AnOctorokForDinner
Talk Tennis Guru
I was wandering aimlessly through tennis stats, and this caught my fancy:
9 of Djokovic's 76 matches in 2011 (about 12%) ended in a retirement and 3 matches were cancelled due to a walkover, and only 2 ret. + 1 w/o = 3 out of 9 ret. + 3 w/o = 12 such forfeits were on Djokovic's part; his opponents retired 7 times (out of 70 Djokovic wins = 10%) and gave a walkover 2 times that year.
Here is the list:
AO 3R: Djokovic def. Troicki 6-2 ret.
Dubai SF: Djokovic def. Berdych 6-7(5) 6-2 4-2 ret.
Belgrade SF: Djokovic def. Tipsarevic w/o
RG 2R: Djokovic def. Hanescu 6-4 6-1 2-3 ret.
RG QF: Djokovic def. Fognini w/o
Canada SF: Djokovic def. Tsonga 6-4 3-0 ret.
Cincinnati SF: Djokovic def. Berdych 7-5 ret.
Cincinnati F: Murray def. Djokovic 6-4 3-0 ret.
USO 1R: Djokovic def. Niland 6-0 5-1 ret.
USO QF: Djokovic def. Tipsarevic 7-6(2) 6-7(3) 6-0 3-0 ret.
DC SF: Del Potro def. Djokovic 7-6(5) 3-0 ret.
Paris QF: Jo Wilfried Tsonga def. Djokovic w/o
What a weird stat, probably close to a season record or something. It is like the high point of the retirements per season stat, because there's a fun fact in there too:
In 2005-2011, Djokovic retired once or twice every year for 10 retirements in 7 years; in 2005-2012, Djokovic's opponents also retired at least once every year for 19 retirements in 8 years (ATP level), with 2008 (4) and 2011 (7) making more than half (11 of 19) of all retirements.
Even more, 2008 featured Djokovic winning two consecutive retirements (6-1 1-0 ret. vs Almagro + 6-0 1-0 ret. vs Stepanek in Rome QF & SF), whereas 2011 featured two opposite retirements in consecutive matches in Cincinnati and three (!) consecutive ret. matches featuring Djokovic (Cincy SF, F, USO 1R).
Since 2012, Djokovic had not retired for four years and only had to retire again this year, as we remember, in Dubai against Lopez due to eye infection.
Since 2013, none of Djokovic's opponents retired against him, and the streak continues.
(Funny that the last win by ret. was against Wawrinka at '12 USO, who transformed completely the next year, and so did the retirement stat.)
This is a really drastic change. Makes ones think whether it's just random chance, or players (at least top players) were more prone to injuries back then. I'm thinking of most stars of Federer's generation falling to injuries (Hewitt, Safin, Nalbandian, Davydenko...). Has anyone ever tried to graph the number of (serious) injuries (top) players sustain year by year? It seems like something potentially interesting, do you think?
The fact that Djokovic's 2011 had so many retirements must be random chance, though. Still it's a very unlikely chance, a curio worth pointing out, I suppose.
9 of Djokovic's 76 matches in 2011 (about 12%) ended in a retirement and 3 matches were cancelled due to a walkover, and only 2 ret. + 1 w/o = 3 out of 9 ret. + 3 w/o = 12 such forfeits were on Djokovic's part; his opponents retired 7 times (out of 70 Djokovic wins = 10%) and gave a walkover 2 times that year.
Here is the list:
AO 3R: Djokovic def. Troicki 6-2 ret.
Dubai SF: Djokovic def. Berdych 6-7(5) 6-2 4-2 ret.
Belgrade SF: Djokovic def. Tipsarevic w/o
RG 2R: Djokovic def. Hanescu 6-4 6-1 2-3 ret.
RG QF: Djokovic def. Fognini w/o
Canada SF: Djokovic def. Tsonga 6-4 3-0 ret.
Cincinnati SF: Djokovic def. Berdych 7-5 ret.
Cincinnati F: Murray def. Djokovic 6-4 3-0 ret.
USO 1R: Djokovic def. Niland 6-0 5-1 ret.
USO QF: Djokovic def. Tipsarevic 7-6(2) 6-7(3) 6-0 3-0 ret.
DC SF: Del Potro def. Djokovic 7-6(5) 3-0 ret.
Paris QF: Jo Wilfried Tsonga def. Djokovic w/o
What a weird stat, probably close to a season record or something. It is like the high point of the retirements per season stat, because there's a fun fact in there too:
In 2005-2011, Djokovic retired once or twice every year for 10 retirements in 7 years; in 2005-2012, Djokovic's opponents also retired at least once every year for 19 retirements in 8 years (ATP level), with 2008 (4) and 2011 (7) making more than half (11 of 19) of all retirements.
Even more, 2008 featured Djokovic winning two consecutive retirements (6-1 1-0 ret. vs Almagro + 6-0 1-0 ret. vs Stepanek in Rome QF & SF), whereas 2011 featured two opposite retirements in consecutive matches in Cincinnati and three (!) consecutive ret. matches featuring Djokovic (Cincy SF, F, USO 1R).
Since 2012, Djokovic had not retired for four years and only had to retire again this year, as we remember, in Dubai against Lopez due to eye infection.
Since 2013, none of Djokovic's opponents retired against him, and the streak continues.
(Funny that the last win by ret. was against Wawrinka at '12 USO, who transformed completely the next year, and so did the retirement stat.)
This is a really drastic change. Makes ones think whether it's just random chance, or players (at least top players) were more prone to injuries back then. I'm thinking of most stars of Federer's generation falling to injuries (Hewitt, Safin, Nalbandian, Davydenko...). Has anyone ever tried to graph the number of (serious) injuries (top) players sustain year by year? It seems like something potentially interesting, do you think?
The fact that Djokovic's 2011 had so many retirements must be random chance, though. Still it's a very unlikely chance, a curio worth pointing out, I suppose.