Catalogue of Greatest Women's and Men's Finals

[1650]

Originally inspired after watching the French Open men's final this year, and the discussion that was going on about its place in the great matches of all time, I embarked on a project to catalogue the "greatest" men's and women's singles finals of all time. Some of the considerations to what make a match great include, in my opinion, drama, match quality, lead-up/hype, rivalries, underdogs, impact on sport (record breaking/making), broad appeal, and more. A lot of these are subjective, so I came up with the following criteria for including a match in the catalogue:

• It has to be a final. I wanted these catalogues to be comprehensive, and including semis and/or quarters (of which some of the greatest ever matches are) would be too big an undertaking.
• It must go the max amount of sets. I think this is a good indicator of competitiveness, and the two players being well-matched.
• The final set must be at least 6-3. This isn't a perfect metric, but I think it decently shows that neither player ran away with it to a more anticlimactic finale.
• It has to take place at an important tournament. This means slams, international competition finals, tour finals, Masters 1000 and equivalent, pro slams, and early era "major" tournaments.
• Singles matches only. As much as I love doubles, it doesn't carry the same prestige and attention it did in the past.

Included in these catalogues are links to articles, full match videos, and highlights where available. The names of the players for each match are listed alphabetically, with the winner "(w)" hidden in white font for a slight spoiler shield. You can click on the cells to see who the winner is. At the bottom of the spreadsheets are my top 30 match picks, with brief descriptions, as well as a bonus list of my top 10 players of all time.

Greatest Women's Tennis Finals Catalogue
Greatest Men's Tennis Finals Catalogue

I hope this is a useful resource to people who want to learn more about great matches and rivalries going back to the dawn of lawn tennis! And I hope it can encourage some discussion/debate as well.

 

[Third Serve]

I feel like the third rule shouldn’t be strict—more like a suggestion. It means you’d have to exclude the Wimbledon 2007 final and the AO 2009 final, pretty bold choices.

 

[1650]

That's a fair point. I wanted the catalogues to have more of a "hard criteria" for inclusion, rather than make exceptions for certain matches. The downside is as you said - WB 2007 and AO 2009 are the biggest casualties. Likewise, certain matches meet the criteria that definitely aren't the greatest match of all time, namely the US Open 2020. One thing I realized when watching FO 2025 and, say, AO 2022, is that I value drama in a match pretty equally with quality. In the case of AO 2009, 4 extremely high quality/dramatic sets are capped by a pretty disappointing 5th, where the air of inevitability as the set wore on gave it a sense of anticlimax.

 

[Moose Malloy]

Originally inspired after watching the French Open men's final this year, and the discussion that was going on about its place in the great matches of all time, I embarked on a project to catalogue the "greatest" men's and women's singles finals of all time. Some of the considerations to what make a match great include, in my opinion, drama, match quality, lead-up/hype, rivalries, underdogs, impact on sport (record breaking/making), broad appeal, and more. A lot of these are subjective, so I came up with the following criteria for including a match in the catalogue:

• It has to be a final. I wanted these catalogues to be comprehensive, and including semis and/or quarters (of which some of the greatest ever matches are) would be too big an undertaking.
• It must go the max amount of sets. I think this is a good indicator of competitiveness, and the two players being well-matched.
• The final set must be at least 6-3. This isn't a perfect metric, but I think it decently shows that neither player ran away with it to a more anticlimactic finale.
• It has to take place at an important tournament. This means slams, international competition finals, tour finals, Masters 1000 and equivalent, pro slams, and early era "major" tournaments.
• Singles matches only. As much as I love doubles, it doesn't carry the same prestige and attention it did in the past.

Included in these catalogues are links to articles, full match videos, and highlights where available. The names of the players for each match are listed alphabetically, with the winner "(w)" hidden in white font for a slight spoiler shield. You can click on the cells to see who the winner is. At the bottom of the spreadsheets are my top 30 match picks, with brief descriptions, as well as a bonus list of my top 10 players of all time.

Greatest Women's Tennis Finals Catalogue
Greatest Men's Tennis Finals Catalogue

I hope this is a useful resource to people who want to learn more about great matches and rivalries going back to the dawn of lawn tennis! And I hope it can encourage some discussion/debate as well.

you might like in this thread https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/top-100-matches-1970-2019.761458/


Also, you say your list only involves "important" tournaments, but you have the 1980 NSW Open in your 30 best women's matches of all time?

 

[helterskelter]

I feel like the third rule shouldn’t be strict—more like a suggestion. It means you’d have to exclude the Wimbledon 2007 final and the AO 2009 final, pretty bold choices.

And the 2009 US Open final. I was actually wondering today about whether Federer's fitness let him down in the fifth sets of the 2009 AO and USO final and, if so, whether it was because of lingering aftereffects of mono, even 18 months later.

 

[1650]

you might like in this thread https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/top-100-matches-1970-2019.761458/


Also, you say your list only involves "important" tournaments, but you have the 1980 NSW Open in your 30 best women's matches of all time?

That is a great thread - I like seeing how different people's lists differ based on their own criteria. I also love that the 1996 tour finals got the #1 spot, since that's a personal favorite of mine.

The top 30 list on either catalogue is where I insert my subjective opinion the most; just based on what I read about all the matches, this one stuck out to me as a particularly competitive/exciting final. One of the more difficult parts of the project was determining what was considered a "masters 1000" equivalent, especially between 1969-1980. I erred on the side of inclusion, and from what I could tell, the NSW Open was a higher tier Colgate Series tournament based on the prize money and size of draw. I could be completely wrong, though.

 

[1650]

And the 2009 US Open final. I was actually wondering today about whether Federer's fitness let him down in the fifth sets of the 2009 AO and USO final and, if so, whether it was because of lingering aftereffects of mono, even 18 months later.

It's possible, but I also feel like a big part of how the 2009 US Open finished was Federer's refusal to adapt his tactics and del Potro hitting his stride in the final set.

 

[Grizzy]

This is cool and I have been curious about watching what some consider the highest quality matches of all time. I would love to see some sort of comparison with statistical data like winners vs. errors, clutch points, match length, etc.

My first thought when seeing your list was it missed a few of the nice alcaraz vs. sinner/djoker finals of the past two years as well.

 

[abmk]

And the 2009 US Open final. I was actually wondering today about whether Federer's fitness let him down in the fifth sets of the 2009 AO and USO final and, if so, whether it was because of lingering aftereffects of mono, even 18 months later.

nah, fed won USO 08 4R vs andreev, AO 2009 4R vs berdych, RG 2009 4R vs haas, RG 2009 semi vs delpo, Wim 09 final vs roddick in 5 sets.

 

[1650]

This is cool and I have been curious about watching what some consider the highest quality matches of all time. I would love to see some sort of comparison with statistical data like winners vs. errors, clutch points, match length, etc.

My first thought when seeing your list was it missed a few of the nice alcaraz vs. sinner/djoker finals of the past two years as well.

Waspsting's match reports would be the way to go for many of the open era finals on this list, if you're looking for detailed stats. I actually linked it one or two times when there was no other detailed article available for a match. Match length could be something I add, though I think the record keeping gets pretty inconsistent before the open era.

And yeah, there are some 3-set master's finals that definitely amazing matches. I just limited it to 5 setters so I could be more comprehensive within a set criteria.