Tennis Male Players Statistics

From 1983 to 1990, men's tennis had a very strong tradition and clear hierarchy of tournaments: the Grand Slam tournaments, including Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open; the season-ending Masters Grand Prix; and the Davis Cup. Before 1983, however, and in particular before the start of the Open Era in 1968, the hierarchy of professional tournaments changed virtually every year. For example, in 1934, the U.S. Pro was a high-class tournament with all the best players, but just two years later, the same tournament was ordinary because only professional teachers (no leading touring pros) entered the event.

Before the start of the Open Era and in addition to numerous small tournaments and head-to-head tours between the leading professionals, there were a few major professional tournaments that stood out during different periods:

• Some survived sporadically because of financial collapses and others temporarily stood out when other important tournaments were not held:
  • Bristol Cup (held on the Côte d'Azur (French Riviera) at Cannes or Menton or Beaulieu) from 1920 to 1932.
  • Queen's Club Pro (in the 1927 and 1928).
  • International Pro Championship of Britain in Southport in the 1930s.
  • World Pro Championships in Berlin in the 1930s.
  • U.S Pro Hardcourt in Los Angeles, California in 1945 (the only significant professional tournament that year).
  • Philadelphia Pro 1950–1952.
  • Tournament of Champions, held at Forest Hills 1957, 1958, 1959, and also held in Australia at White City (1957, 1959) and at Kooyong (1958).
  • Masters Pro Round Robin in Los Angeles in 1956, 1957 and 1958.
  • Australian Pro in 1954, 1957, and 1958.
  • Madison Square Garden Pro in 1966 and 1967.
  • Wimbledon Pro in 1967.
• There were a few team events modeled on the Davis Cup, such as the Bonnardel Cup in the 1930s and the Kramer Cup from 1961 through 1963.
• Three traditional "championship tournaments" survived into the Open Era, often having all the leading players but sometimes having very depleted fields.
  • The most prestigious of the three was generally the London Indoor Professional Championship. Played between 1934 and 1990 at Wembley Arena in England, it was unofficially usually considered the world championship until 1967.^{[citation needed]}
  • The oldest of the three was the United States Professional Championship, played between 1927 and 1999. From 1954 through 1962, this tournament was played indoors in Cleveland and was called the "World Professional Championships".
  • The third major tournament was the French Professional Championship, played usually at Roland Garros from 1934 (perhaps before but the data are unclear) through 1968. The British and American championships continued into the Open Era but soon devolved to the status of minor tournaments.^{[citation needed]}

Because of the instability of the professional tour, the greatest tournaments in a given year could be the three "championship tournaments" (such as in 1964) or other tournaments (such as in 1959 when the greatest tournaments probably were the Forest Hills Pro, the Masters Pro in Los Angeles, and almost all the Australian pro tournaments).

However these three tournaments were considered retrospectively by some tennis experts^[who?] as the three tournaments of the professional Grand Slam (until 1967). Some years as in 1948, only one of them was held, the U.S Pro in this case, and even in 1944 none was organized : this explains why professionals players have less impressive records than those of the modern players but it doesn't mean that the banished players of the pre-Open Era were less great than their Open Era colleagues.

As with any statistics, those of tennis players should be put into the correct context because: a) they are mixing performances of the amateur circuit (until 1967), the professional circuit (until 1967), and the open circuit (since 1968). b) they don't always take into account the greatest events of a given year (such as the 1959 example above).

For instance, Ken Rosewall's amateur successes between 1953 and 1956 were achieved without having to compete against world-class professionals like Frank Sedgman and Pancho Gonzales. Likewise, when Rod Laver captured the amateur Grand Slam in 1962, he did not have to face opponents such as Rosewall, Lew Hoad, Pancho Segura and Andrés Gimeno, all professionals, and therefore his 1962 Grand Slam is not seen as impressive as his 1969 Grand Slam which he won in the Open Era.^{[citation needed]} In 1967 Laver was omnipotent on fast courts, winning all the greatest pro tournaments that year, Wimbledon Pro (grass), the U.S. Pro (grass), Wembley Pro (indoor wood, fastest surface ever used in tennis) and the French Pro (indoor wood). In the official statistics as published by the ITF or ATP these tournaments are seldom listed because only the amateur tournaments were taken into account. Yet Laver's supremacy in 1967 was undisputed: in his statistics (19 major tournaments) three of the four previous tournaments are listed. The one tournament not chosen is 1967 Wimbledon Pro because it was a one-off event and not a "Grand Slam pro" tournament but it was probably the greatest pro event of the 60s and in particular of 1967.^{[citation needed]} It indicates that the Grand Slam label in the pre-Open Era is not always attributed to the greatest tournaments of a given year.

In reality to fairly compare pre-Open Era players' records with Open Era players, it would be necessary to select from the tennis beginnings the four greatest events of each year, knowing it would change every year (some years it is difficult to choose the four greatest tennis events). Thus, for instance, Ken Rosewall's record of 23 victories, indicated above, would be reduced to about 21 tournaments "equivalent to the modern Grand Slam tournaments": Wembley Pro 1957, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963 – New York City-Madison Square Garden Pro 1966 – French Pro 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966 – French Open 1968 – U.S. Pro 1963, 1965 – US Open 1970 – Australian Open 1971 – WCT Finals 1971, 1972.^{[citation needed]} In that list, on one hand have disappeared all Rosewall's great amateur successes (Australia 1953, 1955 – Roland Garros 1953 – U.S. 1956) and also the 1972 Australian Open without eighteen of the twenty best players, but on the other hand have appeared some pro tournaments which weren't one of the three classic ones (see Ken Rosewall's article).

The three professional tournaments (Wembley Pro, French Pro, U.S. Pro) until 1967 are sometimes referred as the 'professional Grand Slam tournaments' by tennis historians, such as Robert Geist or Raymond Lee (in his Greatest Player of All time: A Statistical Analysis article). This list comprises winners of three types of titles; Amateur Era and Open Era majors (Australian, French, Wimbledon, and US championships), plus the three Amateur Era professional majors (French Pro, Wembley Pro, and US Pro).

• As of the 2024 Australian Open (active players in boldface).

Player	Total	Grand Slam tournaments				Pro Slam tournaments
		Australian	French	Wimbledon	U.S.	French Pro	Wembley Pro	U.S. Pro
Novak Djokovic	24	2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023	2016, 2021, 2023	2011, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022	2011, 2015, 2018, 2023
Ken Rosewall	23	1953, 1955, 1971, 1972	1953, 1968		1956, 1970	1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966	1957, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963	1963, 1965
Rafael Nadal	22	2009, 2022	2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022	2008, 2010	2010, 2013, 2017, 2019
Roger Federer	20	2004, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2017, 2018	2009	2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2017	2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Rod Laver	19	1960, 1962, 1969	1962, 1969	1961, 1962, 1968, 1969	1962, 1969	1967	1964, 1965, 1966, 1967	1964, 1966, 1967
Bill Tilden	14			1920, 1921, 1930	1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1929	1934		1931, 1935
Pancho Gonzales					1948, 1949		1950, 1951, 1952, 1956	1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961
Pete Sampras		1994, 1997		1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000	1990, 1993, 1995, 1996, 2002
Roy Emerson	12	1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967	1963, 1967	1964, 1965	1961, 1964
Henri Cochet	11		1926, 1928, 1930, 1932	1927, 1929	1928	1936
Björn Borg			1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981	1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980
Fred Perry	10	1934	1935	1934, 1935, 1936	1933, 1934, 1936			1938, 1941
Don Budge		1938	1938	1937, 1938	1937, 1938	1939	1939	1940, 1942

^ Only players with 10+ Major titles listed.