Lewis Alan Hoad was an Australian tennis player whose career ran from the early 1950s through the early 1970s. Hoad won four Grand Slam tournaments as an amateur. He was a member of the Australian team that won the Davis Cup four times between 1952 and 1956. Hoad turned professional in July 1957. He won the Ampol Kooyong Tournament of Champions in 1958 and the Forest Hills Tournament of Champions in 1959. He won the Ampol Open Trophy world series of tournaments in 1959–1960, including the Qantas International Kooyong tournament. Hoad's men's singles tournament victories spanned from 1951 to 1971. During his career his main competitors were his longtime amateur tennis teammate Ken Rosewall and, throughout his professional career, Pancho Gonzales.
Kenneth Robert Rosewall is a former world top-ranking amateur and professional tennis player from Australia. He won a record 23 tennis Majors, including 8 Grand Slam singles titles and, before the Open Era, a record 15 Pro Slam titles; overall, he reached a record 35 Major finals. He won the Pro Grand Slam in 1963. Rosewall won 9 slams in doubles with a career doubles grand slam. He had a renowned backhand and enjoyed a long career at the highest levels from the early 1950s to the early 1970s. Rosewall was world No. 1 player for a number of years in the early 1960s in some rankings. Rosewall was first ranked in the top 20 in 1952 and last ranked in the top 20 in 1977. Rosewall is the only player to have simultaneously held Pro Grand Slam titles on three different surfaces (1962–1963). At the 1971 Australian Open he became the first male player during the open era to win a Grand Slam tournament without dropping a set. Rosewall won world professional championship tours in 1963, 1964, and the WCT titles in 1971 and 1972.
Roy Stanley Emerson is an Australian former tennis player who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles and 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, for a total of 28 Grand Slam tournament titles. He is the only male player to have completed a career Grand Slam in both singles and doubles, and first of two men to have completed a double career Grand Slam in singles. His 28 major titles are the all-time record for a male player. In 1964, he was ranked world No. 1.
Ricardo Alonso "Pancho" González, known sometimes as Richard Gonzales, was an American tennis player. He won 14 major singles titles and was the dominant professional of the 1950s, winning seven world professional championship tours between 1954 and 1961; he still holds the men's all-time record of being ranked world No. 1 for eight years or eight consecutive years, depending upon the rankings source.
Francisco Olegario Segura, better known as Pancho "Segoo" Segura, was a leading tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, both as an amateur and as a professional. In 1950, 1951, and 1952, as a professional, he was the world No. 1 player in the USPLTA rankings. He was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, but moved to the United States in the late 1930s and after acquiring U.S. citizenship in 1991 was a citizen of both countries. Throughout his amateur career he was listed by the USTA as a "foreign" player resident in the U.S. He is the only player to have won the Cleveland/Forest Hills US Pro and International Pro titles on three different surfaces.
Francis "Frank" Arthur Sedgman is a retired world No. 1 Australian tennis player whose career ran from 1945 until 1976. Sedgman won five Grand Slam singles tournaments as an amateur as well as 22 Grand Slam doubles tournaments. He is one of only five tennis players all-time to win a multiple slam set in two disciplines, matching Margaret Court, Roy Emerson, Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams. In 1951, he and Ken McGregor won the men's doubles Grand Slam. Sedgman turned professional in 1953, and won the Wembley World Professional Indoor singles title in 1953 and 1958. He also won the Sydney Masters tournament in 1958, and the Melbourne Professional singles title in 1959. He won the Grand Prix de Europe Professional Tour in 1959.
Before the advent of the Open era of tennis competitions in April 1968, only amateurs were allowed to compete in established tournaments, including the four Majors. There was no prize money and players were compensated for travel expenses only. However many top tennis players turned professional to play legally for prize money in the years before the open era. They played in separate professional events, mostly on tours involving head-to-head competition, but also in professional tournaments as the biggest events on the pro tour. Professional tournaments, in particular the professional Majors, usually only had a men's draw.
Peter William Thomson was an Australian professional golfer. He won the Open Championship five times between 1954 and 1965. Thomson is the only golfer to win a modern major three times in succession – The Open 1954, 1955, 1956.
Xavier Malisse is a Belgian retired professional tennis player. Born in the north-western Flemish city of Kortrijk and nicknamed X-Man, he is only one of two players from Belgium to have been ranked in the top 20 of the ATP tour, with a career-high singles ranking of World No. 19.
Andrés Gimeno Tolaguera was a Spanish tennis player. His greatest achievement came in 1972, when he won the French Open and he remains the oldest first-time Grand Slam champion of the Open era at 34 years of age.
Michaël Llodra is a French former professional tennis player. He was a successful doubles player with three Grand Slam championships and an Olympic silver medal, and has also had success in singles, winning five career titles and gaining victories over Novak Djokovic, Juan Martín del Potro, Tomáš Berdych, Robin Söderling, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Nikolay Davydenko, Janko Tipsarević and John Isner. Llodra has been called "the best volleyer on tour".
Frederick Sydney Stolle, AO is an Australian former tennis player and commentator. He was born in Hornsby, New South Wales, Australia. He is the father of former Australian Davis Cup player Sandon Stolle.
Since 1983, men's tennis has had a very strong tradition and clear hierarchy of tournaments: (1) Grand Slam tournaments, including Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open; (2) the Tennis Masters Cup; and (3) the Davis Cup. Before 1983, however, and in particular before the start of the open era in 1968, the hierarchy of professional tournaments changed virtually every year. For example, in 1934, the U.S. Pro was a high-class tournament with all the best players, but just two years later, this tournament was ordinary because only professional teachers entered the event.
Richard Crealy is an Australian former tennis player most notable for reaching the final of the Australian Open in 1970, being a member of the 1970 Australian Davis Cup Team, and winning four Grand Slam titles in doubles.
The 2008 ATP Tour was the global elite men's professional tennis circuit organised by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for the 2008 tennis season. The ATP Tour is the elite tour for professional tennis organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The ATP Tour includes the four Grand Slam tournaments, the Tennis Masters Cup, the ATP Masters Series, the International Series Gold and the International Series tournaments.
Amer Delić is a Bosnian former professional tennis player. He is a former captain and member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Davis Cup team.
Vincent Millot is a French former professional tennis player. Despite never reached the top 100, Millot have played at all the Grand Slams
The Tournament of Champions was a series major professional tennis tournament held at various locations around the world between 1957 and 1968.
Viktorija Rajicic is an Australian former tennis player. She turned professional after playing in the first round of the WTA Tour doubles event at the Sydney International on 9 January 2011. In October 2013, she achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 279.
Amanda Brown is a former professional British tennis player who reached the second round of Wimbledon and the Australian Open, as well as competing for Great Britain at the 1984 Olympics and the 1984 Federation Cup. As a junior, she twice won the junior title at the Australian Open, in 1982 and 1983. She played her first matches on the WTA tour in November 1982 and her final matches at Wimbledon in 1986. During her career, Brown successfully gained victories over players such as Sue Barker, Sara Gomer, Annabel Croft and Gigi Fernández.
Rod Laver 
Pancho Gonzales 
Pancho Gonzales 
Pancho Segura