{"id":2032,"date":"2016-10-11T12:49:17","date_gmt":"2016-10-11T12:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/?p=2032"},"modified":"2016-10-11T12:49:17","modified_gmt":"2016-10-11T12:49:17","slug":"elina-svitolina-and-multiple-1-upsets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/11\/elina-svitolina-and-multiple-1-upsets\/","title":{"rendered":"Elina Svitolina and Multiple #1 Upsets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week in Beijing, Elina Svitolina<\/a> beat new WTA #1 Angelique Kerber<\/a>. It was the first time the Ukrainian defeated Kerber this season, but it wasn’t her first 2016 triumph over a player ranked #1. At the Rio Olympics in August, Svitolina upset then-top-ranked Serena Williams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s unusual for a player to face two (or more) different #1-ranked opponents in the same season. Since 1985, it has happened 136 times on the WTA tour and 148 times on the ATP tour. That’s less than five times per season per tour.<\/p>\n

Of course, it’s much less common to\u00a0upset\u00a0<\/em>multiple #1-ranked opponents, as Svitolina did. This was only the 16th time a woman did\u00a0so (again, since 1985), while\u00a0it has happened on the men’s side 18 times.<\/p>\n

Here is a full list of WTA player-seasons that featured defeats of more than one top-ranked player:<\/p>\n

Year  Player               Upsets                      \n2016  Elina Svitolina      Kerber; Serena              \n2010  Samantha Stosur      Serena; Wozniacki           \n2009  Venus Williams       Serena; Safina              \n2008  Dinara Safina        Henin; Sharapova; Jankovic  \n2006  Justine Henin        Davenport; Mauresmo         \n2003  Justine Henin        Serena; Clijsters           \n2002  Kim Clijsters        Serena; Venus               \n2002  Serena Williams      Capriati; Venus             \n2001  Lindsay Davenport    Capriati; Hingis            \n1999  Amelie Mauresmo      Hingis; Davenport           \n1999  Venus Williams       Davenport; Hingis           \n1997  Amanda Coetzer       Hingis; Graf                \n1996  Jana Novotna         Graf; Seles                 \n1996  Kimiko Date Krumm    Graf; Seles                 \n1991  Martina Navratilova  Graf; Seles                 \n1991  Gabriela Sabatini    Graf; Seles<\/pre>\n
It’s quite an accomplished list. As we might expect, there’s a lot of overlap between the players who achieved these upsets and past and future #1-ranked players. The real standouts here are Justine Henin<\/a> and Venus Williams<\/a>, who managed the feat twice, and Dinara Safina<\/a>, who faced three different #1s in 2008, going undefeated against them.<\/p>\n
Here are the men who beat multiple #1s in the same season:<\/p>\n
Year  Player                 Upsets             \n2013  Juan Martin Del Potro  Nadal; Djokovic    \n2012  Andy Murray            Federer; Djokovic  \n2011  David Ferrer           Nadal; Djokovic    \n2011  Jo Wilfried Tsonga     Nadal; Djokovic    \n2010  Marcos Baghdatis       Nadal; Federer     \n2009  Juan Martin Del Potro  Nadal; Federer     \n2008  Andy Murray            Nadal; Federer     \n2008  Gilles Simon           Nadal; Federer     \n2003  Rainer Schuettler      Roddick; Agassi    \n2003  Fernando Gonzalez      Hewitt; Agassi     \n2001  Greg Rusedski          Safin; Kuerten     \n2001  Max Mirnyi             Safin; Kuerten     \n1995  Michael Chang          Agassi; Sampras    \n1992  Richard Krajicek       Courier; Edberg    \n1991  Guy Forget             Edberg; Becker     \n1991  Andrei Cherkasov       Edberg; Becker     \n1990  Boris Becker           Lendl; Edberg      \n1988  Boris Becker           Wilander; Lendl<\/pre>\n
This list isn’t quite as impressive, though it does capture several very good players at their best. \u00a0It also highlights the world-beating potential of Max Mirnyi<\/a>, who–despite never reaching the top 15 himself–finished the 2001 season with a 3-1 record against ATP #1s.<\/p>\n
The rarity of facing multiple #1s in the same season–let alone beating them–stops us from drawing any meaningful conclusions about what Svitolina’s feat indicates for her future. At the very least, however, it reminds us of the Ukrainian’s potential as a future star, and puts her among some very good historical company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week in Beijing, Elina Svitolina beat new WTA #1 Angelique Kerber. It was the first time the Ukrainian defeated Kerber this season, but it wasn’t her first 2016 triumph over a player ranked #1. At the Rio Olympics in August, Svitolina upset then-top-ranked Serena Williams. It’s unusual for a player to face two (or … Continue reading Elina Svitolina and Multiple #1 Upsets<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,91,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oddities","category-rankings","category-records"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}