ATG's and their Top 5 years

Livedeath

Professional
Before I venture in depth of the way ATG played in their top years first I would like to give a brief description of whom I consider ATG's. The definition could vary from person to person but here is mine

"A player who has been at the helm of the rankings, won against top players in the most prestigious tournaments, is the proud winner of the best tournaments tennis circuit has to offer, and was among the best players in a season for a good number of years."

We quite often talk or discuss about ATGs and their games and compare their respective stats with each other, even if they are from different generations, but we know that they don't have always played great in their career, like for example an ATG could have started slow which is true in most cases if not all, or during the middle of their career their form plunged to a level where they were not in the contention of the best players in a season, or in their twilight years their performance dipped considerably owing to lack of interest in sport or mother nature making her presence felt ;), hence their overall achievements, stats and various aspects with whom we acknowledge them gets affected, hence I was intrigued of how about if we consider their best years in which they were able to produce great tennis and were still in the best players list for the whole season.

I was in a dilemma to whether I should consider their best years as grand slam winning years or years in which they were top 5. There are numerous instances in which players who won the GS but were not the best players for the whole year, for instance take the case of Agassi in 1992 where he won the Wimbledon but was ranked 9th, and Sampras he won US Open but was ranked 13th, or the case of Becker in 1996, he did won the AO but was inconsistent for the whole year and played much less tennis, hence I settled for the years in which they were able to secure year end top 5 for a season.

I have created a list of players who fall in this category, namely (in no particular order)

Pete Sampras

Years in top 5: 10

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GS, Masters and other top titles performance, and results against vs No 1, top 4, top 5, top 8, top 10 and top 20 during this period

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Andre Agassi

Years in top 5: 8

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GS, Masters and other top titles performance, and results against vs No 1, top 4, top 5, top 8, top 10 and top 20 during this period

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Bjorn Borg

Years in top 5: 8

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Livedeath

Professional
GS, Masters and other top titles performance, and results against vs No 1, top 4, top 5, top 8, top 10 and top 20 during this period

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John McEnroe

Years in top 5: 9

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GS, Masters and other top titles performance, and results against vs No 1, top 4, top 5, top 8, top 10 and top 20 during this period

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Novak Djokovic

Years in top 5: 9

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GS, Masters and other top titles performance, and results against vs No 1, top 4, top 5, top 8, top 10 and top 20 during this period

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Rafael Nadal

Years in top 5: 11

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GS, Masters and other top titles performance, and results against vs No 1, top 4, top 5, top 8, top 10 and top 20 during this period

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Livedeath

Professional
Roger Federer

Years in top 5: 12

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GS, Masters and other top titles performance, and results against vs No 1, top 4, top 5, top 8, top 10 and top 20 during this period

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Boris Becker

Years in top 5: 9

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GS, Masters and other top titles performance, and results against vs No 1, top 4, top 5, top 8, top 10 and top 20 during this period

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Stefan Edberg

Years in top 5: 9

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GS, Masters and other top titles performance, and results against vs No 1, top 4, top 5, top 8, top 10 and top 20 during this period

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Livedeath

Professional
Ivan Lendl

Years in top 5: 10

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GS, Masters and other top titles performance, and results against vs No 1, top 4, top 5, top 8, top 10 and top 20 during this period

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Jimmy Connors

Years in top 5: 14

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GS, Masters and other top titles performance, and results against vs No 1, top 4, top 5, top 8, top 10 and top 20 during this period

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Mats Wilander

Years in top 5: 6

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GS, Masters and other top titles performance, and results against vs No 1, top 4, top 5, top 8, top 10 and top 20 during this period

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Livedeath

Professional
Honourable mentions


Andy Murray: 2 GS, 11 Masters, 1 Olympic Gold, 7 years as Top 5, highest rank achieved: 2

Lleyton Hewitt: 2 GS, 2 WTF, 2 Masters, 4 years as Top 5, 80 Weeks as No 1

Jim Courier: 4 GS, 5 Masters, 3 years as Top 5, 58 weeks as No 1

Guillermo Vilas: 4 GS, 1 WTF, 7 years as Top 5, highest rank achieved: 2

Michael Chang: 1 GS, 7 Masters, 4 years as Top 5, highest rank achieved: 2

Ilie Năstase: 2 GS, 4 WTF, 2 years as Top 5, 40 week as No 1

Gustavo Kuerten: 3 GS, 1 WTF, 5 Masters, 3 years as Top 5, 43 week as No 1

Thomas Muster: 1 GS, 8 Masters, 2 years as Top 5, 6 weeks as No 1

Yevgeny Kafelnikov: 2 GS, 1 Olympic Gold, 5 years as Top 5, 6 weeks as No 1

Marat Safin: 2 GS, 5 Masters, 3 years as Top 5, 9 weeks as No 1

Patrick Rafter: 2 GS, 2 Masters, 2 years as Top 5, 1 week as No 1

Andy Roddick: 1 GS, 5 Masters, 3 years as Top 5, 13 weeks as No 1

Juan Carlos Ferrero: 1 GS, 4 Masters, 3 years as Top 5, 8 weeks as No 1


Since the above list only entails Open Era players, I wanted to include Laver and Newcombe also, but due to paucity of information I am unable to do so.
 
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Livedeath

Professional
Let’s compare the ATG’s in different categories, namely, overall performance, performance in Grand Slams, Masters, their results on different surfaces, and how they fared against the top opposition in their top 5 years.

Since some players did not play enough matches to be properly compared with other players, hence I opted for a cut off list to make the tables more meaningful. Cutoff list is applicable in tables as displayed in this thread, viewers will find it more in 'vs No 1', Top 4, Top 5, Top 8, Top 10 and Top 20 lists. Since the list have been made by me hence I had the sole discretion to choose any cutoff data which deemed fit to me but I will be glad if anyone points out some errors in it I will change it. :)

Overall stats

It is rather pleasing to see that out of top 10, 3 are currently playing. :)

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Following data depicts the player’s results on different playing surfaces.

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Livedeath

Professional
Following data depicts the player’s results in GS and is further segregated on the basis of player’s results on different playing surfaces

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Players who were more adept in serve and volley with decent to good baseline game have better results on grass than pure baseline players, and it is vice versa on clay. Hard court on the other hand awarded players of either skills, hence both S&V and baseline players have had good success.
 
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D

Deleted member 688153

Guest
This thread will backfire if Djokovic has 2 more dominant years like 2015.
C-c-c-combo breaker! :lol: :)

I was wondering if someone was going to comment before OP finished posting the data.

Also you're implying that this thread is supposed to put down Novak.
Not everyone is out to get him you know.

--

Nice thread OP. I'm digesting pizza at the moment though and have no room left for spreadsheets.
Maybe later.
 

Fiero425

Legend
Honourable mentions


Andy Murray: 2 GS, 11 Masters, 1 Olympic Gold, 7 years as Top 5, highest rank achieved: 2

Lleyton Hewitt: 2 GS, 2 WTF, 2 Masters, 4 years as Top 5, 80 Weeks as No 1

Jim Courier: 4 GS, 5 Masters, 3 years as Top 5, 58 weeks as No 1

Guillermo Vilas: 4 GS, 1 WTF, 7 years as Top 5, highest rank achieved: 2

Michael Chang: 1 GS, 7 Masters, 4 years as Top 5, highest rank achieved: 2

Ilie Năstase: 2 GS, 4 WTF, 2 years as Top 5, 40 week as No 1

Gustavo Kuerten: 3 GS, 1 WTF, 5 Masters, 3 years as Top 5, 43 week as No 1

Thomas Muster: 1 GS, 7 Masters, 2 years as Top 5, 6 weeks as No 1

Yevgeny Kafelnikov: 2 GS, 1 Olympic Gold, 5 years as Top 5, 6 weeks as No 1

Marat Safin: 2 GS, 5 Masters, 3 years as Top 5, 9 weeks as No 1

Patrick Rafter: 2 GS, 2 Masters, 2 years as Top 5, 1 week as No 1

Andy Roddick: 1 GS, 5 Masters, 3 years as Top 5, 13 weeks as No 1

Juan Carlos Ferrero: 1 GS, 4 Masters, 3 years as Top 5, 8 weeks as No 1


Since the above list only entails Open Era players, I wanted to include Laver and Newcombe also, but due to paucity of information I am unable to do so.

Poor Vilas; like Murray today, if not for the 2 or 3 players ahead of them, they might have ruled their eras; at least for a couple years like Hewitt or Edberg! Vilas won 2 majors in '77 and took over 130 matches, but still didn't get a sniff of #1; Borg and Connors ran the tour! ;-)
 
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drm025

Hall of Fame
First off, awesome work, love stats, and your effort is appreciated.

But, basically for fed, nadal, and djokovic it accounts for every season since they've entered their prime except for 2013 for federer because he finished 6? Seems a little convenient to compare the 3 while only throwing out feds worst season.

Why does only top 5 count?

If you're going to pick a cutoff in tennis, it would make sense to choose top 4 or top 8, given the tournament structure. Top 5 and top 10 are only ever talked about because they're round numbers.
 

NatF

Bionic Poster
First off, awesome work, love stats, and your effort is appreciated.

But, basically for fed, nadal, and djokovic it accounts for every season since they've entered their prime except for 2013 for federer because he finished 6? Seems a little convenient to compare the 3 while only throwing out feds worst season.

Why does only top 5 count?

If you're going to pick a cutoff in tennis, it would make sense to choose top 4 or top 8, given the tournament structure. Top 5 and top 10 are only ever talked about because they're round numbers.

I imagine tennisabstract was used to gather this information which groups by top 5, 10 and 20.
 

Livedeath

Professional
Comprehensive! Lots of info here. Hope you got paid for this!
I will quote one of my favourite character Holmes "Work is its own reward" ;)

That took some time.
Yeah, i am glad it is over...phew

I imagine tennisabstract was used to gather this information which groups by top 5, 10 and 20.
That's true, would be hard to collect this data without a website like that.
Yes along with tennisabstract, wiki and ATP website were used, but neither of them has complete info and there were some redundant info and incorrect in the first 2, and i duly updated the correct info in wiki. First one helped me a lot to expedite the process else it would had taken a lot of time, but the the year 1982 was the most troublesome, no mention of rankings :eek:, had to make separate lists and then cross check their ranks right from the qualifier to number 1 in different years in ATP, but as i said earlier i am glad it is over. :)
 
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Livedeath

Professional
First off, awesome work, love stats, and your effort is appreciated.
Most kind of you. :)

But, basically for fed, nadal, and djokovic it accounts for every season since they've entered their prime except for 2013 for federer because he finished 6? Seems a little convenient to compare the 3 while only throwing out feds worst season.

Why does only top 5 count?

If you're going to pick a cutoff in tennis, it would make sense to choose top 4 or top 8, given the tournament structure. Top 5 and top 10 are only ever talked about because they're round numbers.

That was my dilemma, Roger had a poor season in 2013 and he finished 6th, Djokovic had a poor season in 2010 and he finished 3rd and Nadal had not a great season and he finished 5th, if i had to relax the limit that then the same should be followed for every great, i know it is going to erk many but i had to draw a line somewhere, and on a lighter note sometimes even greats cant make it to the merit list in a year. ;)

Regarding the top 4 and top 8, i will include it, but it will take some time. :)
 
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xFedal

Legend
Technically Nole's been #1 for the last 5 years; 2011, '12, '14, 15, and even 2013 when the ITF went with him over Nadal with his 2 majors! ;-)
Yes I was just saying that 2016 for Nole will be better than his super strong 2012, 2013,14.
 

Fiero425

Legend
Yes I was just saying that 2016 for Nole will be better than his super strong 2012, 2013,14.

I just like saying it! Fedal is all that commentators talk about! The news magazines can't get enough of them either! One of these days Nole will get his due outside these threads! Ridiculous to have this kind of consistency, but all the press wants to talk about is Fedal; even when away from the tour! At least Nole's been a regular participant with few injuries listed under his name! ;-)
 

Livedeath

Professional
But what about their "best 5 years"?

Good thread.
It will be interesting, but i reckon all the players having 3 slams a year under their belt will dwarf other ATG's stats. ;)

I can work on that too, will have to wait for some time though and i might start another thread in continuation with this.
 

Mustard

Bionic Poster
Thomas Muster: 1 GS, 7 Masters, 2 years as Top 5, 6 weeks as No 1.

8 Masters for Thomas Muster. The eighth Super 9 event of 1995 was in Essen, Germany, which Muster won. He won Miami in 1997, 3 Monte Carlos in 1992, 1995 and 1996 and 3 Italian Opens in 1990, 1995 and 1996.
 

Livedeath

Professional
8 Masters for Thomas Muster. The eighth Super 9 event of 1995 was in Essen, Germany, which Muster won. He won Miami in 1997, 3 Monte Carlos in 1992, 1995 and 1996 and 3 Italian Opens in 1990, 1995 and 1996.
Thanks for the correction.
 

Livedeath

Professional
I have updated the stats for all players(right from 1st post) against top 4, top 8 and no 1 player in their top 5 years. I have kept the top 5 and top 10 lists as it is.

@drm025 check it out :)

Below data depicts the performance of the players against number 1 player and data is further segregated into different playing surfaces also.

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Livedeath

Professional
Below data depicts the performance of the players against top 4 players and data is further segregated into different playing surfaces also.

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Livedeath

Professional
Below data depicts the performance of the players against top 8 players and data is further segregated into different playing surfaces also.

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