New Delhi: A giant by his own right, Mats Wilander is a delightful person to talk tennis to. He is articulate, he is knowledgeable and he brings a lot of passion into the discussion.

The winner of eight Grand Slam singles titles (including three in a year), the former world No. 1 feels the key to reaching the top is focus on playing your best rather than aim to be the best player in the world.

“I won four majors before I realised its significance, then they just kept coming,” Wilander said on Sunday.

Having played with and seen some of the greatest names of all time, none is more qualified than Wilander to choose the top-five of the last three decades. The Swedish captain agreed to The Telegraph’s request on one condition. “It’s a very difficult task, I’ll only pick the best, won’t rate them,” he said.

His top four selections were Andre Agassi, Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer and Pete Sampras (not in order of greatness). “Three men share the fifth spot according to me, they are John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl,” Wilander said.

This is how he justified his selection:

ON AGASSI: “He has some limitations, like he can’t serve and volley, yet he has won all four Slams. He has a very high energy level, quite like Borg. He is on fifth gear from the very first point. There is some abnormality in his eyes, otherwise he wouldn’t have had such a phenomenal return. He sees the ball like none else and just guides it wherever he wants to. He’s just played a Grand Slam final at 35, that tells me he wasted the first five years of his career, otherwise he couldn’t have lasted this long. No one has done more to tennis than Agassi and Borg.”

ON BORG: “He was one of the most physically gifted athletes I saw. The only comparison I can think of is with Michael Jordan. Borg was much superior to any other tennis player in movement on court, he revolutionised the sport by putting the ball back to the other side of the court while on the move. He didn’t serve and volley, but still won so many Wimbledon titles. He had the same approach and attitude playing the first point and the last.”

ON FEDERER: “He’s perhaps the most complete player I have seen. Talentwise he’s so much ahead of the rest of the field, it would have been very difficult to keep motivating himself tournament after tournament. But he’s come to terms with his own brilliance, he can play the guy across the net rather than himself. His highest level of play hasn’t gone up, his lowest level has improved. Some of his matches will be very close, but he’ll win at the end of the day. I’ll back him to win the French Open. In fact, he should focus hard on that because unless he wins a couple of times at Roland Garros, it may not be possible for him to beat Sampras’ record of 14 Slams.”

ON PETE SAMPRAS: “With a serve like that, it was next to impossible to beat him unless Pete had a really bad day in office. More often than not, sport is played in the mind. As far as the mental aspect goes, he was a giant. He knew exactly when to press the button. He would be happy to reach a 4-4 situation and then out come 2 winners and the service break. He knew he won’t drop serve after that. Yes, he didn’t win much on clay but it would be unfair to relegate him from the greats’ list just because he doesn’t have the French Open trophy in his cabinet.”

ON JOHN McENROE: “He had the maximum potential among everyone I’m talking about, but couldn’t fulfil it. I’m sure he must have kicked himself quite a few times for not developing into the greatest of all time. He believed in improving playing matches, that’s why he played a lot of doubles along with singles, But he ignored practice. Had he worked on his game and fitness like normal top pros, sky was the limit.”

ON IVAN LENDL: “He was the first tennis player to work out of his skin. He trained like a man obsessed. It caught on with others who thought if Lendl can be No. 1 with the kind of talent he has, why can’t we do it? He revolutionised tennis by taking training methods to another level.”

ON JIMMY CONNORS: “Not the most talented tennis player, he was a street-fighter who could give his life on court. He didn’t believe in losing and gave his opponent not a quarter of an inch. He turned many matches around just by his never-say-die spirit.”