Rec and Sports

Five’80s Tennis Legends Who I Loved

The’80s were a great decade for tennis. A long decade that saw the face of the sport change.

I’d like to take a trip down memory lane by writing about my favorite five’80s tennis players. These all come down to my personal preferences and they’re not based on merit. Nonetheless, I’ll be curious to see how these compare with yours.

The early’80s were dominated by Bjorn Borg before his early retirement. At the top of his game, he was undoubtedly the best in the world and one of the best to ever play the sport.

Stefan Edberg. One of the last true serve and volley players who captured the world’s number one rank. I can’t think of a player who covered the net as well as Edberg has, and he was one of the last of a breed of true serve and volley tennis players that essentially no longer exists.

How about Boris Becker? When he took the tennis world by storm after winning Wimbledon at the young age of 16, tennis fans knew that a legend was born. Becker followed through with some great tennis for another decade, and cemented himself as one of the sport’s all-time greats.

While he wasn’t exactly a fan favorite, I absolutely love what Ivan Lendl did for the sport. He sat atop the rankings for longer than anyone before him in modern tennis had, and he won more tournaments than one could possibly dream of winning today.

1. John McEnroe. What can you say about Mac? His charisma, his hustle, and everything else that he did on the court is legendary. To see him as a commentator through his retirement is simply a delight. I was shocked to see how well he plays when I saw him play at a senior tour event.

It was hard to narrow this list down to just five, as there are many others I could have mentioned. How do these players compare to yours?

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