It’s hard to create a nickname for a pro tennis player because only a few dozen have stuck over the years. Let’s review some of the best tennis nicknames, some that stuck, some that didn’t…
The Prince of Darkness – Marcelo Rios (from a fan)
The Russian Terminator – Marat Safin (from Cliff Drysdale)
Dr Ivo – Ivo Karlovic
Simon Says – Gilles Simon
Raging Bull – Rafa Nadal
The Rock – Jim Courier
Pistol Pete – Pete Sampras
The Barcelona Bumble Bee – Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario
The Rocket – Rod Laver
The Mosquito – Juan Carlos Ferrero
BB Socrates – Boris Becker (from Agassi and Brad Gilbert)
Hollywood – Jan Michael Gambill
Chris America and The Ice Maiden – Chris Evert
Gonzalito – Fernando Gonzalez
Gorgo – Pancho Gonzalez
Segoo – Pancho Segura
Guga – Gustavo Kuerten
Forehand Fraulein – Steffi Graf
Super Brat – John McEnroe
Nasty – Ilie Nastase
The A- Train, The Punisher – Andre Agassi
Muscles – Ken Rosewall
Moo Man – Thomas Muster
The Joker, Nole – Novak Djokovic
Super G and G Force – Grigor Dimitrov
Rusty – Lleyton Hewitt
Stanimal – Stan Wawrinka
Tomic The Tank Engine – Bernie Tomic
Tiger Tim – Tim Henman
The Sao Paolo Swallow – Maria Bueno
The Scud – Mark Philippoussis
The Magician – Fabrice Santoro
X Man – Xavier Malisse
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catherine · June 26, 2018 at 2:26 am
Most nicknames are creations of the media.
Players don’t use them.
Scoop Malinowski · June 26, 2018 at 8:14 am
Catherine, Players called Courier the Rock, Johnson is Stevie, etc,
catherine · June 26, 2018 at 8:37 am
Maybe men more than women. Women tend not to go in for that sort of thing so much. At least not between themselves. I doubt anyone ever called Bueno ‘The Sao Paulo Swallow’ except the press.
However BJK was known as The Old Lady, Rosie Casal’s name for her and that one stuck.