No. 1 in the world for the first time or First to win slams on all surfaces

N

NYTennisfan

Hall of Fame
It got me to thinking watching the video of the former greats congratulating Sinner and all the adoration he's gotten from so many about him reaching #1 for the first time. Don't get me wrong it's a great accomplishment and especially being the first Italian man to achieve the feat but I don't see why Alcaraz being the youngest ever to win slams on all surfaces isn't getting as much or even more praise.

In any event, my question to you fellow TTW crazies is....what do you think is the bigger accomplishment? Personally I've always valued slams heavily over #1 especially an accomplishment like this that has literally never been done so what do you guys say?
 
I was surprised that he’s the first Italian, somehow thought some other Italian player had done it before
 
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NYTennisfan said:
It got me to thinking watching the video of the former greats congratulating Sinner and all the adoration he's gotten from so many about him reaching #1 for the first time. Don't get me wrong it's a great accomplishment and especially being the first Italian man to achieve the feat but I don't see why Alcaraz being the youngest ever to win slams on all surfaces isn't getting as much or even more praise.

In any event, my question to you fellow TTW crazies is....what do you think is the bigger accomplishment? Personally I've always valued slams heavily over #1 especially an accomplishment like this that has literally never been done so what do you guys say?
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Maybe don't start a fan war as early as 2024 Already.

Not everything needs to be compared.
 
They were celebrating that the vulturing of weeks at number 1 rank is finally over. Its like when Ganondorf is finally dead and all the people in Hyrule start celebrating in the streets. Pure joy.

IMG-9028.gif
 
Klatu Verata Necktie said:
Alcaraz has gotten plenty of glowing press over the past few years. I'd bet he has no problem with the praise Sinner is receiving at the moment.
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The level of praise for Alcaraz has been ridiculous bordering on worship. Alcaraz deserves a lot of praise, but BBC Sports coverage of tennis has either been British mugs or Alcaraz. Even when Alcaraz was barely winning early rounds in 250s earlier this year the BBC were putting that as their top story and basically ignoring everything else including Rotterdam, which is a 500 held in the same week as Argentina. Sinner received one story on his no. 1 ranking and that’s pretty much it. Meanwhile they are writing reports of Alcaraz’s new Eiffel Tower tattoo. On top of that, you have virtually all BBC commentators audibly glowing in the commentary box during matches and display this quite openly, regardless of who he’s playing.

Not saying this is new, or indeed a bad thing. But to suggest Alcaraz is somehow being ignored or snubbed? You’ve got to be kidding me. You just have to be trolling.
 
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These days winning slams on multiple surfaces is more of an interesting factoid than an anything else, the surfaces are very similar and most players perform to a similar level on all of them

A new player reaching number #1 is quite exciting for the sport, given the lack of variety we have had in that spot for the last 20 years

I am not surprised that latter is what people are more interested in
 
NYTennisfan said:
It got me to thinking watching the video of the former greats congratulating Sinner and all the adoration he's gotten from so many about him reaching #1 for the first time. Don't get me wrong it's a great accomplishment and especially being the first Italian man to achieve the feat but I don't see why Alcaraz being the youngest ever to win slams on all surfaces isn't getting as much or even more praise.

In any event, my question to you fellow TTW crazies is....what do you think is the bigger accomplishment? Personally I've always valued slams heavily over #1 especially an accomplishment like this that has literally never been done so what do you guys say?
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There’s nothing like getting to #1. They all want it. Long time ago as a college player, I got to hit with some lower ranked pros who had been around higher ranked pros and all of them were obsessed with the ranking.
 
Razer said:
More slams means more money and more popularity

Number 1 on the computer means nothing much ...
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More slams mean more money. Not so true anymore:

Alcaraz prize money won since last 1.5 years is approx 19M $ while his slam prize money is about 6-7M $. So he is earning 2x by playing other tournaments like ATP 1000, 500,WTF etc.

ATP has made masters 1000 very lucrative by introducing bonus pool payout.

And if you are #1, you surely are doing good all around the year - and mostly your prize money will be good too. Sinner has a prize money of 15M $ during the same time period and Medvedev who hasn’t won a slam during this period has a prize money of 13M $.

Long story short - #1 ranking comes with performance, which guarantees good prize money and good draws.
 
mahatma said:
More slams mean more money. Not so true anymore:

Alcaraz prize money won since last 1.5 years is approx 19M $ while his slam prize money is about 6-7M $. So he is earning 2x by playing other tournaments like ATP 1000, 500,WTF etc.

ATP has made masters 1000 very lucrative by introducing bonus pool payout.

And if you are #1, you surely are doing good all around the year - and mostly your prize money will be good too. Sinner has a prize money of 15M $ during the same time period and Medvedev who hasn’t won a slam during this period has a prize money of 13M $.

Long story short - #1 ranking comes with performance, which guarantees good prize money and good draws.
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Endorsements will come if you hold more slams. Nobody cares about masters or such little tourneys.....
 
mike danny said:
Alcaraz is the youngest ever player to both be no.1 and win slams on all surfaces.
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Its a little bit deceiving, Djokovic was ban for 2 slams and 4 masters when Alcaraz reach number one rankings. This year he won RG with Rafa not playing 15 of the last 18 months and Novak tear his knee . Carlos is excellent but Goats are too old to stop an all time great to clean out the field.

186558345_4416564428367526_9138847490830049469_n.jpg
 
Razer said:
Alcaraz holds 2 slams now while Sinner only 1...so Alcaraz has the perception of being a better player
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but it's not about who has the perception of being a better player in your eyes, it's about the newsworthiness of a new player making it to #1 in the world

when someone new officially makes it to the top ranking spot of any sport, that is always going to attract more attention than someone breaking some obscure record that only nerds of that sport really care about

weird to me that this even is being debated
 
I mean, Alcaraz's accomplishment is obviously more special. Hence its having been done by 7 guys in the half century it's been possible, as opposed to the 27 guys who have done what Sinner has done in the same timespan.
 
mahatma said:
Nobody = Razer?
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I am in Majority, you are in minority.

Razer is in majority....most tennis fans worldwide only care for slams ....these masters and 500s, 250s etc are not something which we care for. We drive the narrative worldwide. The Slams Race is the GOAT race because of almost 1 Billion Razers (that's 99% of the tennis fans globally...) all around the globe who only care about Slams.

GOAT race would have been a race involving masters if Razer(s) cared but then I/we don't

So the nobodies here are you and your little gang that counts masters trophies and other nerd related stats ....for the 99% that matters it is all about Slams only.
 
Razer said:
I am in Majority, you are in minority.

Razer is in majority....most tennis fans worldwide only care for slams ....these masters and 500s, 250s etc are not something which we care for. We drive the narrative worldwide. The Slams Race is the GOAT race because of almost 1 Billion Razers (that's 99% of the tennis fans globally...) all around the globe who only care about Slams.

GOAT race would have been a race involving masters if Razer(s) cared but then I/we don't

So the nobodies here are you and your little gang that counts masters trophies and other nerd related stats ....for the 99% that matters it is all about Slams only.
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It's not about masters Mr. Overreaction. It's about #1 vs multi Slam as the thread title says.

And yes #1 matters a lot. Infact as Agassi quoted - today if Earth made a team for Universal Tournament or something, it would be Sinner who would be chosen because of his #1 rank.
 
Cashman said:
but it's not about who has the perception of being a better player in your eyes, it's about the newsworthiness of a new player making it to #1 in the world

when someone new officially makes it to the top ranking spot of any sport, that is always going to attract more attention than someone breaking some obscure record that only nerds of that sport really care about

weird to me that this even is being debated
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Being the youngest to win slams on all surfaces is an obscure record?

Yes, a new player reaching #1 will get more headlines in the general public but what I'm asking the true tennis fans, TTW in this instance, wis which is the bigger accomplishment in their minds?
 
NYTennisfan said:
Being the youngest to win slams on all surfaces is an obscure record?
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Relatively speaking.

It's not as obscure as a whole bunch of "youngest to" records you can think of, but it's more obscure than:

-Youngest to reach #1
-Youngest to win a Major
-Youngest to win any particular Major
-Youngest to achieve Career Grand Slam

It's probably at a similar level of obscurity as something like "Youngest to win World Tour Finals" or something like that.

Something to note is that "youngest to do x" records in general are relatively obscure compared to the most important records.
 
Sports fandom online is so damn exhausting.

Can't praise anyone without someone getting their feelings hurt that another player isn't getting even more attention.
 
NYTennisfan said:
Being the youngest to win slams on all surfaces is an obscure record?

Yes, a new player reaching #1 will get more headlines in the general public but what I'm asking the true tennis fans, TTW in this instance, wis which is the bigger accomplishment in their minds?
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The majority of posters here are probably unaware that USO used to be on clay or that the AO used to be on grass, so I would say that it's not just an obscure for the general public but for a lot of tennis fans as well. There were threads when Nadal, Fed and Djokovic won their 3rd slam on a different surface and many posters in those threads seem baffled when other posters mentioned that Connors and Wilander won slams on 3 surfaces as well.

Also, the ATP organized that Sinner congratulatory video. Obviously the ATP only cares about videos about #1's since its their ranking and they don't run the slams(ITF doesn't really post silly vids so a congratulatory video for Alcaraz was never on the cards)

I don't recall any talk about Wilander being the first player to win on 3 surfaces since Connors when he won the '88 AO. But of course there were worldwide headlines when Wilander became #1. I think winning on 3 surfaces became more of a talking point when Agassi won '99 RG (but the even bigger thing that he was the first to win all 4 in a career since Laver)
 
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Humble Crumble said:
At least it was in five sets and not a straight-set bagel affair.
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Alcaraz and Sinner should get on board in a few years? (10+ matches or 200+ weeks at top2)

Epics on Everest

I'm referring to matches involving the absolute top players: as No1 vs No2, as No2 vs No1, between Top2. Chronologically listed for the elite 8 who have spent the most time at the top 2. as No1 vs No2 as No2 vs No1 between Top2 Weeks@Top2 Jimmy Connors 1-7 2-4 3-11 387 Bjorn Borg...
tt.tennis-warehouse.com tt.tennis-warehouse.com
 
Cashman said:
but it's not about who has the perception of being a better player in your eyes, it's about the newsworthiness of a new player making it to #1 in the world

when someone new officially makes it to the top ranking spot of any sport, that is always going to attract more attention than someone breaking some obscure record that only nerds of that sport really care about

weird to me that this even is being debated
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Totally agree

Also to me 3 slams is 3 slams, if Alcaraz had 3 us opens or 3 rgs he’d still be a 3 time slam winner and have achieved just as much

And I also do think there is an appropriate amount of hype around Alcaraz already, if he gets 1-2 slams a year for the next 15 years he will equal or break the big 3’s records, it won’t matter which surfaces he wins them on
 
Cashman said:
These days winning slams on multiple surfaces is more of an interesting factoid than an anything else, the surfaces are very similar and most players perform to a similar level on all of them

A new player reaching number #1 is quite exciting for the sport, given the lack of variety we have had in that spot for the last 20 years

I am not surprised that latter is what people are more interested in
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true, isn't quite the feat it used to be BUT...still takes skill, and pretty cool nonetheless. one thing he's proven...he can play on all of it. imo sinner is very, very good but assuming he stays healthy i would put alcaraz a full notch above him...it's the movement, that weighs heavily in today's game and his is superb.
 
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