Only Mats, Rog and Nole have done the calendar HC slam double

FeroBango

Legend
Ugh. I hope you're not right. I don't even dislike Sinner, he seems like a very nice and humble guy, I just find him really boring.
For your desire to happen, WADA has merely hours left to get the job done.

Oh don't get me wrong i believe his ice man pose is a greater crime on humanity than his doping.
 

ChrisRF

Legend
Wilander in 88
Federer in 04, 06, 07
Djokovic in 11, 15, 23

Even rarer is AO, USO, YEC triple

Federer in 04, 06, 07
Djokovic in 11, 15, 23
Both is surprising:

Only 7 times in over 35 years both HC slams were won by the same player (one would expect clearly more).

But then out of those 7 times only ONE player didn't also win the YEC (one would expect less). However, Wilander is the one where it was likely, because the YEC surface (carpet) was decisevely different to the rather slow Slam hardcourt surfaces back then.
 

Racquet_smash

Professional
Yeah, only switched to hard in 1988. Probably Connors, Mac and Lendl would have had a fair shake if it had been HC their whole careers.
I'm talking about how seriously players took it. Most of them didn't give a damn about it.

Borg played it what, 1 time?
 

zagor

Bionic Poster
@NatF you're a stats guy, when was the last time two players faced off in 3 of the 4 slams in a single season? Especially two top 5 players.

I just realized Med-Sinner played at AO, Wimbledon and USO this year. It's remarkable.
 

NatF

Bionic Poster
I'm talking about how seriously players took it. Most of them didn't give a damn about it.

Borg played it what, 1 time?
Well it wasn't HC before then so it wouldn't have mattered how seriously people took it :-D

@NatF you're a stats guy, when was the last time two players faced off in 3 of the 4 slams in a single season? Especially two top 5 players.

I just realized Med-Sinner played at AO, Wimbledon and USO this year. It's remarkable.
Outside of the Big 3/Big 4? Federer and Hewitt did it in 2004, though Hewitt wasn't top 5 for all of those. Djokovic and Berrettini did it in 2021 as well. Must be more but can't remember off the top of my head.
 

Hitman

Bionic Poster
@NatF you're a stats guy, when was the last time two players faced off in 3 of the 4 slams in a single season? Especially two top 5 players.

I just realized Med-Sinner played at AO, Wimbledon and USO this year. It's remarkable.

Djokovic vs Popyrin this year, even though not two top 5, it ended 2-1
 

ChrisRF

Legend
Yeah, only switched to hard in 1988. Probably Connors, Mac and Lendl would have had a fair shake if it had been HC their whole careers.
What's interesting here as those speculations come up so often how the surface change effected the outcome and potential winners: When I rewatched the 1988 final the commentators said that the sole intention of the new surface was not having to take care of the grass anymore and having a sustainable court that always plays the same instead. But they also said that experts made sure that the new court plays EXACTLY like the grass they had before (however that might be possible).
 
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nolefam_2024

Bionic Poster
What's interesting here as those speculations come up so often how the surface change effected the outcome and potential winners: When I rewatched the 1988 final the commentators said that the sole intention of the new surface was not having to take care of the grass anymore and having a sustainable court that always plays the same instead. But they also that said experts made sure that the new court plays EXACTLY like the grass they had before (however that might be possible).
It's copout

How can grass play exactly like hc
 

Olli Jokinen

Hall of Fame
What's interesting here as those speculations come up so often how the surface change effected the outcome and potential winners: When I rewatched the 1988 final the commentators said that the sole intention of the new surface was not having to take care of the grass anymore and having a sustainable court that always plays the same instead. But they also that said experts made sure that the new court plays EXACTLY like the grass they had before (however that might be possible).
That's strange. But the best guys prevailed anyway in 1988. Wilander, Cash, Edberg, Lendl. All of them did well before the shift.
 
Wilander in 88
Federer in 04, 06, 07
Djokovic in 11, 15, 23

Even rarer is AO, USO, YEC triple

Federer in 04, 06, 07
Djokovic in 11, 15, 23

Can Sinner join this very elite group?

None of them did it as just a double - it was always part of a triple. Sinner would be the first to do it as a double that's not part of a triple and thus the closest a top men's player has come to being a hard-court specialist, really. In women's tennis, Kerber in 2016 won both hard-court slams but neither of the other slams. But Kerber did win Wimbledon two years later. Osaka has two titles at each hard-court slam but no fourth rounds at the other two slams. But because both her runs came with US Open in one year and followed up by the next year's Australian Open, while she has two runs of two hard-court slams in a row, she never won two hard-court slams in a calendar year. (At least, not yet!)
 

SonnyT

Legend
Novak had zero business doing that in 2023. The tour should be ashamed lol
In '06, Federer defeated Baghdaitis (was it the opening round?) at AO, and Roddick (Fed's favorite whipping boy) at US. In '07, he defeated Gonzalez (which one?) at AO, and Djokovic (20 at the time) at US.

In '23, Djokovic defeated Tsitsipas at AO, and Medvedev (who beat him 2 years prior) at US.

Djokovic had it easy; Federer had it darn easy.
 

NatF

Bionic Poster
Same for (in the Open Era) the likes of Laver, Newcombe, and Smith.
I've heard historians say they think HC was Laver's best surface. I ignored those guys because the USO was grass in their era as well, but if both majors had been HC I think the list would be quite a bit longer.

What's interesting here as those speculations come up so often how the surface change effected the outcome and potential winners: When I rewatched the 1988 final the commentators said that the sole intention of the new surface was not having to take care of the grass anymore and having a sustainable court that always plays the same instead. But they also said that experts made sure that the new court plays EXACTLY like the grass they had before (however that might be possible).
From what I've heard the grass courts at the AO and USO played differently to Wimbledon and were of generally poorer quality. No way they could make the HC play exactly like grass though.
 

Pheasant

Legend
Had the AO become hard courts 10 years earlier, then Mr. Lendl likely pulls of the feat a couple of times. He once said that Rebound Ace is his favorite surface to play on.

That said, the YE tourney was played on carpet through 1996. It switched to hard courts in 1997. IIRC, the 2005 WTF was also played on carpet(a one-off at that time).
 

NoleFam

Bionic Poster
Shows how hard it is pull off that it's only been done 7 times in 36 attempts. Percentage wise, it was only done 19% of the time so the other 81% someone failed to do it.
 

nolefam_2024

Bionic Poster
Had the AO become hard courts 10 years earlier, then Mr. Lendl likely pulls of the feat a couple of times. He once said that Rebound Ace is his favorite surface to play on.

That said, the YE tourney was played on carpet through 1996. It switched to hard courts in 1997. IIRC, the 2005 WTF was also played on carpet(a one-off at that time).
Yes lendl most likely would have done it multiple times.

It is still huge deal. Agassi a hard courts specialist doesn't have it.
 

NatF

Bionic Poster
Pete Sampras is amazing but he did not dominate AO.
He prevented Agassi from doing the double in 1995 and maybe 2001, though Hewitt may have beaten him in 2001. I do think Agassi beats Courier in 1995 in the absence of PETE. Of course Sampras himself probably does this feat in 1995 without Agassi and possibly 1994 if he's not injured in the lead-up.
 

nolefam_2024

Bionic Poster
He prevented Agassi from doing the double in 1995 and maybe 2001, though Hewitt may have beaten him in 2001. I do think Agassi beats Courier in 1995 in the absence of PETE. Of course Sampras himself probably does this feat in 1995 without Agassi and possibly 1994 if he's not injured in the lead-up.
You are right. I always thought Agassi looked better at USO than Pete at ao. But Pete had skipped too many AO.

Sinner will do probably what both Pete and Andre can't.
 

NatF

Bionic Poster
You are right. I always thought Agassi looked better at USO than Pete at ao. But Pete had skipped too many AO.

Sinner will do probably what both Pete and Andre can't.
Pete was very good in 1994 IMO but Andre has the better record at the USO by comparison with the finals and consistency.
 

BGod

G.O.A.T.
Through also winning the 1988 Lipton title in Key Biscayne, Wilander won 3 separate / all 3 hard court tournaments with 128 player draw sizes and best of 5 set matches in all 7 rounds, available to him that year.

The arguable "5th" major.

Comparatively the Miami tournament was actually more competitive with deeper draws than the AO. This is why "slams only" people are to put kindly have a very narrow view. The French Open for example was infinitely harder to actually win for anyone during Borg and Nadal's prime period than outside of it.

How else can we compare guys like Bruegera and Kodes winning twice and guys like Federer, Agassi, Vilas, Muster winning once? Or Dominic Thiem winning 0 making 2 Finals and 2 Semis?
 
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