We do seem preoccupied about establishing people on some kind of absolute hierarchy. So let's turn to something more personal and subjective, the METWOAT (the Most Enjoyable to Watch of All Time.)

From my own perspective, the most enjoyable to watch for their pure style of tennis is Federer followed not far behind by McEnroe.

I was thinking McEnroe, when I saw what METWOAT stood for (:lol:). I thought his tennis was great to watch, and I did enjoy his 'passion' for the game, but sometimes got a little annoyed by some of his more heated tantrums. Most of the time, that was part of the fun of watching him play, but there were a few times I can remember, when I felt like shaking him and saying, "Let it go and get back to the match!!" :rolleyes:

I hated his tantrums! But the way he stroked the ball about in 1984 remains one of my great tennis memories.

Borg was (and will probably remain) one of my all time favourites but the fun of watching him was witnessing his competitiveness. The tennis itself was not as aesthetically pleasing as Federer and McEnroe's.

I loved watching Guga play at RG

Guga is a good one. I was glad to see him post a good win in Brasil, but he went out in the second round, yesterday. Would be nice to see him make a successful comeback.

For me, this is most definitely Fed.

On clay, I always loved to watch Thomas Muster (grunt, grunt, stomp, stomp!), you had to love his constant walking alround, he could hardly sit down during the intervals.

For me Stefan Edberg. His crisp volleys and amazing agility around the court were a joy to behold. His 6-2 6-4 6-0 destruction of Courier in the 1991 US Open final is probably the finest display of tennis that I have witnessed.

McEnroe for me. it has got to be him. As said, the touch of the ball was simply magic and Krishnan not far behind.

Fed could have been the METWOAT but he plays in the wrong era where the violence of game stains a bit its photogenic quality it had just 20 years ago. No fault of Fed of course who probably deserves more praise than anyone out there to still make it look an easy thing.

McEnroe played in a time where he made playing a ridiculously easy and magic. You felt at once that He was the only one that could play the game while the rest were dynosaurs struggling with a racket.

I am certainly not saying that McEnroe was more talented than Fed, for me the question is still open.

Ouch! Loved that one.

Ah! My kind of topic, more interesting than who's the greatest.

I loved watching Sampras. I also loved watching Edberg, Becker and Krajicek. I loved Krajicek's sometimes grumpy demeanor! I also enjoyed watching Lendl

Now I enjoy watching Federer, I also like to watch Blake.

On the women's side, I loved watching Seles! She's my all time favourite. I also enjoyed watching Sabatini and Conchita Martinez, Mary Pierce and Jennifer Capriati. I also loved Davenport's ball striking ability.

These days Amelie Mauresmo and Svetlana Kuznetsova are my two favourites. I also like watching Venus Williams a lot. Jankovic has an interesting game and if, I mean IF Dementieva had a proper serve, she could have been a champion by now, I love her game.

Patrick Rafter was fabulous to watch. His tennis and him too...

Stefan Edberg also. Class personified. Serve and volleyer. Loved his game.

Becker was fun to watch too but he annoyed me at the same time.

Right now I love to watch Nadal play. He's very exciting 'coz you never know if he's going to win or not.

To avoid the usual names i'd say;
Kevin Curren
Henry Leconte
Andrei Medvedev
Tom Okker
Mikael Perfors

But it's Federer why i've signed in for a sports channel membership ;)

Medvedev!!! Very well pointed Greasepipe.

Leconte too to some extend but his serve action was almost ugly.

Curren? not a very nice service action in my view either but amazingly efficient.

Okker? can't remember him, when was that?

Okker; USopen finalist in 68, 100% stylist. As a doubles player he's a legend

Curren, a limited player but i can recall some amazing runs of his at Wimbledon. The semi against Lewis (1984?) still one of my all time favs (although i was only 14).

Leconte made me smile. Sometimes i feel like Tennis nowadays lacks those kind of characters..

I agree with most of the posts..! Instead of repeating what has been said, I thought that I'd add a player not mentioned as yet.

I used to love watching Miroslav Mecir. He had such a wonderful touch, and a real sense of guile about his play. I recall Wilander once saying that whenever he played Mecir he could often never tell where Mecir was going to play the ball, such was the extent that he mixed up his shots, and disguised them well. There was another quote from someone saying that they'd play Mecir, thinking that they were in a fairly standard rally (playing their stock shots) and they'd look up and suddenly there was Mecir at the net, finishing the point off!! :yikes: :lol:

His zenith was of course a gold medal in the 1988 Olympics where he played beautifully, including a key win over Edberg, if memory serves correctly.

The Cat!

Yes i remember very well the Lewis/Curren match and one of Lewis shot along the line towards the end of the match that was called in though it was out on replay and that had a dramatic effect on Curren moral.

Well - I am lying. I don't remember it very well but I remember this incident.

Even if you lie, i believe you :D

Although McEnroe and Federer were both ncie to watch, I persaonally loved Boris Becker's style. That's why I am a big fan of his.

I remember watching Wimbledon back in 1985 and seeing the blonde German diving for every ball at the net. It was classy and he never seemed to give up. That's what inspired me to watch more tennis, even though I had watched it sporadically before that, watching him play is what really got me into it. So for me, he is the METWOAT.

For anyone interested, you can see the 1984 US Open final, McEnroe versus Lendl on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_quer...4&search=Search

The Wimbledon final against Connors that year was perhaps more special but it is makes for fascinating viewing.

When you start watching it, you find yourself astonished how slow the game is. But when you acclimatise, it becomes very enjoyable: McEnroe really starts to play well in the second half.

Sampras was obviously the player I most enjoyed watching, but McEnroe and Edberg were high up there too. Someone no-one else has mentioned yet is Henman - I found his matches, especially at Wimbledon, great to watch. Not being English, I was never too bothered if he won or lost, so I was able to enjoy his Wimbledon matches for the thrilling spectacle that they were. Furthermore he had a very tidy game. Henman vs Phillipoussis round 4 in 2004 was the last match I truly enjoyed at Wimbledon.

The only player that I enjoy watching is Hingis of course. The rest don't thrill me, as they all just hit the ball really hard to the corner, although I do enjoy watching the williams sisters.

Even though Rafter was a player I always wanted to lose to Sampras, he was a player I enjoyed watching a lot when playing Agassi especially!

Im glad someone mentioned Krishnan and also Mecir.
What about Nastase ? I havent seen much of him at his best, but by all accounts he was a genius.
Edberg and McEnroe were a joy to watch though I was never a big fan of either .

And yes Henman of course.

:ok:

There's loads of players I love to watch. But obviously Serena is my METWOAT :wub:

I loved watching McEnro in early 80's and then Edberg, Mecir, agassi , sampras and now Federer. I find Gasquet has good shot making ability. There was another guy, Ramesh Krishnan. He was a great tough artiste, his serve was abysmal though. It was amazing to watch him uding drop shots, lobs and working great angles. If he had more ower and had a great serve he would have gone miles! (I know its a big IF).
On the women side obviously I like Navaratilova and chris. My favorite has been steffi. Her poise and grace after navaratilovas power was pleasing the the eyes. (well, I liked navaratilova and steffi for different reasons- one for the athleticism and other for grace and charm). I used to like venus and serena but now a days i like justine's game very pleasing to the eye.

sorry, i didnt read earlier posts about krishnan!