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Hall of Fame
How much are slams worth compared to the Year-End Championships? Before Federer fans say YEC are worth a whole lot and Nadal fans say they are worthless, let’s look at it in several ways.
We know what the ATP and WTA think they are worth: 1,500 points for a YEC compared to 2,000 points for a major. So a slam is worth 1.333 more times than a YEC.
By reputation, many say a slam is worth significantly more than a YEC. Would you rather win 1 slam than 2 YECs? 3 YECs? 4 YECs? Until recently, YECs usually paid more than slam wins. Now they are roughly equivalent for the ATP and less for the WTA. So for the sake of argument, let’s say, the pay is equivalent. Then the question becomes, for example, would you rather win 1 slam with a $2.5 million award or 3 YECs with $7.5 million in awards? Is reputation worth losing out on $5 million? This one is the most subjective.
Another way to measure them is difficulty level. How hard it is to win a slam and how hard it is to win a YEC should factor into their value. I took a list of 15 ATG or near-ATG (Agassi, Becker, Borg, Connors, Courier, Djokovic, Edberg, Federer, Lendl, McEnroe, Murray, Nadal, Sampras, Vilas, Wilander) and looked at how they performed. These players are a combined 149 slam titles out of 802 attempts/slams-played for a 18.6% success rate. They are a combined 34 wins for 149 attempts in YECs for a 22.8% success rate. That would imply the difficulty to win a slam is only a little harder with a slam being worth 1.23 times more than a YEC.
What other methodologies do you think should be used for such a calculation? Which methodology do you prefer or do you combine them?
We know what the ATP and WTA think they are worth: 1,500 points for a YEC compared to 2,000 points for a major. So a slam is worth 1.333 more times than a YEC.
By reputation, many say a slam is worth significantly more than a YEC. Would you rather win 1 slam than 2 YECs? 3 YECs? 4 YECs? Until recently, YECs usually paid more than slam wins. Now they are roughly equivalent for the ATP and less for the WTA. So for the sake of argument, let’s say, the pay is equivalent. Then the question becomes, for example, would you rather win 1 slam with a $2.5 million award or 3 YECs with $7.5 million in awards? Is reputation worth losing out on $5 million? This one is the most subjective.
Another way to measure them is difficulty level. How hard it is to win a slam and how hard it is to win a YEC should factor into their value. I took a list of 15 ATG or near-ATG (Agassi, Becker, Borg, Connors, Courier, Djokovic, Edberg, Federer, Lendl, McEnroe, Murray, Nadal, Sampras, Vilas, Wilander) and looked at how they performed. These players are a combined 149 slam titles out of 802 attempts/slams-played for a 18.6% success rate. They are a combined 34 wins for 149 attempts in YECs for a 22.8% success rate. That would imply the difficulty to win a slam is only a little harder with a slam being worth 1.23 times more than a YEC.
What other methodologies do you think should be used for such a calculation? Which methodology do you prefer or do you combine them?
