Bagel (tennis)

In tennis, a bagel is a term denoting a situation when the set ends with a score of 6–0. Despite the slang character of the term, it is actively used not only in colloquial speech but also in print.^[1] A rare type of bagel, where no point is lost, is called a Golden Set. Often, bagel sets occur in the early rounds of tennis tournaments where the favorites meet with lower ranked players such as a lucky loser or those who received a "wild card".

From 2004 to 2015, on the basis of the results of the tennis season, a special Golden Bagel Award was handed out to the male player who dealt the most bagels to his opponents.^[2]

Surface disparity

Statistics of the men's singles Grand Slam tournaments from 2000 to 2016 are as follows: at Wimbledon (grass surface), 127 bagels were made; at French Open (clay surface), 267; at the US Open Tennis Championship (hard surface), 275, and at the Australian Open (hard surface), 238.. Björn Borg (five-time Wimbledon champion and six-time French Open champion) recorded 20 6–0 sets at the French Open, and only 5 at Wimbledon.

Double bagel

The result of a match 6–0, 6–0 in a Grand Slam tournament in the men's singles category is currently impossible, since the matches are best of five sets. Nevertheless, a kind of "inner double bagel" is possible, when a tennis player wins two consecutive 6–0 sets in a single match. The last such event occurred in 2013 at the time when Novak Djokovic defeated the Marcel Granollers 6–3, 6–0, 6–0.

In the 1970s, first round matches at the French Open and US Open were only best of three sets. Therefore, in the history there are 3 cases of a full-fledged double bagel:

• 1974 (1 round of French Open) Raúl Ramírez – V. Franchitti 6–0, 6–0
• 1975 (1 round of French Open) Guillermo Vilas – Hans-Joachim Plötz 6–0, 6–0
• 1977 (1 round of the US Open) Ilie Nastase – Frew McMillan 6–0, 6–0

For women in Grand Slam tournaments, a double bagel is quite common. In the "Open Era", not a single Grand Slam tournament match ended with a double bagel in 1968 and 2005. The most double bagels were the seasons of 1974 and 1993, when eight matches had a result of 6–0, 6–0.

The following players had at least five double-bagels in Grand Slam singles events: Suzanne Lenglen (France), Margaret Court (Australia) – 14; Chris Evert (United States) – 13; Helen Wills Moody (USA) – 10; Steffi Graf (Germany) – 7; Kim Clijsters (Belgium), Mary Pierce (France) – 6 each; Monica Seles (Yugoslavia / USA), Maria Sharapova (Russia) – on 5.

There are 5 known cases when double-bagels ended with matches played by two tennis players who at different times were ranked No. 1 in the ATP and WTA:

• 1981 (Amelia Island) Chris Evert – Martina Navratilova 6–0, 6–0 ^[3]
• 1982 (East Rutherford) Chris Evert – Tracy Austin 6–0, 6–0 ^[4]
• 1984 (Forrest Hills) Ivan Lendl – Jimmy Connors 6–0, 6–0.^[5] Interestingly, in the previous match between these players in the tournament in Rotterdam with a score in favor of I. Lendl 6–0, 1–0 J. Connors refused to continue the game.
• 2005 (Indian Wells) Lindsay Davenport – Maria Sharapova 6–0, 6–0 ^[6]
• 2011 (Australian Championship) Kim Clijsters – Dinara Safina 6–0, 6–0

The triple bagel

Triple bagel is infrequent. In the "Open Era" (since French Open 1968) in the Grand Slam tournaments, this has occurred five times:^[7]

• 1968 (Roland Garros) Nikola Špear – Daniel Contet 6–0, 6–0, 6–0
• 1987 (Roland Garros) Karel Nováček – Eduardo Bengoechea 6–0, 6–0, 6–0
• 1987 (Wimbledon) Stefan Edberg – Stefan Eriksson 6–0, 6–0, 6–0
• 1987 (US open) Ivan Lendl – Barry Moir 6–0, 6–0, 6–0
• 1993 (Roland Garros) Sergi Bruguera – Thierry Champion 6–0, 6–0, 6–0

In total, taking into account the preliminary rounds of Davis Cup in the Open Era, there have been 17 triple-bagels.^[8]

Records of the Grand Slam

In the history of the Grand Slam tournaments in the men's single category, the largest number of 6–0 sets won is the following:

1–2. André Agassi (USA), Roy Emerson (Australia) – to 49; 3–4. Jimmy Connors (USA), Roger Federer (Switzerland) – to 44; 5. Ivan Lendl (Czechoslovakia / United States) – 42; 6. Bill Tilden (United States) – 37; 7. Björn Borg (Sweden) – 35; 8–12. Guillermo Vilas (Argentina), Novak Djokovic (Serbia), Rene Lacoste (France), Raphael Nadal (Spain), Neale Fraser (Australia) – on 32.

At individual majors the players with the most 6–0 sets are:

• Australian Championship: 1. R. Federer – 17, Jack Crawford (Australia) – 16; 3. A. Agassi – 15.
• Roland Garros: 1–2. B. Borg, G. Vilas – 20 each; 3–5. Jaroslav Drobný (Czechoslovakia /Egypt) , R. Lacoste, R. Nadal – 17 each.
• Wimbledon: 1. R. Emerson – 15; 2–3. J. Connors, B. Tilden – to 12.
• US Championship: 1. J. Connors – 22; 2–3. I. Lendl, B. Tilden – 20 each.

Australian Neale Fraser won at least 6–0 set in 16 Grand Slam tournaments in a row: starting with the Australian Championship-57 and ending with the US championship – 60.^[9]

In the women's singles, the largest number of 6–0 sets won:

1. Chris Evert (USA) – 106; 2. Margaret Court (Australia) – 89; 3. Martina Navratilova (Czechoslovakia / USA) – 72; 4. Steffi Graf (Germany) – 71; 5. Serena Williams (USA) – 64; 6. Helen Wills-Moody (USA) – 57; 7. Monica Seles (Yugoslavia / USA) – 54; 8. Maria Sharapova (Russia) – 49; 9. Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (Spain) – 46; 10. Gabriela Sabatini (Argentina) – 44.

In individual tournaments of the Grand Slam, the largest number of 6–0 sets won is:

• Australian Championship: 1. M. Court – 25; 2. M. Sharapova – 16; 3. S. Williams – 14.
• Rolland Garros: 1. C. Evert – 26; 2. A. Sanchez – 22; 3. G. Sabatini – 21.
• Wimbledon: 1–2. Suzanne Lenglen (France), C. Evert – to 29; 3. M. Court – 25.
• US Championship: 1. C. Evert – 43; H. Wills-Moody – 31; 3. M. Court – 27.

Other facts

• In 1948 Don Budge won the first match against George Hudson 6–0, 6–0, 6–0 at the US Professional Championship, and against Jerome Adler 6–0, 6–0, 6–1 in the second round.^[10]
• During the achievement of winning his first Grand Slam in 1962, the Australian Rod Laver won 25 matches in a row. In all these matches, he won one set with a score of 6–0 and lost one set with a score of 0–6.
• In 1969, in the second round of Wimbledon, Rod Laver, who had gone to his second Grand Slam and seeded under the first number, began with the loss of the first two sets to the unseeled Indian Premjit Lall. The fate of the Slam was a big question. However, the Australian did not lose his head: the game ended in his favor with a score of 3–6, 4–6, 6–3, 6–0, 6–0.
• There are 4 cases in the history of tennis (two of which occurred in the French Open in one tournament), when the player who lost the 2 bagel sets in the match , was the winner:^[7]
  • 1935 (US Championship among professionals) Bill Tilden – Karel Koželuh 0–6, 6–1, 6–4, 0–6, 6–4 ^[11]
  • 1962 (Tasmanian Championship) Rod Laver – Neale Fraser 7–5, 0–6, 0–6, 6–1, 6–2^[12]
  • 1969 (Rolland Garros) Stanley Matthews – Ilie Nastase 6–3, 0–6, 0–6, 6–4, 8–6
  • 1969 (Rolland Garros) Dennis Ralston – Patricio Rodríguez 6–2, 6–4, 0–6, 0–6, 6–4
• In 1981, in the first round of the US championship Jimmy Connors, which in the mid-70's almost married to Chris Evert,^[13] beat her then-husband ^[14] John Lloyd with a score of 6–0, 6–0, 6–2.^[15]
• Suzanne Lenglen won 9 tournaments in which she did not lose a single game in all matches.^[16]
• Guillermo Vilas for 2 consecutive seasons (1980 and 1981) won 2 matches with a score of 6–0, 6–0.^[17]
• Björn Borg won 116 6–0 sets for his career ^[18]
• Only two women's finals in the history of the Grand Slam tournaments ended with a double-bagel:^[19]
  • 1911 (Wimbledon) Dorothea Lambert-Chambers – Dora Boothby 6–0, 6–0
  • 1988 (Rolland Garros) Steffi Graf – Natalia Zvereva 6–0, 6–0
• The only men's final of the Grand Slam tournament in which bagel met more than once in 1977 on Rolland Garros: Argentine Guillermo Vilas beat United States representative Brian Gottfried with a score 6–0, 6–3, 6–0.^[20]
• Swiss tennis player Martina Hingis achived her first Olympic bagel in singles in 1996, and the second in pairs twenty years later.

References