Was just watching the 1982 Masters final(played in January '83) between McEnroe & Lendl.
In the intro the commentators mentioned that the Grand Prix circuit "consists of 84 events throughout the year & the top 8 qualify"(much like today)
For the 1982 Masters field (not sure what the results of the final did as far as the ranking, but it seems unlikely that Connors could have been passed regardless) the Grand Prix leaders were:
1. Connors 3355
2. Vilas 2495
3. Lendl 2313
4. McEnroe 2305
When you look through the player activity of these players for 1982, this list seems to accurately reflect who the best players were that year. But the atp ranking(which has become regarded as the official ranking today) has it this way for 1982:
1. McEnroe
2. Connors
3. Lendl
4. Vilas
Its strange that the year end masters didn't acknowledge the atp ranking at all in their event, commentators didn't even mention it, today at the Masters Cup a player receives a trophy at that event for finishing #1, it didn't happen then because the rankings didn't match always match. I'm not sure the results of the Masters was even factored into the atp ranking those years!
This might explain why Vilas wasn't "officially" considered #1 for 1977(despite winning 2 majors), even though I've read he did finish first in the Grand Prix Race that year.
Does anyone have the list of players who finished #1 in the Grand Prix in the 70s/80s? I think that would be a more fair method of comparing past #1s to today, since that system is more similar to that of today.
Looking at my old issues of tennis magazine, they have 2 lists in the back, one with the race & one with the atp ranking.
Here is an example from November 1985(there were still many events left that year, including an Australian Open in December)
Grand Prix:
1. McEnroe 3903(which belies the notion that Mac declined considerably after '84, which I've read here lately)
2. Lendl 3808
3. Wilander 2808
4. Connors 2178
5. Becker 2023
ATP Ranking(Pt. Avg.)
1. Lendl 158.642
2. McEnroe 142.571
3. Wilander 108.764
4. Connors 88.357
5. Becker 72.388
It would be interesting to see what the rankings today using this system would be, averaging all your events for a pt. avg. Early round losses would seem to really hurt a player. I'm very curious what points were alloted to events in the 70s/80s.
In the intro the commentators mentioned that the Grand Prix circuit "consists of 84 events throughout the year & the top 8 qualify"(much like today)
For the 1982 Masters field (not sure what the results of the final did as far as the ranking, but it seems unlikely that Connors could have been passed regardless) the Grand Prix leaders were:
1. Connors 3355
2. Vilas 2495
3. Lendl 2313
4. McEnroe 2305
When you look through the player activity of these players for 1982, this list seems to accurately reflect who the best players were that year. But the atp ranking(which has become regarded as the official ranking today) has it this way for 1982:
1. McEnroe
2. Connors
3. Lendl
4. Vilas
Its strange that the year end masters didn't acknowledge the atp ranking at all in their event, commentators didn't even mention it, today at the Masters Cup a player receives a trophy at that event for finishing #1, it didn't happen then because the rankings didn't match always match. I'm not sure the results of the Masters was even factored into the atp ranking those years!
This might explain why Vilas wasn't "officially" considered #1 for 1977(despite winning 2 majors), even though I've read he did finish first in the Grand Prix Race that year.
Does anyone have the list of players who finished #1 in the Grand Prix in the 70s/80s? I think that would be a more fair method of comparing past #1s to today, since that system is more similar to that of today.
Looking at my old issues of tennis magazine, they have 2 lists in the back, one with the race & one with the atp ranking.
Here is an example from November 1985(there were still many events left that year, including an Australian Open in December)
Grand Prix:
1. McEnroe 3903(which belies the notion that Mac declined considerably after '84, which I've read here lately)
2. Lendl 3808
3. Wilander 2808
4. Connors 2178
5. Becker 2023
ATP Ranking(Pt. Avg.)
1. Lendl 158.642
2. McEnroe 142.571
3. Wilander 108.764
4. Connors 88.357
5. Becker 72.388
It would be interesting to see what the rankings today using this system would be, averaging all your events for a pt. avg. Early round losses would seem to really hurt a player. I'm very curious what points were alloted to events in the 70s/80s.