Because McEnroe was the GOAT indoor tournaments

[KG1965]

Results titles Indoor
1. Jimmy Connors 53
2. John McEnroe 52
3. Ivan Lendl 42
..............................................
4. Boris Becker 30
..............................................
5. Björn Borg 23
6. Pete Sampras 23
7. Roger Federer 21
8. Stefan Edberg 18
9. Brian Gottfried 15
10. Goran Ivanisevic 15

The tennis of the 70s and 80s favored indoor tournaments .
But now only the ATP Finals , Shanghai and Paris are important indoor tournaments in that time 10 of the top 20 were indoors .

The great champions did not attend the Australian Open and trying to win London-Wembley , Philadelphia , Memphis , Stockholm , Dallas.

Connors and Lendl were phenomena of indoor courts but Mac maybe it was more .

In its short season I remember it as the strongest in the Open Era indoor courts .

 

[KG1965]

More than 30 are good / excellent
5 Wembley
1 Memphis
1 Challenge Cup
4 US Pro Indoor ( Philadelphia )
4 Stockholm
5 Dallas WCT
3 Masters NY
5 San Francisco
4 Milan
2 Richmond WCT
1 Tokyo

 

[pc1]

I would go with Pancho Gonzalez or Jack Kramer.

 

[timnz]

Results titles Indoor
1. Jimmy Connors 53
2. John McEnroe 52
3. Ivan Lendl 42
..............................................
4. Boris Becker 30
..............................................
5. Björn Borg 23
6. Pete Sampras 23
7. Roger Federer 21
8. Stefan Edberg 18
9. Brian Gottfried 15
10. Goran Ivanisevic 15

The tennis of the 70s and 80s favored indoor tournaments .
But now only the ATP Finals , Shanghai and Paris are important indoor tournaments in that time 10 of the top 20 were indoors .

The great champions did not attend the Australian Open and trying to win London-Wembley , Philadelphia , Memphis , Stockholm , Dallas.

Connors and Lendl were phenomena of indoor courts but Mac maybe it was more .

In its short season I remember it as the strongest in the Open Era indoor courts .

“The great champions did not attend the Australian Open and trying to win London-Wembley , Philadelphia , Memphis , Stockholm , Dallas.”

connors - Australian open - won 1974, runner-up 1975

mcenroe - Australian open semis 1983, quarters 1985, quarters 1989

lendl - Australian open runner-up 1983, 4th round 1984, semis 1985, semis 1987, semis 1988, won 1989

 

[Winners or Errors]

“The great champions did not attend the Australian Open and trying to win London-Wembley , Philadelphia , Memphis , Stockholm , Dallas.”

connors - Australian open - won 1974, runner-up 1975

mcenroe - Australian open semis 1983, quarters 1985, quarters 1989

lendl - Australian open runner-up 1983, 4th round 1984, semis 1985, semis 1987, semis 1988, won 1989

Their attendance was sporadic, though.

 

[buscemi]

“The great champions did not attend the Australian Open and trying to win London-Wembley , Philadelphia , Memphis , Stockholm , Dallas.”

connors - Australian open - won 1974, runner-up 1975

mcenroe - Australian open semis 1983, quarters 1985, quarters 1989

lendl - Australian open runner-up 1983, 4th round 1984, semis 1985, semis 1987, semis 1988, won 1989

Connors and McEnroe don't really help your argument.

From 1977-1988 (12 years), McEnroe only played the Australian Open twice.

From 1972-1992 (21 years), Connors only played the Australian Open twice.

Even Lendl only played the Australian Open once from 1979-1982 (4 years).

This all squares with the general history of the Australian Open, which is that it was very sparsely attended through 1982. From 1983-1987, attendance picked up a bit, but still lagged behind the other Majors and even other big events. Then, with the switch in location and surface, attendance from 1988-the mid-1990s steadily increased until it was largely on par with attendance at the other Majors.

 

[timnz]

I thought the time frame was the 70s and 80s.

you are right though, I was a much lesser status event 1970, 1972-1982. The gradually got better players 1983-1987. 1988 onwards it was largely on par

 

[Gizo]

Connors entered the Sydney indoor event 3 times during his career, and the Australian Open twice.

Mac entered both events 5 times during his career, and the Sydney indoor event 4 times and Australian Open twice before his sabbatical.

The fact that during certain seasons, Connors, Mac, Borg and also to a lesser extent Lendl pre-1983 were willing to travel to Australia at different times of the year to play in other tournaments (including invitationals in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth), but not the Australian Open itself, was very telling.

 

[WCT]

I've always thought the timing was a big part of it. As soon as they moved the Australian Open away from New Years and Christmas they started getting noticeably better fields.

Now, they were also now closer to conflicting with other special events and the Davis Cup finals instead of having little competition when they played over the holidays, The proof was in the pudding, though, More top players started entering,

 

[jrepac]

I've always thought the timing was a big part of it. As soon as they moved the Australian Open away from New Years and Christmas they started getting noticeably better fields.

Now, they were also now closer to conflicting with other special events and the Davis Cup finals instead of having little competition when they played over the holidays, The proof was in the pudding, though, More top players started entering,

The timing in December was pretty miserable.

 

[fezer]

I've always thought the timing was a big part of it. As soon as they moved the Australian Open away from New Years and Christmas they started getting noticeably better fields.

Now, they were also now closer to conflicting with other special events and the Davis Cup finals instead of having little competition when they played over the holidays, The proof was in the pudding, though, More top players started entering,

It was the time when the very important Masters was held in early january.

 

[WCT]

It was the time when the very important Masters was held in early january.

More like mid January and that was only after they moved it to Madison Square Garden in January of 1978.

 

[Olli Jokinen]

Their attendance was sporadic, though.

Not Lendl's.

 

[timnz]

It was the time when the very important Masters was held in early january.

The Masters and the Australian Open swapped places in 1986/1987

There was no Australian Open in 1986, it was in Jan 1987 instead - and has continued in January ever since. The Masters was twice played in 1986 - beginning and end of the year. And has been played at the end of year ever since (Nov/Dec)

 

[Gizo]

I posted this elsewhere, but according to the ITF website, the total prize money for the men at the Australian Open during a selected period from the 80s into the 90s.

1982 – $450,000
1983 – $500,000
1984 – $645,000
1985 – $645,225
1987 – $670,161
1988 – $699,984
1989 – $933,342
1990 – $1,462,000
1991 – $2,023,760
1992 – $2,166,285
1993 – $2,409,105

The very large increases in 1990 and then 1991 really stand out. It looks like all 4 majors had pretty significant prize money increases between 1989 and 1990, further illustrating just how much the landscape of the sport changed between the 80s and 90s.

It goes without saying that 'historical prestige' alone wasn't enough for majors to continue to remain 'grand', and that them significantly ramping up their prize money, especially relative to other tournaments, was also crucially important.

Clearly certain top players were receiving financial guarantees to show up at the the Australian Open during the 80s. Mac said that was the case for him, and on the women's side it was well known that Goolagong received a guarantee in 1980 and then again in 1981 and 1982 (Wendy Turnbull wasn't happy). Also the organisers pleaded with Connors to show up there (clearly with the offer of a financial guarantee) in 1984 after Mac withdrew, though he said no.

Wilander said that the chance to win the Grand Prix and resulting 600k prize, alongside the fact that Sweden had a (far more important) Davis Cup final vs. Australia at the same Kooyong venue a few weeks later, were the main reasons why he showed up there in 1983. And he enjoyed his long stint in Australia so much, having a lot of fun away from the court, that he wanted to return in future years. In 1983, Lendl talked about his goal being to win the grand prix and 600k, not to win his first major.