{"id":6940,"date":"2023-12-22T12:55:24","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T12:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/?p=6940"},"modified":"2023-12-22T12:55:24","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T12:55:24","slug":"the-most-exclusive-clubs-in-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/22\/the-most-exclusive-clubs-in-tennis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Most Exclusive Clubs In Tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The new Big Two?<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tireless podcaster Alex Gruskin<\/a> likes to talk about what he calls the “top-ten, top-15, top-20, and top-25 clubs.” He works out the membership of each one by consulting the Tennis Abstract ATP and WTA stats<\/a> leaderboards<\/a>, which display dozens of metrics for each of the top 50 ranked players on both tours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To qualify for Alex’s “top ten club,” a player needs to be in the top ten in both hold percentage and break percentage–in other words, to be an elite server and<\/em> returner. Even cracking the top 25 club is no easy task. In 2023, only 11 men were better than half of the top 50 on both sides of the ball. It’s more common to excel at one or the other. In 2022, the best returner (Diego Schwartzman) ranked 50th out of 50 on serve, and the best server (Nick Kyrgios) came in 40th on return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The top-25 club is a high standard, and the top-ten club is a stratospheric one. This year, only three men–Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, and Carlos Alcaraz–made the cut, and Alcaraz almost missed it, ranking 10th in hold percentage. Daniil Medvedev almost qualified, but he trailed Alcaraz by 0.7% in hold percentage and came in 11th in that category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three top-ten clubbers is, as it turns out, an unusual showing. In the 33 seasons for which we have the necessary stats to calculate hold and break percentage (back to 1991), only 13 men have ever managed the feat. Many of them did it several times, so there are a total of 49 player-seasons that qualify. For the two-plus decades between 1991 and 2011, there were only two seasons in which more than one player reached both top-ten thresholds. In 1992, the entire tour fell short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By “club” standards (and most others), Djokovic’s 2023 season was particularly impressive. Alex usually classifies players into round-number clubs, occasionally giving credit to a near-miss who makes, for instance, the “top 26” club. We can extend the concept a bit further and place every season into its best possible club: If a player ranks in the top three by both hold and break percentage, he’s in the “top-three” club; if he ranks among the top four in both, he’s in the “top-four club,” and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, Novak led the tour in hold percentage and was bested by only Alcaraz and Medvedev in break percentage. Thus, he’s a member of the top-three club. More exclusive categories are hard to find. Here’s the complete list of top-three clubbers since 1991, along with their ranks in hold percentage (H% Rk) and break percentage (B% Rk):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year  Player          H% Rk  B% Rk  CLUB  \n2023  Novak Djokovic      1      3     3  \n1999  Andre Agassi        3      1     3  \n1995  Andre Agassi        3      3     3  <\/pre>\n\n\n\n
That’s it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sinner’s 2023 campaign was also sneakily great. He finished a deceptive fourth on the official ATP points table, but by ranking fifth in hold percentage and fourth in break percentage, he joined an absurdly elite group of top-five clubbers: only Djokovic, Agassi, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here’s the full list of top-ten club seasons since 1991:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Year  Player            H% Rk  B% Rk  CLUB  \n2023  Novak Djokovic        1      3     3  \n1999  Andre Agassi          3      1     3  \n1995  Andre Agassi          3      3     3  \n2021  Novak Djokovic        4      3     4  \n2013  Rafael Nadal          4      1     4  \n2008  Rafael Nadal          4      1     4  \n2002  Andre Agassi          4      3     4  \n2023  Jannik Sinner         5      4     5  \n2019  Rafael Nadal          5      1     5  \n2017  Rafael Nadal          5      2     5  \n2015  Novak Djokovic        5      1     5  \n2014  Novak Djokovic        5      2     5  \n2012  Rafael Nadal          5      1     5  \n2007  Rafael Nadal          5      2     5  \n2006  Roger Federer         2      5     5  \n2003  Andre Agassi          5      3     5  \n                                            \nYear  Player            H% Rk  B% Rk  CLUB  \n2022  Novak Djokovic        6      4     6  \n2013  Novak Djokovic        6      2     6  \n2021  Daniil Medvedev       7      4     7  \n2020  Rafael Nadal          7      2     7  \n2019  Novak Djokovic        7      2     7  \n2012  Novak Djokovic        7      2     7  \n2011  Novak Djokovic        7      1     7  \n2010  Rafael Nadal          2      7     7  \n2008  Novak Djokovic        7      4     7  \n2004  Roger Federer         2      7     7  \n2021  Alexander Zverev      8      7     8  \n2020  Daniil Medvedev       8      8     8  \n2018  Novak Djokovic        8      5     8  \n2016  Novak Djokovic        8      2     8  \n2015  Roger Federer         4      8     8  \n2005  Roger Federer         2      8     8  \n2001  Andre Agassi          8      3     8  \n1998  Marcelo Rios          8      2     8  \n1991  Stefan Edberg         4      8     8  \n                                            \nYear  Player            H% Rk  B% Rk  CLUB  \n2022  Daniil Medvedev       8      9     9  \n2020  Andrey Rublev         9      5     9  \n2018  Rafael Nadal          9      1     9  \n2017  Roger Federer         2      9     9  \n2009  Andy Murray           9      2     9  \n2007  Roger Federer         3      9     9  \n2000  Andre Agassi          8      9     9  \n2023  Carlos Alcaraz       10      1    10  \n2020  Novak Djokovic       10      4    10  \n2019  Roger Federer         3     10    10  \n2013  Roger Federer         7     10    10  \n1998  Andre Agassi         10      3    10  \n1994  Andre Agassi         10      5    10  \n1993  Thomas Muster        10      4    10<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The list is heavily weighted toward the Big Three and the current era. Whether it’s surface speed convergence<\/a> or something about the players themselves, it’s tougher to reach the top with a lopsided game these days. Stefan Edberg was a top-eight clubber in 1991 (and might have been as good for several seasons before that), but Pete Sampras didn’t get anywhere close. His best showing by this metric came in 1997, when he cracked the top-14 club. Andy Roddick never even cleared the top 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finally, here are the 15 men who reached both top-30 thresholds in 2023:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Year  Player            H% Rk  B% Rk  CLUB  \n2023  Novak Djokovic        1      3     3  \n2023  Jannik Sinner         5      4     5  \n2023  Carlos Alcaraz       10      1    10  \n2023  Daniil Medvedev      11      2    11  \n2023  Andrey Rublev        17     11    17  \n2023  Karen Khachanov      18     16    18  \n2023  Alexander Zverev     15     18    18  \n2023  Grigor Dimitrov      19     15    19  \n2023  Taylor Fritz          6     19    19  \n2023  Casper Ruud          21     17    21  \n2023  Holger Rune          20     21    21  \n2023  Frances Tiafoe        9     26    26  \n2023  Ugo Humbert          29     23    29  \n2023  Roman Safiullin      30     24    30  \n2023  Sebastian Korda      14     30    30<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Women’s clubs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
The WTA gets the short shrift on topics like these, because much less historical data is available. I only have the necessary stats back to 2015, and even that season is incomplete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, that doesn’t make some recent individual performances any less impressive. Iga Swiatek’s effort in 2023 predictably stands out: She came in third behind Aryna Sabalenka and Caroline Garcia in hold percentage, and she trailed only Sara Sorribes Tormo and Lesia Tsurenko in break percentage. By finishing third in both categories, she–like Djokovic–is a member of the top-three club.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Depending on how you define a full-season, Iga might be the first ever woman to reach such a standard, at least in the nine-year span for which we can do the math. Here is the full list of top-ten clubbers back to 2015:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Year  Player             H% Rk  B% Rk  CLUB  \n2016  Victoria Azarenka      2      1     2  \n2023  Iga Swiatek            3      3     3  \n2022  Iga Swiatek            5      1     5  \n2019  Serena Williams        1      6     6  \n2015  Serena Williams        1      7     7  \n2016  Serena Williams        1      8     8  \n2016  Angelique Kerber      10      6    10 <\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Azarenka’s run in 2016 was really a partial season: She hurt her knee and didn’t play again after retiring from her first-round match at the French. Her first four months of tennis put her on the path toward a historic campaign, but we’ll never know how it would have turned out. Those 29 matches can’t really be set along the same measuring stick as Iga’s 75-plus in each of the last two years. Serena’s three entries on this table were almost as abbreviated, but again we’re reminded of the limited data. Surely the list would be much longer, with many more instances of the Williams name, if we had better data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, all hail the great Iga. May her reign last until Sabalenka figures out how to become a top-ten returner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At least this year, it was slightly harder to crack the top-25 and top-30 clubs in the women’s game than it was in the men’s. Here is the full 2023 women’s list down to the top-32 threshold, which allows us to include a few names of interest who missed out on the top 30:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Year  Player               H% Rk  B% Rk  CLUB  \n2023  Iga Swiatek              3      3     3  \n2023  Cori Gauff              13      8    13  \n2023  Jessica Pegula          16      5    16  \n2023  Madison Keys             6     16    16  \n2023  Barbora Krejcikova      12     18    18  \n2023  Victoria Azarenka       19     17    19  \n2023  Aryna Sabalenka          1     20    20  \n2023  Marketa Vondrousova     22      6    22  \n2023  Karolina Muchova         8     22    22  \n2023  Leylah Fernandez        20     27    27  \n2023  Jelena Ostapenko        28     12    28  \n2023  Marie Bouzkova          29     21    29  \n2023  Caroline Dolehide       23     30    30  \n2023  Elina Svitolina         31     24    31  \n2023  Beatriz Haddad Maia     18     31    31  \n2023  Ons Jabeur              32      9    32  \n2023  Belinda Bencic           5     32    32<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
More than ever, a well-rounded game is a necessity for players who hope to reach the top. For fans, “clubs” like these are a useful way to think about which stars are getting the job done on both sides of the ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ll be writing more about analytics and present-day tennis in 2024. Subscribe to the blog to receive each new post by email:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n
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Tireless podcaster Alex Gruskin likes to talk about what he calls the “top-ten, top-15, top-20, and top-25 clubs.” He works out the membership of each one by consulting the Tennis Abstract ATP and WTA stats leaderboards, which display dozens of metrics for each of the top 50 ranked players on both tours. To qualify for … Continue reading The Most Exclusive Clubs In Tennis<\/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":[97,105,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-return-stats","category-serve-statistics","category-toy-stats"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6940","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=6940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennisabstract.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}