Who holds the Open era winning streak record

T

timnz

Legend
In these two places it says that Borg had a 49 match winning streak.


"It was Borg’s first defeat in 50 matches"

http://sportsthenandnow.com/2010/07/15/bjorn-borg-blames-bad-luck-for-never-winning-the-u-s-open/

Talking about Vilas......" 46-match all-surface winning streak, third all-time behind Björn Borg's records of 49 and 48 consecutive matches won"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Vilas

But here it says that Borg best streak was 43 matches

"On the list of open era winning streaks, Borg is third (43 consecutive tour matches in 1978), tied with Novak Djokovic"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Björn_Borg_career_statistics

The 43 streak is what I have heard about before.

Apparently Borg was undefeated between early March 1978 and early September 1978 - where this 49 match streak happened apparently.


So what is it? 49 or 43......??

And what is this 48 streak mentioned also.
 
timnz said:
In these two places it says that Borg had a 49 match winning streak.


"It was Borg’s first defeat in 50 matches"

http://sportsthenandnow.com/2010/07/15/bjorn-borg-blames-bad-luck-for-never-winning-the-u-s-open/

Talking about Vilas......" 46-match all-surface winning streak, third all-time behind Björn Borg's records of 49 and 48 consecutive matches won"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Vilas

But here it says that Borg best streak was 43 matches

"On the list of open era winning streaks, Borg is third (43 consecutive tour matches in 1978), tied with Novak Djokovic"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Björn_Borg_career_statistics

The 43 streak is what I have heard about before.

Apparently Borg was undefeated between early March 1978 and early September 1978 - where this 49 match streak happened apparently.


So what is it? 49 or 43......??

And what is this 48 streak mentioned also.[/QUOTE.

timnz, I still believe that Vilas had a winning streak of 50 in 1977.
Click to expand...
 
BobbyOne said:
timnz said:
In these two places it says that Borg had a 49 match winning streak.


"It was Borg’s first defeat in 50 matches"

http://sportsthenandnow.com/2010/07/15/bjorn-borg-blames-bad-luck-for-never-winning-the-u-s-open/

Talking about Vilas......" 46-match all-surface winning streak, third all-time behind Björn Borg's records of 49 and 48 consecutive matches won"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Vilas

But here it says that Borg best streak was 43 matches

"On the list of open era winning streaks, Borg is third (43 consecutive tour matches in 1978), tied with Novak Djokovic"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Björn_Borg_career_statistics

The 43 streak is what I have heard about before.

Apparently Borg was undefeated between early March 1978 and early September 1978 - where this 49 match streak happened apparently.


So what is it? 49 or 43......??

And what is this 48 streak mentioned also.[/QUOTE.

timnz, I still believe that Vilas had a winning streak of 50 in 1977.
Click to expand...

Are you including the Rye tournament Bobby? But that wasn't an official tournament was it? But if you did include that, wouldn't that mean that for Borg's total we include tournaments like the Tokyo Suntory Cup? (you could also throw in for Borg some or all of (Goteborg Scandinavian Cup, Copenhagen Pondus Cup, Menton French Riviera Invitational, Frejus Arena Trophy)). Certainly the Rye tournament wasn't of more stature than the Suntory Cup?

Anyway, the main thing I am trying to find out was - was it 49 or 43 for Borg?
Click to expand...
 
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timnz said:
BobbyOne said:
Are you including the Rye tournament Bobby? But that wasn't an official tournament was it? But if you did include that, wouldn't that mean that for Borg's total we include tournaments like the Tokyo Suntory Cup? (you could also throw in for Borg some or all of (Goteborg Scandinavian Cup, Copenhagen Pondus Cup, Menton French Riviera Invitational, Frejus Arena Trophy)). Certainly the Rye tournament wasn't of more stature than the Suntory Cup?

Anyway, the main thing I am trying to find out was - was it 49 or 43 for Borg?
Click to expand...

timnz, Yes it's the problem with the ATP counting and overall counting. Rye tournament was probably not an official event.

But I remember that even ATP many years ago did state 50 Vilas matches in a row.

By the way, ATP perhaps still does not include the 1968 PSW L.A. win for Laver in the latter's tournament record even though I have written them a few times...
Click to expand...
 
Regarding Borg, while walkover losses don't count on head-to-head records or win-loss records, they do end any winning streaks.
 
timnz said:
I know he was unbeaten from early march, 1978 to early sept. 1978. He only played 31 official matches in that period? Why do so many say 49?
Click to expand...

Very simple.. he won 49 consecutive matches, but he had 2 W/O's on the way.. not a win and a loss either
 
timnz said:
In these two places it says that Borg had a 49 match winning streak.


"It was Borg’s first defeat in 50 matches"

http://sportsthenandnow.com/2010/07/15/bjorn-borg-blames-bad-luck-for-never-winning-the-u-s-open/

Talking about Vilas......" 46-match all-surface winning streak, third all-time behind Björn Borg's records of 49 and 48 consecutive matches won"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillermo_Vilas

But here it says that Borg best streak was 43 matches

"On the list of open era winning streaks, Borg is third (43 consecutive tour matches in 1978), tied with Novak Djokovic"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Björn_Borg_career_statistics

The 43 streak is what I have heard about before.

Apparently Borg was undefeated between early March 1978 and early September 1978 - where this 49 match streak happened apparently.


So what is it? 49 or 43......??

And what is this 48 streak mentioned also.
Click to expand...
Here is something from The Montreal Gazette the day after Vilas beat Borg in the Nations Cup (1980):

The defeat ruined Borg’s chance of equaling Vilas’ record of winning 50 straight singles matches in 1977.

Borg had a string of 49, starting September 6, 1979 during the U.S. Open.

In 22 matches, Vilas and Borg played against each other, the Swede has won 17 and Vilas five.​
 
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timnz said:
Are you including the Rye tournament Bobby? But that wasn't an official tournament was it? But if you did include that, wouldn't that mean that for Borg's total we include tournaments like the Tokyo Suntory Cup? (you could also throw in for Borg some or all of (Goteborg Scandinavian Cup, Copenhagen Pondus Cup, Menton French Riviera Invitational, Frejus Arena Trophy)). Certainly the Rye tournament wasn't of more stature than the Suntory Cup?
Click to expand...
It's a good point, timnz. Borg played so many events that are not official, it's a big question what to include.

We can easily list everything that Borg played in matches considered official by the ATP today. It's a little harder to get a full list of everything that Borg and Vilas played, but the records exist. I think PC1 has a full record of Borg's matches; and maybe all his matches are on Wikipedia already, somewhere (I haven't checked).

I'm just saying, it would be good to have complete lists of all matches played, and to see what the winning streaks would be then (they might be shorter or longer). From that point you could begin cutting "exos" out, and perhaps cutting everything non-official out so we know what the "official" winning streaks are.

That would make a lot of lists; but I just think it would be great to have an easily accessible list of all matches played for Borg and Vilas in the seasons in question. Once everything is on the table, you could begin sorting it out.
 
Borg's 1978 streak was reported as 55 straight, in the press reports of the time (I found it in a United Press International report).

During the '78 USO final, Tony Trabert said that Borg had last lost a match on March 3rd, to Tom Gullikson in Miami.
 
I think World Book Encyclopedia reported in 1981 that Borg won 82 of 84 matches from Wimbledon 1979 to Wimbledon 1980. The two losses would be to Tanner at the USO and Vilas at the Nations Cup.
 
^^

Slightly off-topic, but I do believe borg is under-rated by many those who just think of the major count ...he had a very high winning % in his best years and was dominant @ the major events as well ...

comparisons to nadal are there , but this is one area where nadal falls considerably

the only other satisfying both criteria in the open era is federer ...
 
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Mustard said:
Regarding Borg, while walkover losses don't count on head-to-head records or win-loss records, they do end any winning streaks.
Click to expand...

why would you considering a walkover as ending a winning streak ?

no one said federer's streak on grass ended when haas gave him a walkover in wimbledon 2007

no one said djokovic's streak in 2011 ended when fognini gave him a walkover in RG 2011
 
abmk said:
why would you considering a walkover as ending a winning streak ?

no one said federer's streak on grass ended when haas gave him a walkover in wimbledon 2007

no one said djokovic's streak in 2011 ended when fognini gave him a walkover in RG 2011
Click to expand...

I said walkover losses, so Borg or Federer or Djokovic LOSING by walkover.
 
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abmk said:
^^

Slightly off-topic, but I do believe borg is under-rated by many those who just think of the major count ...he had a very high winning % in his best years and was dominant @ the major events as well ...

comparisons to nadal are there , but this is one area where nadal falls considerably

the only other satisfying both criteria in the open era is federer ...
Click to expand...
True about Borg and Federer but I'd also add Lendl. He had three straight years (1985-87) winning over 90% of his matches and being best at the Slams.

In '89 he was also over 90% but was clearly eclipsed in the Slams by Becker. I think in '82 he might have been over 90% too, but obviously won no Slams that year.
 
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krosero said:
True about Borg and Federer but I'd also add Lendl. He had three straight years (1985-87) winning over 90% of his matches and being best at the Slams.

In '89 he was also over 90% but was clearly eclipsed in the Slams by Becker. I think in '82 he might have been over 90% too, but obviously won no Slams that year.
Click to expand...

Of course.. Ivan played 23 tournaments in 1982. and made 20 finals, 11 from the start of the year. He was over 90% in 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989
 
Nadal_Power said:
Of course.. Ivan played 23 tournaments in 1982. and made 20 finals, 11 from the start of the year. He was over 90% in 1982, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1989
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So Lendl has 5 years at over 90%, and he clearly dominated the majors in two of them (1986-87).

Borg has four years over 90% (1977-80), and he clearly dominated the majors in three of them (1978-80).

Federer has three years over 90% (2004-06), dominating the Slams each year.

Connors has four years over 90% (1974-76, '78 ), though he clearly dominated the majors only in one ('74).
 
In 2008, Nadal had a great streak which spanned 3 surfaces. Rome, FO, Queens, Wimbledon and Canada. IMO, that's more impressive than longer steaks that only involved 1 or 2 surfaces.
 
The-Champ said:
In 2008, Nadal had a great streak which spanned 3 surfaces. Rome, FO, Queens, Wimbledon and Canada. IMO, that's more impressive than longer steaks that only involved 1 or 2 surfaces.
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hamburg, not rome ...

he had blisters and lost to ferrero in rome ...

that was a brilliant run from rafa .... he was at the peak of his powers then ...
 
krosero said:
True about Borg and Federer but I'd also add Lendl. He had three straight years (1985-87) winning over 90% of his matches and being best at the Slams.

In '89 he was also over 90% but was clearly eclipsed in the Slams by Becker. I think in '82 he might have been over 90% too, but obviously won no Slams that year.
Click to expand...

yeah, you could add lendl as well from 86-87 ... what makes me a bit hesitant to put him on par with the other 2 is him getting straight-setted in both wimby finals ....

I know borg did get straight-setted @ the USO final in 78, but that was due to injury ...

so yeah, below them, but yeah, he'd definitely be #3 in the open era in terms of combination of high winning % and dominance @ majors ..
 
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The consecutive match win streak belongs to Vilas, with 46 matches in 1977. In 1978, Borg won only 31 matches, because he lost 2 matches by WO, in Rootterdam and Dallas, and we have to take these two WO into consideration. And from Tokyo 1979 to Dusseldorf 1980, Borg won 41 matches, but he was beaten by Vilas in Dusseldorf. So, the real record belongs to Vilas.
 
I don’t know if anyone between 1968 and 1973 had a percentage over 90.

Starting in 1974, this seems to have been achieved 19 times in 17 different years by 7 different players.

1974 Connors
1975 Connors
1976 Connors
1977 Borg and Vilas
1978 Borg and Connors
1979 Borg
1980 Borg
1981 -------
1982 Lendl
1983 -------
1984 McEnroe
1985 Lendl
1986 Lendl
1987 Lendl
1988 ---------
1989 Lendl

15-year gap

2004 Federer
2005 Federer
2006 Federer
2007 ------
2008 ------
2009 ------
2010 ------
2011 Djokovic
2012 -------

Ranked by percentage:
McEnroe 1984: 96.47
Federer 2005: 95.29
Federer 2006: 94.85
Connors 1974: 93.94
Borg 1979: 93.33
Lendl 1986 / Federer 2004: 92.50
Lendl 1985: 92.31
Lendl 1982: 92.17
Borg 1980 / Djokovic 2011: 92.11
Lendl 1989: 91.85
Connors 1976: 91.82
Connors 1978: 91.67
Borg 1977: 91.57
Lendl 1987: 91.36
Borg 1978: 90.91
Connors 1975: 90.80
Vilas 1977: 90.28
 
urban said:
Connors was 99-4 in 1974. Is the percentage correct?
Click to expand...

I calculated all the percentages based on the ATP site W/L record, which shows 93-6 for Connors in 1974. I suppose it's a matter of what counts and what doesn't, something by no means clear in those days.
 
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