and the two years after?
The undoubted best male player at Wimbledon of all time - Rod Laver!

Pat Ratcliffe, Swanage, United Kingdom