Incorrect ATP stats (a survey)

[krosero]

Many posters here have mentioned that the ATP site has a lot of mistakes when it comes to things like titles won, or scorelines. I'm starting this thread as a resource for ATP errors on match statistics.

I'll start with a list of published boxscores that all differ with the ATP stats.

Last week I ran a search in Lexis-Nexis for boxscores from 1991-2000. I just searched for the term "Total Points Won."

I found 7 boxscores. Six had serious discrepancies with the ATP stats on service/return percentages and Total Points Won/Played.

I sent an email to the ATP with a list. I can't say that the boxscores are definitely correct, but I do know that the boxscore I had found for the 1992 W final had accurate figures while the ATP did not.

I also know that the ATP stats for the 1995 AO final are wrong because they clash with my own counts and ESPN's.

On the other hand, while the ATP only agrees with 1 of 7 boxscores I found in that particular search, from time to time I have seen other boxscores that agree with the ATP.

Sometimes I've also seen, not entire boxscores, but individual stats that agreed with the ATP (for example, just the first-serve percentages). Occasionally these stats come from television coverage.

Also, when we've done our own counts, I can't recall a time when our numbers differed from the ATP stats by a lot. In fact we've done a few matches where our own counts for the total number of points agree with the ATP. We've also come up with slight discrepancies, but with the boxscores we're talking about large differences on things like total points played in the match.

Later I’ll make some posts on ATP stats that are look okay.

For now let me just list all the boxscores I know about that clash with the ATP stats on service/return percentages and Total Points Won/Played.

A list of the matches:


Agassi-Ivanisevic, 1992 Wimbledon final
Bruguera-Courier, 1993 French Open final
Courier-Edberg, 1993 Wimbledon semifinal
Sampras-Agassi, 1995 U.S. Open final
Krajicek-Washington, 1996 Wimbledon final
Sampras-Moya, 1997 Australian Open final
Korda-Sampras, 1997 U.S. Open
Korda-Rios, 1998 Australian Open final
Rafter-Philippoussis, 1998 U.S. Open final


And here are the actual boxscores. I've been able just to cut and paste them in here; the boxes are gone but the numbers look readable.


Agassi-Ivanisevic, 1992 Wimbledon final.
From USA Today, the St. Petersburg Times (Florida), the Gazette (Montreal), and the St. Louis Dispatch:
The men's singles championship box score (Agassi wins 6-7 (8-10), 6-4, 6- 4, 1-6, 6-4):
Agassi-Ivanisevic
Aces 9-37
Double faults 1-7
1st serve percentage 58-58
Pct. 1st serve points won 77-82
Pct. 2nd serve points won 64-50
Service games held 22-22
Break points against 5-16
Service games broken 2-3
Placement winners 49-39
Pct. backcourt points won 57-34
Points won at net 22-41
Total points won 163-159
Time of match 2:50


Bruguera-Courier, 1993 French Open final.
From the St. Petersburg Times:
How Bruguera won
Here is the box score of Sergi Bruguera's 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Jim Courier in the men's final at the French Open:
Bruguera Courier
Aces 7 5
Double faults 2 1
First service % 56 56
Break points won 26 14
Unforced errors 66 83
Forced errors 33 16
Total points won 153 146


Courier-Edberg, 1993 Wimbledon semifinal.
From the Miami Herald and the San Jose Mercury News.
Source: -- ASSOCIATED PRESS
Statistics from Jim Courier's 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Stefan Edberg:
Category Courier Edberg
Aces 5 4
Double Faults 5 8
1st Serve Percentage 59 66
Pct. 1st Serve Points Won 77 69
Pct. 2nd Serve Points Won 50 31
Service Games Held 15 12
Break Points Against 6 14
Service Games Broken 4 7
Pct. Backcourt Points Won 42 34
Points Won at Net 19 51
Total Points Won 131 113
Time of match: 2 hours, 40 minutes.
Published on July 3, 1993, Page 3D, San Jose Mercury News (CA)


Sampras-Agassi, 1995 U.S. Open final.
The following boxscore appeared in (at least) the St. Petersburg Times and the Salt Lake Tribune:
Sampras-Agassi Statistics
Date: September 11, 1995
NEW YORK -- Statistics from No. 2 Pete Sampras’ 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 victory over No. 1 Andre Agassi for the men’s singles championship of the U.S. Open Sunday:
Sampras Agassi
Total Points Won 124 112
Aces 24 8
Double Faults 6 5
1st Serve Percentage 54 56
Pct. 1st Serve Points Won 86 70
Pct. 2nd Serve Points Won 54 63
Break Point Conversions 4-8 2-6
Winners (including service) 60 33
Unforced Errors 40 33
Net approaches 43-59 13-20
Time of match 2:28


Krajicek-Washington, 1996 Wimbledon final, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
From the St. Petersburg Times and the Globe and Mail:
By the numbers
Kra. Was.
1st serve pct. 58 65
Aces 14 5
Double faults 3 2
1st srv. pts. won+ 88 61
2nd srv. pts. won+ 60 45
Brk. pts. converted 5-11 1-2
Net points won 25-36 21-44
Baseline pts. won 32-60 18-52
Total points won 93 66
Time of match 1:34
+-percentages


Sampras-Moya, 1997 Australian Open final, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.
From The Age (Melbourne):
Pete Sampras (USA) 6 6 6
Carlos Moya (Spain) 2 3 3
THE MATCH
Sampras Moya
1st serve % 72% 63%
Aces 12 2
Double faults 2 3
% won on 1st serve 82% 58%
% won on 2nd serve 53% 41%
Winners 38 13
Unforced errors 22 18
Break-point conversions 100% 50%
Net approaches 80% 20%
Total points won 89 59
Match time: 1hr 27mins (sets 23, 28, 36)


Korda-Sampras, 1997 U.S. Open, 6-7 (4), 7-5, 7-6 (7), 3-6, 7-6 (3).
From the New York Daily News:
MATCH BOX SCORE
Korda Sampras
First serve 66% 58%
Aces 15 24
Double faults 6 5
First serve points won 78% 75%
Second serve points won 60% 50%
Winners 67% 58%
Unforced errors 45 66
Break points 3-12 4-8
Net approaches 16-23 74-124
Total points won 189 170


Korda-Rios, 1998 Australian Open final, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.
From The Age (Melbourne):
THE MATCH
Korda Rios
1st serve % 52 58
Aces 4 2
Double faults 4 4
% won on 1st serve 78% 59%
% won on 2nd serve 57% 30%
Winners 32 7
Unforced errors 26 31
Break point conversions 58% 17%
Points won at net 53% 47%
Total points won 90 58


Rafter-Philippoussis, 1998 U.S. Open final, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-0.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
US OPEN FINAL STATS
Rafter Philippoussis
Age 25 21
Seeding 3 unseeded
First serve % 72 56
Aces 6 5
Double faults 1 13
Winners 39 34
Unforced errors 5 29
Break pt conversions 6 of 20 1 of 3
Net approaches won 62 of 82 55 of 93
Total points won 118 85
Time of match: Two hours, 4 minutes


In every one of these cases, the ATP's aces, doubles, break points and number of service games look okay, or at least they resemble the boxscore figures. The remaining ATP stats are sometimes off by so much that they don't appear to belong to the match in question.


Some other discrepancies I've seen:

- For Agassi-Sampras, 1995 Australian Open, my own counts contradict the ATP stats on points won/played on service and overall.

- For Sampras-Hrbaty, 1997 Australian Open, 4th round (6-7 (7-4) 6-3 6-4 3-6 6-4), The Australian reported that Sampras led Hrbaty in total points by 157-154 (the ATP has 189-184); that Hrbaty led in aces by 20-17 (the ATP has 21-17); and that Hrbaty converted 3 of 10 break points (in agreement with the ATP).

Maybe if we get enough people e-mailing the ATP we'll get a response.