Separating the Big 3 by prestige-groupings of the Majors

F

FrontHeadlock

Hall of Fame
We all know that Nadal with 21 Majors leads both Federer and Djokovic with 20 Majors each.

However, there is a clear-cut pecking order among the 4 Majors: W > RG > USO >> AO

If we group the Majors by prestige tiers, we get the following results:

  1. All Majors
    1. Nadal: 21
    2. Federer & Djokovic: 20
  2. Top 3 Most Prestigious Majors (W, RG, USO)
    1. Nadal: 19
    2. Federer: 14
    3. Djokovic: 11
  3. Top 2 Most Prestigious Majors (W, RG)
    1. Nadal: 15
    2. Federer: 9
    3. Djokovic: 8
  4. Most Prestigious Major (W)
    1. Federer: 8
    2. Djokovic: 6
    3. Nadal: 2
Nadal leads in 3 groupings, while Federer leads in 1. Djokovic is last in all groupings except the single most prestigious Major (W), where he ranks second.
 
FrontHeadlock said:
Popularity, prestige, tradition, etc.

Why do more golfers want to win the Masters than the PGA Championship?
Click to expand...
The bolded part has nothing to do with the quality of tennis played at the slams nowadays, as no one wants to miss any of them.

Bringing the majors in golf as a reference to the slams in tennis is just absurd. The two sports mostly have nothing in common, unless you want to present some Rolex commercials.
 
Entername said:
RG and USO is an interesting one. I feel like if you were European, you'd lean more towards RG but if you were American, it would obviously be USO.
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The USO has lost some luster since the 90s. Part of that is the AO being only a distant 4th compared to an incredibly distant 4th, but it's also because the USTA is hopeless and has mismanaged the tournament.

But more than that, RG is the one Major that most demonstrates surface diversity among the ATGs. Since the other 3 Majors are more highly correlated in tennis history, it's success at RG that has really been the gatekeeper for whether one is in the upper echelon. Players like Sampras, Connors, McEnroe, Becker, Edberg, etc. all desperately wanted an RG title. That's why it was such a big deal when Agassi won it. For that reason alone, it's really a critical title to win. As an example, even if a player never won the AO, he could still have demonstrated success on Hardcourts by winning the USO.
 
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dapchai said:
The bolded part has nothing to do with the quality of tennis played at the slams nowadays, as no one wants to miss any of them.

Bringing the majors in golf as a reference to the slams in tennis is just absurd. The two sports mostly have nothing in common, unless you want to present some Rolex commercials.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but players definitely have their favorites. This has been documented.

How many non-Aussies do you know who dream of winning the AO? It's minuscule.

OTOH tons of players dream of winning Wimbledon especially, but also RG since clay is such a popular surface. And the USO is and always will be the more popular and prestigious hardcourt Major, for a number of reasons.
 
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Wimbledon is always the biggest tennis tournament. Many critics, players and experts consider Wimbledon to be the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world.
 
Honestly, which Surface Slam do you prefer?
Nadal in 2010: Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open or,
Djokovic in 2021: Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
:cool:
 
TMF said:
Wimbledon is always the biggest tennis tournament. Many critics, players and experts consider Wimbledon to be the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Personally RG is my favorite Major, but it's undeniable that Wimbledon is the most prestigious.
 
DSH said:
Honestly, which Surface Slam do you prefer?
Nadal in 2010: Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open or,
Djokovic in 2021: Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
:cool:
Click to expand...

In a vacuum, always Nadal's since the USO >> AO

But in the moment, you'd prefer Djokovic's since it gives you a shot at the CYGS.
 
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Entername said:
Historically this order was true but today with equal status, equal money, and equal ranking points across all four, I see no reason why any slam is above another
Click to expand...
Historically, the order has been

Wimbledon - undisputed no.1
No. 2
French open for europeans
Us open for americans

And if you want that trip, and AO travel doen under
 
roysid said:
Historically, the order has been

Wimbledon - undisputed no.1
No. 2
French open for europeans
Us open for americans

And if you want that trip, and AO travel doen under
Click to expand...

In the 70s/80s the USO was probably a clear-cut No. 2, and some considered it more prestigious than Wimbledon.

The AO has always been a clear-cut #4. At no point in its history has it ever been anything other than the least prestigious Major; it's only been a matter of degree.
 
It's 2022. Any pecking order is imaginary. Australian Open hasn't been inferior on any meaningful level for at least 15-20 years. Only thing that makes Wimbledon superior is that it's really old, which means nothing in an age when it's played on the least relevant tennis surface, and is basically a bonus round in the middle of the season. The Canadian Open is the second oldest tennis tournament remaining today, nobody pays that one any mind.
 
Well, while Wimbledon is the oldest of all Majors, the US Open is the only one of the four that has been played continuously since its inception and that is something that the Organizers of this great event are proud of.
8-B
 
Ivan Lendl skipped the FO just to focus on grass say a lot about the importance of Wimbledon.
 
Entername said:
RG and USO is an interesting one. I feel like if you were European, you'd lean more towards RG but if you were American, it would obviously be USO.
Click to expand...

You’re probably right about continental Europe but I think most of the anglophone world would have regarded the US Open more highly, not just the USA. It would have varied over time, though. Roland Garros was at a fairly low ebb at some times in the 1970s, for example. Perhaps the US Open has been recently.
 
helterskelter said:
You’re probably right about continental Europe but I think most of the anglophone world would have regarded the US Open more highly, not just the USA. It would have varied over time, though. Roland Garros was at a fairly low ebb at some times in the 1970s, for example. Perhaps the US Open has been recently.
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At one point the USO was definitely second in the pecking order, though not anymore.

AO has always been last, just like the PGA Championship in golf. The biggest value to both among the greats is completing the Career Grand Slam. After that, you'd almost always rather have another Major.
 
Even before clicking on the thread, you could tell with the title alone there would be nothing to see apart from some ridiculous mental gymnastics to fulfill an agenda.
 
Andy-Murray-celebrates-his-Wimbledon-tennis-title-in-the-bath.jpg
 
FrontHeadlock said:
I swear I am not a Wimbledon troll. It's clearly the most prestigious event though.
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter, it's not more difficult to win Wimbledon than it is to win another slam so your whole logic falls apart.
 
Imperator said:
Doesn't matter, it's not more difficult to win Wimbledon than it is to win another slam so your whole logic falls apart.
Click to expand...

There was never a point in time in history where RG was greater than the USO so his logic fell apart in the 2nd sentence.
 
Imperator said:
Doesn't matter, it's not more difficult to win Wimbledon than it is to win another slam so your whole logic falls apart.
Click to expand...

It's often not harder to win the Olympics than it is to win the World Championships, and yet the former is always more prestigious. Why is that?
 
NoleFam said:
There was never a point in time in history where RG was greater than the USO so his logic fell apart in the 2nd sentence.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure RG has always been more prestigious than USO but anyway, it's another debate. The point is no slam has more value than the other ones.

We don't see you around a lot these days, by the way.
 
LOLwat?

Seriously, what is this? The OP makes 4 groups of Slam prestige where he has all majors group together but then leaves 1 of those majors out for the rest of the grouping? Mmmmmkay?

The USO was the only Slam played without fans last 2 years, just FYI.
 
Imperator said:
I'm pretty sure RG has always been more prestigious than USO but anyway, it's another debate. The point is no slam has more value than the other ones.

We don't see you around a lot these days, by the way.
Click to expand...

I never heard this until I joined TTW. Legends in the past skipped RG often but almost always were at the USO. When I first started watching tennis, the order was W > USO > RG > AO according to former players. Now it means nothing since all the top players play them equally so they hold the same value.

Yea I'm around but not as much.
 
NoleFam said:
I never heard this until I joined TTW. Legends in the past skipped RG often but almost always were at the USO. When I first started watching tennis, the order was W > USO > RG > AO according to former players. Now it means nothing since all the top players play them equally so they hold the same value.

Yea I'm around but not as much.
Click to expand...

That was true, but it flipped in the 90s. RG is clearly more prestigious now.

www.forbes.com

What Is The Most Prestigious Grand Slam Tennis Tournament?

Roger Federer at the most prestigious Grand Slam. But how do the other three events rank? (Photo credit: Wikipedia) It seems pretty clear that of the four tennis Grand Slam events—Wimbledon and the French, Australian and U.S. Opens—the former is by far the most prestigious one. Roger Federer, a...
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com

There’s one last element to throw into the mix: the players’ preferences. Though both the WTA and the ATP (the men’s tennis entity) did not have player surveys at hand, there was a survey done back in the late 1990s by the French magazine, Tennis. That survey asked 108 top players to rank the four Slams in order of prestige. The ranking went as follows:
  1. Wimbledon
  2. French Open
  3. U.S. Open
  4. Australian Open
 
FrontHeadlock said:
That was true, but it flipped in the 90s. RG is clearly more prestigious now.

www.forbes.com

What Is The Most Prestigious Grand Slam Tennis Tournament?

Roger Federer at the most prestigious Grand Slam. But how do the other three events rank? (Photo credit: Wikipedia) It seems pretty clear that of the four tennis Grand Slam events—Wimbledon and the French, Australian and U.S. Opens—the former is by far the most prestigious one. Roger Federer, a...
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com

There’s one last element to throw into the mix: the players’ preferences. Though both the WTA and the ATP (the men’s tennis entity) did not have player surveys at hand, there was a survey done back in the late 1990s by the French magazine, Tennis. That survey asked 108 top players to rank the four Slams in order of prestige. The ranking went as follows:
  1. Wimbledon
  2. French Open
  3. U.S. Open
  4. Australian Open
Click to expand...

Ok that's fine but you left out the closing statement of the article:

Given these metrics, the final rankings, in terms of prestige, would look like this:

  1. Wimbledon
  2. U.S. Open
  3. French Open
  4. Australian Open
 
NoleFam said:
I never heard this until I joined TTW. Legends in the past skipped RG often but almost always were at the USO. When I first started watching tennis, the order was W > USO > RG > AO according to former players. Now it means nothing since all the top players play them equally so they hold the same value.

Yea I'm around but not as much.
Click to expand...
Uso is a newworld country , it cannot be more prestigious.. champange and french food vs mcdonalds and coke.
 
NoleFam said:
Ok that's fine but you left out the closing statement of the article:

Given these metrics, the final rankings, in terms of prestige, would look like this:

  1. Wimbledon
  2. U.S. Open
  3. French Open
  4. Australian Open
Click to expand...

Yes, but that's just some Forbes writer basing that on his own rubric involving prize money, media hits, etc.

The prestige among actual tennis players speaks volumes.

Having said all of that, I definitely think arguments can be made that USO is more prestigious than RG even now. What is clear cut is that W is #1 and AO is a distant #4..
 
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