chris
I disagree with the assessment that the USO, particularly on the men's side, produces anomolous winners. In fact I would rank the AO or Wimbledon just behind the French who is the champion of the anomolous winner. I think Korda and Johansson trump any one timers at the USO especially when those Open one timers are named Safin, Hewitt and Roddick who backed up their wins with at the very least another major final in short order. In fact each reached number one the year they won the Open so ther're hardly anomolous in the context of the year they were played. The same can't be said for Petr or Thomas, or even for Safin in '05.
If you include Sampras's win in '02 you only need to look back to Becker's AO win in '96 for an apples to apples comparison, but not really in that Sampras won in '02 after reaching the USO final in '00 and '01.
The US Open probably more due to its place in the calendar than anything else generally ends up being the most affirming major as to who the #1 is at year end and historically produces the least anomolous winners of any major when viewed over time.
I disagree with the assessment that the USO, particularly on the men's side, produces anomolous winners. In fact I would rank the AO or Wimbledon just behind the French who is the champion of the anomolous winner. I think Korda and Johansson trump any one timers at the USO especially when those Open one timers are named Safin, Hewitt and Roddick who backed up their wins with at the very least another major final in short order. In fact each reached number one the year they won the Open so ther're hardly anomolous in the context of the year they were played. The same can't be said for Petr or Thomas, or even for Safin in '05.
If you include Sampras's win in '02 you only need to look back to Becker's AO win in '96 for an apples to apples comparison, but not really in that Sampras won in '02 after reaching the USO final in '00 and '01.
The US Open probably more due to its place in the calendar than anything else generally ends up being the most affirming major as to who the #1 is at year end and historically produces the least anomolous winners of any major when viewed over time.