Tennis open era

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The open era in tennis began in 1968, when the Grand Slam tournaments, such as Wimbledon, abandoned the longstanding rules of amateurism and allowed professionals to compete.

Contents

[edit] Open era facts/records

[edit] Men

[edit] By Player

The records and achievements of various players who have competed during the open era are listed in this section below.

  • Rod Laver of Australia:
    • Only male player during the open era to have won all four Grand Slam singles tournaments in a calendar year (the Calendar Year Grand Slam) (1969). (He also won the Calendar Year Grand Slam in 1962, before the open era began.)
  • Björn Borg of Sweden:
    • Won the most French Open men's singles titles, with 6.
    • Career winning percentage of 82.3% (576-124) is the best in the open era.
    • Career Grand Slam match winning percentage of 89.9% (142-16) is the best in the open era.
  • Andre Agassi of the United States:
    • Won all four Grand Slam singles tournaments during his career (the Career Grand Slam).
    • Only male player to have won Grand Slam singles tournaments on four different surfaces (hardcourt, clay, grass, and Rebound Ace).
    • Only male player during the open era to have won a Career Grand Slam plus an Olympic gold medal in singles (the Career Golden Slam).
    • Won seven of the nine ATP Masters Series singles tournaments at least once during his career.
    • Most overall ATP Masters Series titles, with 17.
    • Oldest world #1 male tennis player (33 years and 13 days).
    • Played the most U.S. Open singles tournaments, with 21.
    • Shares with Connors the record of finishing the most years in the top ten, with 16.
  • Roger Federer of Switzerland:
    • Most consecutive weeks as the top ranked male player, with 161 weeks (as of February 26, 2007).
    • Longest winning streak on hard courts: 56 (2005-06).
    • Longest winning streak on grass courts: 48 (2003-present).
    • Longest winning streak against top ten players: 26 (2003-2005).
    • Most consecutive singles finals won, with 24 (2003-2005).
    • Highest number of ranking points at the end of the year: 8,370 (2006).
    • Highest number of ranking points at any time of the year: 8,370 (November 20, 2006).
    • Highest number of race points (since 2000): 1,674 (November 20, 2006).
    • Earliest to clinch the year-end No. 1 ranking: September (2004).
    • Winner of his first seven Grand Slam singles finals.
    • Played the most consecutive Grand Slam singles finals: 7 (Wimbledon 2005-present).
    • Played the most consecutive Grand Slam singles semifinals: 11 (Wimbledon 2004-present).
    • Was the first player to win four ATP Masters Series (since 1990) tournaments in one season (2005). Repeated that achievement in 2006.
    • Best 3-year match winning percentage (94.3%) and tournament winning percentage (69.4%) (2004-2006).
    • Has had 5 winning streaks of at least 20 consecutive matches:
      • 23 (Jun 2004-Aug 2004: W Halle, Wimbledon, Gstaad, Toronto, 1st round Cincinnati).
      • 26 (Aug 2004-Jan 2005: W U.S. Open, Bangkok, Tennis Masters Cup, Doha, SF Australian Open).
      • 25 (Feb 2005-Apr 2005: W Rotterdam, Dubai, Indian Wells AMS, Miami AMS, QF Monte Carlo).
      • 35 (Jun 2005-Nov 2005: W Halle, Wimbledon, Cincinnati AMS, U.S. Open, Davis Cup match, Bangkok, F Tennis Masters Cup).
      • 41 (Aug 2006-Mar 2007: W U.S. Open, 2 Davis Cup matches, Tokyo, Madrid AMS, Basel, Tennis Masters Cup, Australian Open, Dubai, 2nd round Indian Wells) -- ATP Tour (since 1990) record
    • First man to win at least 10 titles in a season without losing in a final (2004).
    • First player to record a "double bagel" at a year-end championship (Federer defeated Gastón Gaudio in a SF of the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup).
    • Only player to have won both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in the same year for three consecutive years (2004-2006).
    • Only player in the open era to ever have won at least three Grand Slam singles tournaments in a year twice (2004 and 2006).
    • First player to win the ATP Masters Series tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back in consecutive years (2005-2006).
    • First male player to win at least 10 singles titles in each of three consecutive years (2004-2006).
    • Best percentage of finals reached in a year, 94.1% in 2006 (16 out of 17).
    • Most prize money in one season, with U.S. $8,343,885 (2006).
  • Ivan Lendl of the United States:
    • Longest winning streak indoors: 66 matches (between October 1981 and January 1983).
    • Only player to have won three tournaments in consecutive weeks on three different surfaces.
    • Most consecutive singles finals, with 18 in 1981 and 1982.
    • Only male player to have won at least 90 matches in consecutive years (1980-1982).
    • Only male player to have won at least 90 percent of his matches in four different years (1982: 106-9; 1985: 84-7; 1986: 74-6; 1987: 74-7).
    • Shares with Sampras the record for most Masters men's singles titles, with 5.
    • Most Grand Slam singles finals, with 19.
  • John McEnroe of the United States:
    • Most career titles, with 147 (77 in singles and 70 in doubles).
    • Best single season win-loss record, 82-3 (96.5%) in 1984.
  • Jimmy Connors of the United States:
    • Most singles titles won during the open era, with 105.
    • Shares with Agassi the record of finishing the most years in the top ten, with 16.
    • Shares with Sampras the record for having won the most U.S. Open men's singles titles during the open era, with 5.
    • Won the most singles matches during the open era, with 1,222.
  • Guillermo Vilas of Argentina:
    • Most singles titles in one year, with 16 in 1977.
    • Holds the longest overall winning streak during the open era, with 46 consecutive victories in 1977.
  • Lleyton Hewitt of Australia:
    • Youngest male player to be the World No. 1, at the age of 20 years and 8 months (2001).
  • Rafael Nadal of Spain:
    • Longest winning streak on clay, with 62 matches (2005-present).

[edit] By Year

  • 2005
    • Rafael Nadal of Spain became the first male teenager to reach second place in the ATP Entry Rankings since Boris Becker.
    • Nadal won eight titles on clay in 2005, the most since Thomas Muster won seven in 1995.
    • Nadal's 24 match winning streak was the longest streak of any teenager in the open era.
    • For the first time since 1990, two men won at least ten singles titles each in one season: Roger Federer (11) and Rafael Nadal (11).
  • 2006
    • Roger Federer's victory at the Australian Open was his record seventh win in seven Grand Slam finals. Only Williams Renshaw and Richard Sears achieved the same feat, but they played in the 19th century. Interestingly, all of Renshaw's wins came at Wimbledon, and all of Sears' wins were at the U.S. Championships.
    • Federer became the first player to win the Indian Wells-Miami double for the second consecutive year.
    • By winning the French Open, Nadal set a clay court winning streak of 60 matches--besting the previous record of 53 wins by Guillermo Vilas. His victory over Federer in the finals prevented the latter from winning four consecutive Grand Slam singles titles. Federer's Grand Slam finals record now stands at 10-1.
    • After winning the Madrid Masters, Federer became the first player to win at least ten singles titles in three consecutive years.

[edit] Women

  • Margaret Smith Court of Australia holds the record for most Grand Slam singles titles by any person, with 24 (11 in the open era).
  • Court and Steffi Graf are the only females to have won a calendar year Grand Slam in the open era. Graf also won the Olympic gold medal the year she won the Grand Slam (1988), making her the only player ever to have won the Golden Slam. Court actually won a record six consecutive Grand Slam singles tournaments in that she also won the last Grand Slam event of 1969 (U.S. Open), then all four titles in 1970, and then the first Grand Slam tournament of 1971 (Australian Open). Martina Navratilova shares this unique record as she won the last three Grand Slam tournaments of 1983 and the first three of 1984. Graf also won six consecutive Grand Slams that she played (French Open 1995 - U.S. Open 1996); however, she did not play the 1996 Australian Open.
  • When Graf won the 1995 U.S. Open singles title, she became the first and so far the only player, male or female, to win four titles at each of the Grand Slam tournaments.
  • Graf became the first woman in the open era to lose in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament as a defending champion, at Wimbledon in 1994. Three more Grand Slam champions followed her:
  • 2005
    • Lindsay Davenport created history at Indian Wells. As the top seed (and world No. 1), she inflicted a double bagel on then world No. 3 Maria Sharapova in a semifinal. It was the second time in the open era that a player ranked in the top three had been double-bageled. Chris Evert, then ranked No. 1 in the world, beat No. 3 ranked Navratilova 6-0, 6-0 in the final of a clay court tournament in Amelia Island, Florida in 1981.
    • Davenport became the first female player to notch 50 wins at the Australian Open during the open era.
    • Justine Henin (Belgium) became the first reigning French Open champion to lose in the first round at Wimbledon during the open era.
    • Maria Sharapova became the first Russian woman to reach the number one spot in the rankings, holding it for seven non-consecutive weeks.
  • 2006
    • The 2006 Australian Open final between Amelie Mauresmo and Henin marked the first time in the open era that a Grand Slam women's singles final (and just the second Grand Slam singles final) was won when a competitor retired.
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