The Best Overall and At Grand Slams | Thebigtip

A tennis professional's career is almost exclusively gauged by his performances in Grand Slams. While Grand Slams play a significant part in the official world rankings, many other tournaments contribute to their point totals. Consequently, rankings alone can often be misleading when determining who will fare best under increased pressure and best of five sets.

Just in time for the Australian Open, I have constructed a table that shows the 20 best players of the last two years and their Grand Slam ranking. The point total was reached by adding year-end ranking points of 2009 and 2010. Grand Slam points are ranking points earned at majors in the last two years.

Visit this link for the complete top 100. I used a two year window as it is less susceptible to luck of the draw and injuries (than one year) yet it excludes older results that may not be a good indication of a player's current level.

Champions at 10 of the past 11 Grand Slams, Nadal and Federer are clearly the dominating the sport's biggest stage. Despite not having Djokovic's and Murray's overall success, the table proves that Soderling has become a massive force in Grand Slams, with over 40% of his points coming from majors. Del Potro, Berdych, Tsonga and Cilic could also be dangerous this next fortnight as all perform above their world ranking in Grand Slams. On the other hand, Ferrer and Stepanek have disappointed at the highest level since 2009.

Aussies will be happy to learn that Hewitt (ranked 33 over 2009-10) is still performing well above his world ranking by placing equal 19th in Grand Slams. Other notable results from players outside the top 20 are Ljubicic (ranked 21 over 2009-10) and Monaco (ranked 29); both could not pass the third round at a Grand Slam in the past two years and rank outside the top 50 at the big four events.

By only covering two years, the above table provides a measure of recent Grand Slam form. But how do players rate when more years are taken into account? I have also constructed a table of the players who have accumulated the most ranking points since the beginning of the century. As the ranking points system changed at the end of 2008, I have transformed all results from 2009-10 to comply with the 2000-08 system (see methodology for details of transformation). The 30 top players from 2000-10 along with Grand Slam points are as follows.

See this link for the rest of the top 100. Once again Federer and Nadal top the list by a large margin. Roddick is third overall, but Hewitt pips the American on Grand Slam points. The highest ranked players without a Grand Slam title are 7th ranked Davydenko followed by 10th ranked Nalbandian. However, due to several quarter-final or better showings, both these players are still top 10 in Grand Slams.

Aside from Grand Slam champions, the best performers in majors relative to their ranking are Grosjean (36.2% of points from Slams), Nalbandian (31.3%) and Henman (also 31.3%). Interestingly, not all Grand Slam champions performed well at these events overall. Gaudio is the standout; he only made it past the 4th round of a major once and went on to take the title!

Murray is notorious for not having won a Slam but his 26% of ranking points from Slams is considerably higher than that of Ljubicic (14.2%), Chela (17.4%) and Moya (18.2%). The Spaniard can be excused as his best Grand Slam results came before 2000 (and are hence excluded), however Ljubicic has one of the worst Grand Slam records in history given his achievements in smaller events.  Further down is Volandri who is ranked 74th between 2000-10 but only tied 135th in Slams due to a weak 9-22 record in majors.

As champions age, they typically focus even more on Grand Slams. Federer's points from Grand Slams in the last two year's show this (a whopping 50% of his total points) and Agassi was no different. The American won three Grand Slams from five finals since 2000 (aged 29) and still ranks in the top 5 best Grand Slam performers of the century. Other greats to do similar are Sampras (ranked 50th overall and 11th in Slams) and Rafter (ranked 99th overall and 45th in Slams).

The list above shows just how big the first round Australian Open matchup is between Nalbandian and Hewitt. Both players are in the top 10 best players of the century and have distinguished Grand Slam careers, most notably meeting in the 2002 Wimbledon final. Another Aussie, Luczak, drew Ljubicic in the first round who ranks 15th since the year 2000. However he could be buoyed by the fact that Ljubicic's Grand Slam results are not on par with his overall standing.