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Some more charts for your perusal, basically the completion of a chart I shared awhile ago. Let me explain.
The two pictures below are of the same chart - the first is the complete chart, including lesser tournaments, the second is a close-up of only big titles. I've color-coded to include only greats and lesser or "near-greats," which the players listed at the bottom with their respective colors. Those bars represent the spans in which they won titles.
The great cells are all other players; my cut-off is somewhat arbitrary, but I made the choice to include a few guys who were greats or near-greats in the 60s--e.g. Pancho Gonzales, Roy Emerson, and Manolo Santana--as well as up-and-comers who have one foot in the door of greatness like Alcaraz and Sinner, but didn't color code some "near greats" like Safin, Kuerten and Hewitt. I might adjust, but this is how it looks now.
Anyhow, the main point of these charts is to visually illustrate the changing form of dominance by great players. I'll discuss that below.
The chart above shows the entire Open Era, which cells for every title. As you can see, there were a lot more lesser titles early on, and it only really evened out in the early 2000s.
The biggest visual takeaway is that huge v-shape in the late 90s and early 00s, which represents a gap in "ATG dominance." That was the era after Edberg and Becker faded and retired, Sampras was declining, and Agassi was having a second prime. It wouldn't be quite so pronounced if I included players like Rafter, Kuerten, and Kafelnikov, but I opted against it, because they weren't quite ATGs, but rather the most accomplished elite players of that era.
Here's the second one:
The same data, but hopefully a bit easier to decipher - only big titles.
This chart well illustrates, I think, the changing nature of the tour - in terms of who dominated and when, as well as how dominant the greats were at any given time.
As you can see, the early years were dominated by the best players of the pre-Open Era, mainly Rod Laver (dark magenta) - but also Rosewall, Newcombe, and Ashe. Ilie Nastase was the first "Open Era native" to rise to dominance, but his reign was short-lived as he was shortly surpassed by the rise of Connors and Borg, followed by McEnroe. Borg was "tapped out" by Lendl, and then the rise of the greats of the 80s: Wilander, Edberg, and Becker, none of whom were individually super dominant (it is worth mentioning that the Big Three all won more Slams each than those three combined).
The late 80s to early 90s was an interesting era, because it saw overlapping generations dominating together: the latte part of Lendl's prime, Wilander's supernova 1988 after which he burned out, peak Becker and Edberg, and the rise of Agassi, Sampras, and Courier, who then faded out quickly. By 1997 it was only Pete, then Agassi resurged, playing the role of Elder Statesman during a shift of the ages.
We can see Roger's gradually but steady rise until he exploded in 2003-04, and was shortly joined by Rafa in 2005, with the "Fedal Era" being 2005-10. Novak and Andy peaked in during 2007-08, but the Big Four Era didn't really commence until 2011, when Novak took the wheel. As I've mentioned before, 2012 is the true Year of the Big Four - the season in which they were most balanced, all winning a Slam. But 2011-13 was their collective peak of dominance as they won every big title except 2012 Paris, won by David Ferrer.
We all remember the last decade or so, as the Big Four swapped the top spot, and held onto tour dominance up until last year. While the year is far from other, it looks like the times they are a-changin...Alcaraz being the only player on tour (so far) to win a big title in each of 2022-24, and Sinner joining the ranks.
The two pictures below are of the same chart - the first is the complete chart, including lesser tournaments, the second is a close-up of only big titles. I've color-coded to include only greats and lesser or "near-greats," which the players listed at the bottom with their respective colors. Those bars represent the spans in which they won titles.
The great cells are all other players; my cut-off is somewhat arbitrary, but I made the choice to include a few guys who were greats or near-greats in the 60s--e.g. Pancho Gonzales, Roy Emerson, and Manolo Santana--as well as up-and-comers who have one foot in the door of greatness like Alcaraz and Sinner, but didn't color code some "near greats" like Safin, Kuerten and Hewitt. I might adjust, but this is how it looks now.
Anyhow, the main point of these charts is to visually illustrate the changing form of dominance by great players. I'll discuss that below.
The chart above shows the entire Open Era, which cells for every title. As you can see, there were a lot more lesser titles early on, and it only really evened out in the early 2000s.
The biggest visual takeaway is that huge v-shape in the late 90s and early 00s, which represents a gap in "ATG dominance." That was the era after Edberg and Becker faded and retired, Sampras was declining, and Agassi was having a second prime. It wouldn't be quite so pronounced if I included players like Rafter, Kuerten, and Kafelnikov, but I opted against it, because they weren't quite ATGs, but rather the most accomplished elite players of that era.
Here's the second one:
The same data, but hopefully a bit easier to decipher - only big titles.
This chart well illustrates, I think, the changing nature of the tour - in terms of who dominated and when, as well as how dominant the greats were at any given time.
As you can see, the early years were dominated by the best players of the pre-Open Era, mainly Rod Laver (dark magenta) - but also Rosewall, Newcombe, and Ashe. Ilie Nastase was the first "Open Era native" to rise to dominance, but his reign was short-lived as he was shortly surpassed by the rise of Connors and Borg, followed by McEnroe. Borg was "tapped out" by Lendl, and then the rise of the greats of the 80s: Wilander, Edberg, and Becker, none of whom were individually super dominant (it is worth mentioning that the Big Three all won more Slams each than those three combined).
The late 80s to early 90s was an interesting era, because it saw overlapping generations dominating together: the latte part of Lendl's prime, Wilander's supernova 1988 after which he burned out, peak Becker and Edberg, and the rise of Agassi, Sampras, and Courier, who then faded out quickly. By 1997 it was only Pete, then Agassi resurged, playing the role of Elder Statesman during a shift of the ages.
We can see Roger's gradually but steady rise until he exploded in 2003-04, and was shortly joined by Rafa in 2005, with the "Fedal Era" being 2005-10. Novak and Andy peaked in during 2007-08, but the Big Four Era didn't really commence until 2011, when Novak took the wheel. As I've mentioned before, 2012 is the true Year of the Big Four - the season in which they were most balanced, all winning a Slam. But 2011-13 was their collective peak of dominance as they won every big title except 2012 Paris, won by David Ferrer.
We all remember the last decade or so, as the Big Four swapped the top spot, and held onto tour dominance up until last year. While the year is far from other, it looks like the times they are a-changin...Alcaraz being the only player on tour (so far) to win a big title in each of 2022-24, and Sinner joining the ranks.
