Of Love and Sports: 10 Tennis Rivalries

Love may not be visible, but its interpretations are stamped everywhere quite tangibly – it is seen in the fans’ support for their favourite sport, for their favorite sportsmen and even for the best rivalries in the sport. Of these, it’s perhaps the last that would stand out the most. For as well-loved as a sport or the sportsmen could be, it is the rivalries that bring out the best from within the former two. And as engrossed as fans can be within a sport and their idols, it is the challenge of these rivalries that keeps us wanting, desiring and expectantly relishing for more.

Rivalries come in many forms. There are some that mark the sportsstars for life and make them the best of friends away from the playing field. But more than these, there are those rivalries that bring out some infamously memorable recollections and cast the players under a greyish shade of light.

Below are 10 such highly well-known and well-revered tennis rivalries. Some are past, some are ongoing, and then there are those few which just seem to be shaping up to their reputation:

1. Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert

From the mid-1970s to nearly the start of the late-1980s, tennisdom saw the unfolding and continuation of the Navratilova and Evert rivalry. Their head-to-head remains a testimony to one of the closely-fought battles in women’s tennis, with Navratilova slightly edging Evert 43 matches to the latter’s 37. Both matched each other skill for skill and ruthlessness for ruthlessness and in the years since, though women’s tennis has seen its share of professional rivalries emerge, the precedent set by Navratilova and Evert still remains almost unmatched.

2. Ken Rosewall and Rod Laver

A rivalry mostly set in the pre-Open era, both these Australians continued their bid for domination well into the early years of the Open Era. In entirety, they squared off against each other 141-times with Rod Laver besting Rosewall, 75 matches to 66. Who knows, had they been in action today than in the past, the rivalry might have continued and flourished quite a bit more.

3. Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe

In many ways, both were similar. Yet in many ways, each differed. And when they met each other on the other side of the net, sparks indeed flew. For 14 years, these two brash lefties entertained the tennis world, with their US Open encounters in 1980 and 1984 featuring in the sport’s all-time epics match-ups.

4. John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg

Every tennis fan, whether or not from Borg and McEnroe’s period, knows and understands these two names. Clay and grass may have different set of players contesting for dominance today, but from the mid-1970s to the start of the 80s, there were just two names – Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe. The only blemish in their rivalry? Borg was nowhere as superior as the American on the harder courts, thus effectively contributing to the initial superiority race between Connors and McEnroe.

5. Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe

Although best remembered for Lendl’s heroics in the 1984 French Open, this Czechoslovakian-American rivalry spanned a dozen years between 1980 and 1992. They met 10 times in Grand Slams and three times in Grand Slam finals and Lendl always held the upper hand with seven matches to McEnroe’s three.

6. Steffi Graf and Monica Seles

When as an up and coming teenager Monica Seles shocked the established German Graf in the early 1990s, women’s tennis went into disarray. For the next three years, theirs was the rivalry much spoken and discussed about. It would have indeed continued further, but a sudden act of brutality by a manic fan cost Seles her career and the world, a more-than-deserving sportswoman.

7. Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker

The meeting between the Swede and the German is best remembered for their three back-to-back Wimbledon finals. While Edberg won two of these three finals, Becker claimed an overall edge of their rivalry, winning 25-matches out of their total of 35 encounters.

8. Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras

Two Americans, one hot-headed and given to impulsiveness while the other with a more sedate and calm persona. From the start of the 90s till the start of the next decade, Agassi and Sampras intoxicated the tennis world, which was already seeing some of its best. Though their rivalry was majorly one-sided towards Sampras, it nonetheless ranks amongst the world’s best known sporting rivalries of all-times for the sheer display of tennis that their matches brought out before the world.

9. Venus Williams and Serena Williams

When Venus and Serena play against each other, no point’s ever given away easily. Their rivalry has seen so many tilts and curves, first in Venus’ favour in the initial heydays and then mostly going Serena’s way, in the latter years. At present though, there’s not been much opportunity for them to face-off against each other, a potential encounter may be soon on the cards. If only the ‘draw-Gods’ would be merciful enough to grant the wish.

10. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal

It started in 2005 and continues even now. The Spaniard who never lets up and the Swiss who’s still as committed and devoted to the sport as he was 15 years ago, when he entered it. Many believe that the rivalry has entered its twilight phase with Rafa’s fitness issues and the rise of other guys in the major events. But no matter what the detractors say, the rivalry still continues to prevail, with Rafa’s domination over Roger as real as ever before.

Exciting matches between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray in men’s tennis and those between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka in women’s tennis have come to construct a new-gen wave of tennis rivalries, which open up new chapters in the sport’s legacy.