Top 10 in 2004-2007 vs ranked 100+

[Russeljones]

Apologies in advance for not perpetuating the GOAT debate. This is not related.

Taking a look at how often players in the period lost to players outside the top 100 showed some interesting things. Firstly, quite a few of those lower ranked players went on to become very high ranked players in their own right. Secondly, It was often the case that someone claimed several top 10 scalps and it's fascinating to see the rankings fluctuations between events. There are a lot of talking points and I am sure some of you will draw wild tangents. I intend to do something like this for a different period, but for now this should provide enough food for thought. Please do not hesitate to point out mistakes I've made.


2004
1 Federer, Roger (SUI) 0
2 Roddick, Andy (USA) (loss to #349 T. Haas; #125 Olivier Mutis)
3 Hewitt, Lleyton (AUS) 0
4 Safin, Marat (RUS) (loss to #137 Marc Lopez)
5 Moya, Carlos (ESP) (loss to #100 Olivier Rochus; #209 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga)
6 Henman, Tim (GBR) (loss to #248 Guillermo Canas; #149 Tomas Zib)
7 Coria, Guillermo (ARG) (loss to #122 Marc Rosset; #102 Yen-Hsun Lu)
8 Agassi, Andre (USA) (loss to #339 Nenad Zimonjic; #271 Jerome Haehnel; #124 Gilles Muller)
9 Nalbandian, David (ARG) (loss to #136 Kristof Vliegen)
10 Gaudio, Gaston (ARG) (loss to #198 Philipp Kohlschreiber; #111 Jose Acasuso; #133 Franco Squillari; #135 Guillermo Canas; #121 Florian Mayer; WINS ROLAND GARROS WITHOUT FACING A SINGLE PLAYER OUTSIDE THE TOP 80; loss to #127 Todd Reid)

19 losses total

control* - 11 Johansson, Joachim (SWE) (loss to #156 Juan Monaco; #307 Alex Boghdanovic)**


2005
1 Federer, Roger (SUI) (loss to #101 Richard Gasquet)
2 Nadal, Rafael (ESP) (loss to #147 Alexander Waske)
3 Roddick, Andy (USA) 0
4 Hewitt, Lleyton (AUS) 0
5 Davydenko, Nikolay (RUS) (loss to #158 Ivo Minar; #151 James Blake; #128 Gael Monfils; #101 Richard Gasquet; #103 Raemon Sluiter)
6 Nalbandian, David (ARG) 0
7 Agassi, Andre (USA) 0
8 Coria, Guillermo (ARG) (loss to #275 Sebastien De Chaunac; # 131 Kristof Vliegen)
9 Ljubicic, Ivan (CRO) (loss to #155 Marcos Baghdatis)
10 Gaudio, Gaston (ARG) (loss to #239 Gael Monfils; #195 Brian Baker)

11 losses total

control - 11 Gonzalez, Fernando (CHI) (loss to #155 Peter Luczak; #204 Ivan Navarro)


2006
1 Federer, Roger (SUI) 0
2 Nadal, Rafael (ESP) (loss to #690 Joachim Johansson)
3 Davydenko, Nikolay (RUS) (loss to #188 Evgen Korolev; #127 Alejandro Falla; #116 Nicolas Lapentti; #292 2Joachim Johansson)
4 Blake, James (USA) (loss to #103 Paul Capdeville; #159 Antony Dupuis)
5 Ljubicic, Ivan (CRO) 0
6 Roddick, Andy (USA) (loss to #122 Julien Benneteau)
7 Robredo, Tommy (ESP) (loss to #301 Vladimir Voltchkov; #161 Mark Philippoussis; #127 Paul Capdeville;
8 Nalbandian, David (ARG) (loss to #104 Marat Safin)
9 Ancic, Mario (CRO) (loss to #118 Stefan Koubek)
10 Gonzalez, Fernando (CHI) (loss to #202 Alex Bogomolov Jr.)

14 losses total

control - 11 Haas, Tommy (GER) (loss to #113 Danai Udomchoke; #128 Igor Kunitsyn)


2007
1 Federer, Roger (SUI) 0
2 Nadal, Rafael (ESP) (loss to #106 Nicolas Mahut)
3 Djokovic, Novak (SRB) (loss to #176 Viktor Troicki)
4 Davydenko, Nikolay (RUS) (loss to #123 Olivier Patience; #117 Marin Cilic; 102 Marin Cilic)
5 Ferrer, David (ESP) (loss to #137 Marco Chiudinelli; #177 Igor Andreev)
6 Roddick, Andy (USA) (loss to #125 Igor Andreev; #109 Frank Dancevic)
7 Gonzalez, Fernando (CHI) (loss to #235 Igor Andreev; #162 Zack Fleishman; #105 Dudi Sela; #112 Nicolas Kiefer)
8 Gasquet, Richard (FRA) (loss to #153 Chris Guccione; #304 Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi)
9 Nalbandian, David (ARG) 0
10 Robredo, Tommy (ESP) (loss to #488 Peter Wessels; #195 Wayne Arthurs)

17 losses total

control - 11 Murray, Andy (GBR) (loss to #139 Fabio Fognini)


*I added the 11th player to see if there was an anomaly inside the top 10, on the back of a Slam win like in Gaudio's case, for example.

**RET is not counted towards losses here

*** includes DC

 

[Russeljones]

Apologies in advance for not perpetuating the GOAT debate. This is not related.

And this is where they lost interest lol

 

[NatF]

Interesting that it was 11 each time when swapping the #10 player. I'd be interested in seeing this down across maybe the last decade and even earlier.

Interesting to see some of the names that the losses were too, many were to players who would be future top 20+ staples e.g. not that bad in hindsight.

That will inevitably lead to debates on era though

 

[Russeljones]

I'd be interested in seeing this down across maybe the last decade and even earlier.

This was quite a lot of work. I will definitely wait a while before I try this again.

 

[tennisaddict]

Perhaps performance of top 10 against top 30 would show the depth ?

 

[Russeljones]

Perhaps performance of top 10 against top 30 would show the depth ?

Show me how it's done, sensei.

 

[kOaMaster]

Did I miss the 2008-2014 part?

 

[Wynter]

Hewitt the only one who didn't B)

 

[Algo]

I remember that Gonzalez loss to Bogomolov, I was really ****ed.
Lol at Robredo losing to Capdeville.
Most were to really-good-players-to-be tho'

Should be followed with 2008-2011, 2011-2014

 

[Alien]

Not sure what the conclusions are.

 

[Russeljones]

I remember that Gonzalez loss to Bogomolov, I was really ****ed.
Lol at Robredo losing to Capdeville.
Most were to really-good-players-to-be tho'

Should be followed with 2008-2011, 2011-2014

Some losses really made me go "what the ****", while others were understandable in hindsight.

 

[Deleted member 307496]

Yeah, Hewitt lost to 0 100+ players, but he was weak...

 

[Russeljones]

Yeah, Hewitt lost to 0 100+ players, but he was weak...

He might have lost to some, remember this is only looking at the performance of players vs 100+ when said players are part of the top 11 in the respective years. Hewitt does get bashed a lot here, though. It's strange to me why he's not appreciated more.

 

[chjtennis]

Just because Hewitt hasn't won 6 or 7 slams, he is under-appreciated. However, those who actually lived and saw tennis in the early 2000s should know he was a solid no. 1 of the time.

 

[Russeljones]

When you do this exercise you see which players lose repeatedly to the very best and which ones have some shocking losses. Some top 10 players made a habit of those, Soderling for one.