What is an obsecure tennis fact/statistic that you think is impressive?

M

McEnroeisanartist

Hall of Fame
What is an obsecure tennis fact/statistic that you think is impressive?

Some that come to mind:

Ivan Lendl either won or lost to the eventual champion at the U.S. Open for 11 consecutive years.
Andy Murray has reached more Grand Slam semifinals than John McEnroe and Stefan Edberg
Boris Becker reached at least one Grand Slam quarterfinal in a year for 14 consecutive years.
Stefan Edberg is one of only three players to win 60 or more matches in a season for 10 consecutive seasons.
No man has won at least 3 titles at 3 different majors, except Federer who has won at least 4 titles at 3 different majors.
 
T

timnz

Legend
McEnroeisanartist said:
What is an obsecure tennis fact/statistic that you think is impressive?

Some that come to mind:

Ivan Lendl either won or lost to the eventual champion at the U.S. Open for 11 consecutive years.
Andy Murray has reached more Grand Slam semifinals than John McEnroe and Stefan Edberg
Boris Becker reached at least one Grand Slam quarterfinal in a year for 14 consecutive years.
Stefan Edberg is one of only three players to win 60 or more matches in a season for 10 consecutive seasons.
No man has won at least 3 titles at 3 different majors, except Federer who has won at least 4 titles at 3 different majors.
Click to expand...
The Lendl one is very impressive. It speaks of his incredible consistency
 
Phoenix1983

Phoenix1983

G.O.A.T.
McEnroeisanartist said:
What is an obsecure tennis fact/statistic that you think is impressive?

Boris Becker reached at least one Grand Slam quarterfinal in a year for 14 consecutive years.
Click to expand...

That is impressive.

John Newcombe did even better, reaching at least one GS QF for 16 consecutive years (1962-1977). This might be a record in the men's game.
 
M

McEnroeisanartist

Hall of Fame
Phoenix1983 said:
That is impressive.

John Newcombe did even better, reaching at least one GS QF for 16 consecutive years (1962-1977). This might be a record in the men's game.
Click to expand...

Oh wow. Yes, very impressive. Of course, Federer has reached a GS SF for 14 consecutive years (very impressive, when you consider that Connors is next in open era at 12 years) Connors reached a GS QF for 14 consecutive years.
 
Jaitock1991

Jaitock1991

Hall of Fame
Deanjam said:
In the 17 seasons between 1988 and 2004 no player made the semi of all 4 majors in the same season. In the 12 seasons since it's happened 11 times.

Federer - 5
Nadal - 1
Djokovic - 4
Murray - 1
Click to expand...

That is CRAZY. Tells you everything you need to know about homogenization and how much easier it is to dominate today than 20 years ago..
 
M

McEnroeisanartist

Hall of Fame
Martin J said:
Federer reaching each Major final at least five times is, imo, the most impressive achievement in Open era and probably in tennis history.
Click to expand...

Yes, I love that achievement, before 2015, that looked untouchable, but since Novak has reached two French Open finals and a Wimbledon final. One more final at each and he will match Federer's achievement.
 
A

ABCD

Hall of Fame
The most impressive thing for me is Djokovic winning 12 majors so far. This is impressive when taking into account that he spent 7 critical years of his life under OUN sanctions and was also subjected to 78 days of bombing. Imagine playing tennis under such circumstances and getting to 12 majors.
 
D

Deleted member 512391

Guest
McEnroeisanartist said:
Yes, I love that achievement, before 2015, that looked untouchable, but since Novak has reached two French Open finals and a Wimbledon final. One more final at each and he will match Federer's achievement.
Click to expand...
Yes, Novak seems to be very close to match it. However, knowing how he struggles these days, including that Wimbledon loss and overall his vulnerability against big servers/hitters on faster surfaces, which will be more obvious in the future - since his decline has already started - it won't be easy for him to equal that record. Which just shows how impressive it is.
 
M

McEnroeisanartist

Hall of Fame
Agassi's first year end ranking in the top 3 and last year end ranking in the top 3 were 14 years apart. If Federer finishes next year in the top 3, he will match that achievement.
 
F

FudgeControl

Banned
  1. As Duke of York, Prince Albert (later King George VI) was a keen tennis player and entered Wimbledon with his RAF tennis doubles partner, Wing Commander Louis Grieg. Being Wimbledon's Jubilee year, this was a high profile event and both King George V and Queen Mary were present on the opening day to witness their son's defeat at the hands of two veteran English players with a combined age of 110 years.
  2. Virginia Wade's American opponent, Dr. Reneé Richards, had previously played as Richard Raskind, before undergoing gender reassignment surgery two years earlier. In 1960 he was beaten in the final of the US Nationals at Forest Hills, New York by Australian Neale Fraser; and 17 years later the 42 year-old opthalmologist suffered defeat again at the same venue. Quite a distinction nonetheless to have played in the US Championships and competed in both the men's and women's singles events!
  3. Scotland's King James I enjoyed a game of the precursor of modern lawn tennis, known as royal, or real, tennis. He used to play at Blackfriars Monastery in Perth, where the balls would always seem to make their way into a small open sewage drain at the corner of the court. This so incensed the king, that he had the drain blocked up. Bad move! A few days later, on the night of 20th February 1437, a band of men broke into his apartments intent on asassinating the king. James sought refuge under the floorboards, intending to escape through the drainage system and out via the tennis court. Unfortunately, unable to exit through the now sealed drain, he was caught and murdered.
 
AnOctorokForDinner

AnOctorokForDinner

Talk Tennis Guru
Wawrinka is 3-19 lifetime against #1 ranked players, but 3-0 against them in major finals. Coupled with his current 11-0 streak in finals, he truly is the one and only Finalrinka. By the way, he became the first man to win a major after saving MP before the QF since Kuerten did so in RG '01.

In the second week of Wimbledon, Federer went 29-3 in TBs between 2003 and 2012. Narrowing it down to SF and F, the stat is 16-1. They don't call him TBGOATerer for no reason.

Sampras once lost 9 tiebreaks in a row, going 0-3 in GSCup '94 and 0-5 in AO '95 - a strange appearance of Chokepras, is it?

In best-of-5 matches between Fedal, Nadal convered 74/172 ~= 43% BPs, Federer converted 51/161 ~= 32% BPs. That means that while Nadal achieved 1.07x more BPs than Federer, he broke serve 1.45x more often. Huge difference!

Meanwhile it's been over two years since Nadal last won a set in a major QF (RG '14). When will the spell be broken?

Speaking of losing sets, Lendl didn't win a set in three grass major finals he played, losing all three in straights despite being up a break in (I think) the 2nd set against Wilander and the 3rd set against Cash. Sad stuff...

Back to Servepras, who, as we know, went unbroken in 5 of the 7 Wimbledon finals he played and won. However, this here is one opposite stat:
In 1996, Sampras lost three consecutive majors in straight sets without breaking serve. (The AO loss was to 19 y.o. Philippoussis, who Federer detractors consider weaksauce, ha!)

Back to Lendl, who is 7-0 in 1st and 2nd sets against Chang, but only leads 5-2 in H2H, because, while Lendl wins were all two-setters, both of Chang's wins were comebacks from 0-2 down. Hilarious.

Edberg and Lendl met in four consecutive HC majors in 1991-92 (3-1 Edberg), with 3 of those matches going to five sets.
While I'm at it, the 1990 AO Lendl def. Edberg final was the only Open major final that was won by retirement.

Alright, that's enough thinking for now, lol.
 
nadalfan2013

nadalfan2013

Professional
Seles never failed to defend a Grand slam title or the year end Championships unless she couldn't play.

Australian Open: Won 1991, 1992, 1993, did not play in 1994
Australian Open: Won 1996, did not play in 1997
French Open: Won 1990, 1991, 1992, did not play in 1993
US Open: Won 1991, 1992, did not play in 1993
Year End Chmps: Won 1990, 1991, 1992, did not play in 1993
 
AnOctorokForDinner

AnOctorokForDinner

Talk Tennis Guru
nadalfan2013 said:
Seles never failed to defend a Grand slam title or the year end Championships unless she couldn't play.

Australian Open: Won 1991, 1992, 1993, did not play in 1994
Australian Open: Won 1996, did not play in 1997
French Open: Won 1990, 1991, 1992, did not play in 1993
US Open: Won 1991, 1992, did not play in 1993
Year End Chmps: Won 1990, 1991, 1992, did not play in 1993
Click to expand...

Hmm. Are you a fan of both Nadal and Seles? I guess those incessant shrieks sound sexy to you, or what? :D
 
I

Indio

Semi-Pro
Best performance in a season by a Top 10 player versus fellow Top 10s: Federer, 2004, 18-0

Worst performances by a Top 10 player versus fellow Top 10s: Tsonga, 2012, 1-15....Connors, 1987, 0-10

Least impressive performance by a year-end #1 versus Top 10s: Roddick, 2003, 6-5

Fewest match wins at majors by a year-end #1: Kuerten, 2000, won 9 matches at majors, winning the French, reaching the 3rd round at Wimbledon, and failing completely at the others.

American men in year-end Top 100:
1975...27
1985...33
1995...13
2005...8
2015...7, only one of whom was ranked in the Top 20
 
D

dr7

Rookie
Agassi served as bookends for Sampras 14 Grand Slams. Sampras beat him for his first Slam and last Slam. ( also some in between )
 
I

Indio

Semi-Pro
Correction of one of my statements from my earlier post in which I claimed Roddick in 2003 had the least impressive record of any year-end #1 against Top 10s. He doesn't hold that distinction--Edberg does. In 1991 he finished with a 5-8 record.
 
MasturB

MasturB

Legend
McEnroeisanartist said:
Yes, I love that achievement, before 2015, that looked untouchable, but since Novak has reached two French Open finals and a Wimbledon final. One more final at each and he will match Federer's achievement.
Click to expand...

So all Rog needs is one more final in Australia and FO to make it out of touch for Novak?
 
M

Moose Malloy

G.O.A.T.
sampras and rosewall are the only players to win majors in their teens, 20s, 30s.

Goran is the only player in the open era to win 4 straight five setters in the same tournament(92 Olympics)

Agassi is the only player in history to play a five set final in a major without losing serve(99 USO)

There have been 4 major finals in the open era where the winners didn't face a break point: 78 USO, 84 W, 95 W, 03 W.

@AnOctorokForDinner
Lendl was up a break in the first and 3rd sets of the 86 W final.
 
NonP

NonP

Legend
This may well be the first thread I've seen started by the OP that turned out to be quite useful, probably because it doesn't seem to stem from his usual pro-Fed agenda. Lots of interesting stats here. Well done.

Moose Malloy said:
Agassi is the only player in history to play a five set final in a major without losing serve(99 USO)
Click to expand...

I frankly find that rather hard to believe. Got a source for this?

P.S. Just noticed you said 5-set, not best-of-5, but a source would be still appreciated. :oops::D
 
M

Moose Malloy

G.O.A.T.
Well just look at all the scores of grand slam finals since the tiebreak came into use(prior to the tiebreak it was impossible to have a 5 or 4 set match with no service breaks)
The only scenario where this is possible in a 5 setter, is if the winner loses 2 sets in tiebreaks. 99 USO is the only major final where this happened(as you know Sampras only played one 5 set major final in his career - and was broken by Goran)
Nice bit of trivia for Andre.
 
AnOctorokForDinner

AnOctorokForDinner

Talk Tennis Guru
Moose Malloy said:
The only scenario where this is possible in a 5 setter, is if the winner loses 2 sets in tiebreaks. 99 USO is the only major final where this happened(as you know Sampras only played one 5 set major final in his career - and was broken by Goran)
Click to expand...
Wimbledon 2008 final is another one - how could you forget? :p - but Federer was a break up in the 2nd set before getting broken twice, so not the case here. Funnily enough, it could've been the case in the next (2009) Wimbledon had Roddick won that fifth set - he didn't get broken until the last game of the match.
 
AnOctorokForDinner

AnOctorokForDinner

Talk Tennis Guru
Phoenix1983 said:
Not saying he definitely did do it, but Borg at the 1978 FO might have done so - he didn't drop a set throughout the tournament and usually won sets by scores of 6-0, 6-1 or 6-2.
Click to expand...
I think Moose Malloy, who has the data, said the winner was always broken at least once in all RG finals..?
 
Phoenix1983

Phoenix1983

G.O.A.T.
Juan Antonio Marin of Costa Rica has the worst record in grand slams of all time, a dismal 0-17. (Two current players came close-ish to matching this: Paolo Lorenzi started off 0-13, and Marinko Matosevic started off 0-12, before finally winning a match)

Interestingly, the closest he ever came to winning a slam match was against Pete Sampras, losing 4-6 in the fifth at the FO in 1999.
 
M

McEnroeisanartist

Hall of Fame
Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are the only players to win 10 or more matches and not lose any at the quarterfinal or later of one Grand Slam. Federer is 12-0 in Australian Open quarterfinals and Djokovic is 10-0 in US Open quarterfinals. (Note: Nadal was 9-0 in French Open quarterfinals, before losing to Djokovic in 2015, he remains 9-0 in French Open semifinals and finals. Federer was 10-0 in Wimbledon semifinals before losing to Raonic this year)
 
M

McEnroeisanartist

Hall of Fame
Neale Fraser is the only man in history to win a Grand Slam after being match point down, and also be the opponent that had match point on that Grand Slam's eventual champion. In 1960, Fraser fought off 5 match points to Butch Buchholz in the Wimbledon quarterfinals before going onto win the tournament. That year, Fraser had match point on Rod Laver in the Australian Open final, before Laver came back to win the tournament.
 
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abmk

abmk

Bionic Poster
Phoenix1983 said:
Not saying he definitely did do it, but Borg at the 1978 FO might have done so - he didn't drop a set throughout the tournament and usually won sets by scores of 6-0, 6-1 or 6-2.
Click to expand...

borg was broken several times that tournament ..including atleast one time in the final vs Vilas IIRC.
 
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