The 10 best men's tennis players of the decade

As the decade winds down, Busted Racquet will celebrate the past 10 years of tennis with various top 10 lists. Today, we at look at the 10 best male players of the 2000s:  

10. Juan Carlos Ferrero -- Grand Slams: 1, Weeks at No. 1: 8

Injuries prevented Ferrero from a lengthy career, but not before he became the 21st man to ever ascend to No. 1 in the rankings in September of 2003.

9. Novak Djokovic -- Grand Slams: 1, Weeks at No. 1: None

In one year, Djokovic went from No. 23 to No. 3 in the rankings. He's stayed there for 92 of the past 112 weeks.

8. Pete Sampras -- Grand Slams: 2, Weeks at No. 1: 10

Where, oh where, to put Sampras? By the time the time the world had calmed down from Y2k panic, the peak of the best player of last decade was over. But Sampras still won two Slams in the decade, culminating in his 2002 U.S. Open swansong.

7. Gustavo Kuerten -- Grand Slams: 2, Weeks at No. 1: 43

The first-ever Brazilian to win a Grand Slam and reach No. 1, Kuerten won three French Open titles, two of which came during the decade. If our "decade" was from, say, 1995 to 2005, Kuerten would be a bit higher on the list.

6. Marat Safin -- Grand Slams: 2, Weeks at No. 1: 9

At his best, I'd take Safin over the next man on the list. The only problem is, Safin was at his height so inconsistently that it's tough to rank him any higher. The Russian was ranked in the year-end top 10 just three times (2000, 2002 and 2004), but does have those two Grand Slams to his credit.

5. Andy Roddick -- Grand Slams: 1, Weeks at No. 1: 13

Surprised Roddick is so high? Me too. But the American has one thing going for him that almost every other member of this list doesn't: longevity. This was the eighth straight year Roddick finished in the year-end top 10. He may only have one Grand Slam (the 2003 U.S. Open), but he's been consistent enough to be a threat in every non-Paris major since then. Plus, it's not his fault he happened to be born around the same time as the greatest player ever.

4. Andre Agassi -- Grand Slams: 3, Weeks at No. 1: 51

Though his career straddles both the '90s and '00s, Agassi played some of his best tennis in the current decade. It was sort of surprising that he "only" won three Slams in the aughts (Aussie 2000, 2001, 2003), but he reached the finals of the U.S. Open twice as well.

3. Lleyton Hewitt -- Grand Slams: 2, Weeks at No. 1: 80

Not to take anything away from Hewitt, but his success was largely predicated on his timing. Had he been born a few years earlier, he'd have been Patrick Rafter. Had he been born a few years later, he'd be Novak Djokovic. Neither of those things is an insult (the pair have three Grand Slams between them, after all), but there's little chance Hewitt would ever have seen No. 1 if he was playing against Federer and Nadal at his peak.

2. Rafael Nadal -- Grand Slams: 6, Weeks at No. 1: 46

If he's not the greatest clay court player of all-time, he's right behind Bjorn Borg. At the start of the year Nadal looked like he was on his way to supplanting Roger Federer and ending the decade at No. 1. But injuries ruined his year and now the tennis world is left to wonder: Are Rafa's best days behind him?

1. Roger Federer -- Grand Slams: 15, Weeks at No. 1: 259

There are hundreds of ways to describe Federer's greatness, but consider this: In the decade, he won 15 of 40 Grand Slams (37.5 percent). And since his first (Wimbledon, 2003) he took home the title in 58 percent. Thank goodness Nadal came around, or else men's tennis would have had as much suspense as a Harlem Globetrotters game.