Rankings before 1973 (calculated)
- Thread starter Grgisme
- Start date
HipRotation
Hall of Fame
`There was no computer rankings before the introduction of the ATP in 1973, hence no statistics before that. Before that people just worked out seedings from previous results at tournaments and how sports journalists like Lance Tingay would rank players.
Plus the tennis world was different with the amatuer and pro scenes. For example, one might think Roy Emerson was the #1 player in the mid 60s but he was playing in the amatuer only events that barred the professional players like Ken Rosewall Rod Laver, Pancho Gonzales who were all considered better than him.
Plus the tennis world was different with the amatuer and pro scenes. For example, one might think Roy Emerson was the #1 player in the mid 60s but he was playing in the amatuer only events that barred the professional players like Ken Rosewall Rod Laver, Pancho Gonzales who were all considered better than him.
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There is no 'right' way of doing this. Wikipedia for sure isn't 'right', but you might find the discussion interesting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_number_1_ranked_male_tennis_players
For instance I disagree with having Tilden as number 1 in 1922 (Johnson should have been clear number 1). It appeared that this was largely based on 1921 form. But at least you are seeing a little of the discussion
The Blond Blur
G.O.A.T.
You didn’t read my comments about Wikipedia not being right and that I only included out of interest?I couldn't tell you the number of times I got away with using Wikipedia as a "source"
There are exact week by week calculations for the years 1968-1973, following the ATP system by a poster Slasher. It on the internet on a different forum on mens tennis i cannot cite here. Slasher has Rod Laver as Nr. 1 for 187 weeks. The Side "Tennis Base" has calculations for the whole Mens Tennis history. You can find it on the internet.
The Blond Blur
G.O.A.T.
No, I was making a joke by saying I use Wikipedia a lot regardless.
Its interesting, if you regard that Laver was the number 1 say 1/2 the time he was in the pro's from Jan 1963 to April 68 - it you add half those weeks to 187 - it comes out around 308 - near Federer's number.
Wow.
This is all pale when compared to Henry VIII of England who was calculated to be 1100 weeks at No1.
