|
For all OE players with 6+ slams - Sampras, Borg, Federer, Lendl, Agassi, Connors, Wilander,
McEnroe, Becker, Edberg - I looked at all their slam losses and assigned a 'hack factor' to each
player they lost to, on a scale of 0-4. All players are listed at the botom of the page with their
hack factors, but in general:
0 - one of the above players, + Newcombe, Vilas, Fed, and Courier.
1 - won 1-3 slams. I knocked Gomez, Costa, and Johansson and Kriek down to level 2.
2 - showed F/SF slam talent.
3 - solid pro, on occasion might reach slam QF/SF
4 - true journeyman, never reached any slam QF
I did this very quickly - I'm certain there will be legit arguments about knocking someone up or
down one level. I'd be surprised if there were arguments about moving someone up or down
_two_ levels, though. I also did not adjust for surfaces, e.g. Costa 2 on clay, 4 on grass, but
since Costa never beat anyone on grass anyway, it's a small thing that I might fix later.
Here are the big guns with their slam losses categorized by hack factor:
Andre Agassi
0 HF - 17
1 HF - 12
2 HF - 9
3 HF - 8
4 HF - 7
GS Losses - 53
Bjorn Borg
0 HF - 6
1 HF - 4
2 HF - 6
3 HF - 1
GS Losses - 17
Boris Becker
0 HF - 15
1 HF - 5
2 HF - 3
3 HF - 12
4 HF - 5
GS Losses - 40
Ivan Lendl
0 HF - 23
1 HF - 9
2 HF - 4
3 HF - 7
4 HF - 6
GS Losses - 49
Jimmy Connors
0 HF - 22
1 HF - 8
2 HF - 9
3 HF - 8
4 HF - 3
GS Losses - 50
John McEnroe
0 HF - 19
1 HF - 2
2 HF - 3
3 HF - 12
4 HF - 2
GS Losses - 38
Mats Wilander
0 HF - 11
1 HF - 6
2 HF - 7
3 HF - 12
4 HF - 1
GS Losses - 37
Pete Sampras
0 HF - 8
1 HF - 11
2 HF - 5
3 HF - 8
4 HF - 6
GS Losses - 38
Roger Federer
0 HF - 1
1 HF - 7
2 HF - 5
3 HF - 7
4 HF - 1
GS Losses - 21
Stefan Edberg
0 HF - 17
1 HF - 7
2 HF - 6
3 HF - 12
4 HF - 6
GS Losses - 48
---------------------
Expressed as % of total losses:
To other greats (Hack Factor 0)
50% John McEnroe
47% Ivan Lendl
44% Jimmy Connors
38% Boris Becker
35% Stefan Edberg
35% Bjorn Borg
32% Andre Agassi
30% Mats Wilander
21% Pete Sampras
5% Roger Federer
To near greats (Hack Factor 1)
33% Roger Federer
29% Pete Sampras
24% Bjorn Borg
23% Andre Agassi
18% Ivan Lendl
16% Mats Wilander
16% Jimmy Connors
15% Stefan Edberg
13% Boris Becker
5% John McEnroe
Combining Hack Factor 0+1:
65% Ivan Lendl
60% Jimmy Connors
59% Bjorn Borg
55% John McEnroe
55% Andre Agassi
50% Boris Becker
50% Stefan Edberg
50% Pete Sampras
46% Mats Wilander
38% Roger Federer
----------------
Loss % to Hack Factor 2:
35% Bjorn Borg
24% Roger Federer
19% Mats Wilander
18% Jimmy Connors
17% Andre Agassi
13% Pete Sampras
13% Stefan Edberg
8% Ivan Lendl
8% John McEnroe
8% Boris Becker
----------------
Loss % to Hack Factor 3:
33% Roger Federer
32% Mats Wilander
32% John McEnroe
30% Boris Becker
25% Stefan Edberg
21% Pete Sampras
16% Jimmy Connors
15% Andre Agassi
14% Ivan Lendl
6% Bjorn Borg
Loss % to Hack Factor 4:
16% Pete Sampras
13% Andre Agassi
13% Boris Becker
13% Stefan Edberg
12% Ivan Lendl
6% Jimmy Connors
5% John McEnroe
5% Roger Federer
3% Mats Wilander
0% Bjorn Borg
Combining Hack Factor 3+4:
43% Boris Becker
38% Roger Federer
38% Stefan Edberg
37% John McEnroe
37% Pete Sampras
35% Mats Wilander
28% Andre Agassi
27% Ivan Lendl
22% Jimmy Connors
6% Bjorn Borg
Becker, the king of hack losses! The Doohan disaster was only the beginning, soon to be
followed by the likes of Cahill, Haarhuis and (shudder) Gilbert.
Also included in Becker's hack losses are Scanlon (84 Wimbledon) and Testerman (84 AO)
which points to the weakness of this measurement - many, if not most, of the bad losses on the
greats' resume came at the beginning or tail end of their careers, and as such should be taken
with a grain of salt. Does Agassi's loss to Benjamin Becker or Sampras' loss to Saceanu (89
AO) really mean anything, in the grand scheme of things? For me, not really. A further
refinement of this study would be to eliminate the back/front end and concentrate only on the bad
losses in the prime of a players' career.
----------------------
Classification of players in study
Hack Factor 0
Andre Agassi
Bjorn Borg
Boris Becker
Guillermo Vilas
Ivan Lendl
Jim Courier
Jimmy Connors
John McEnroe
John Newcombe
Mats Wilander
Pete Sampras
Roger Federer
Stefan Edberg
-----
Hack Factor 1
Adriano Panatta
Arthur Ashe
Carlos Moya
Goran Ivanisevic
Gustavo Kuerten
Ilie Nastase
Juan Carlos Ferrero
Lleyton Hewitt
Manuel Orantes
Marat Safin
Michael Chang
Michael Stich
Pat Cash
Patrick Rafter
Petr Korda
Rafael Nadal
Richard Krajicek
Roscoe Tanner
Sergi Bruguera
Thomas Muster
Vitas Gerulaitis
Yannick Noah
Yevgeny Kafelnikov
--------
Hack Factor 2
Albert Costa
Alberto Berasategui
Alex Corretja
Alex Metreveli
Anders Jarryd
Andrei Medvedev
Andres Gomez
Brian Gottfried
Cedric Pioline
David Nalbandian
Dick Stockton
Guillermo Coria
Guy Forget
Harold Solomon
Henri Leconte
Johan Kriek
Jose Higueras
Jose-Luis Clerc
Kevin Curren
Magnus Norman
Mark Philippoussis
Miloslav Mecir
Nikola Pilic
Phil Dent
Raul Ramirez
Roger Taylor
Roy Emerson
Sebastien Grosjean
Thomas Enqvist
Thomas Johansson
Tim Henman
Todd Martin
Tom Gorman
Victor Pecci
Vijay Amritraj
Wayne Ferreira
----------
Hack Factor 3
Aaron Krickstein
Alexander Volkov
Andrei Cherkasov
Andrei Chesnokov
Arnaud Clement
Ben Testerman
Bernd Karbacher
Bill Scanlon
Bob Carmichael
Brad Gilbert
Brian Teacher
Christian Bergstrom
Christophe Roger-Vasselin
Colin Dibley
Dan Goldie
Darren Cahill
David Wheaton
Derrick Rostagno
Fabrice Santoro
Galo Blanco
Guillermo Perez-Roldan
Henrik Sundstrom
Hicham Arazi
Ismail El Shafei
Jacco Eltingh
Jaime Yzaga
Jarkko Nieminen
Jay Berger
Jiri Novak
Joakim Nystrom
Jonas Bjorkman
Jonas Svensson
Karel Novacek
Karol Kucera
Magnus Larsson
MaliVai Washington
Marc Rosset
Mario Ancic
Mark Cox
Mark Woodforde
Max Mirnyi
Michiel Schapers
Mikael Pernfors
Mikael Tillstrom
Nicklas Kulti
Nicolas Escude
Paradorn Srichaphan
Pat Dupre
Patrick McEnroe
Patrik Kuhnen
Paul Annacone
Paul Haarhuis
Paul Kronk
Paul McNamee
Peter McNamara
Ramesh Krishnan
Slobodan Zivojinovic
Thierry Champion
Tim Gullikson
Todd Woodbridge
Tommy Haas
Wally Masur
--------------
Hack Factor 4
Adrian Voinea
Andrea Gaudenzi
Andrei Olhovskiy
Arnaud Boetsch
Benjamin Becker
Charlie Fancutt
Chris Woodruff
Christian Saceanu
Christo Van Rensburg
Dick Norman
Doug Flach
Eric Winogradsky
Erik Van Dillen
Gary Muller
George Bastl
Gilbert Schaller
Henrik Holm
Horacio De La Pena
Jaime Oncins
Jean-Philippe Fleurian
Jeff Borowiak
Jens Knippschild
Jeremy Bates
Jerome Haehnel
John Fitzgerald
Jonathan Stark
Kenneth Carlsen
Luis Herrera
Luis Horna
Neil Borwick
Neville Godwin
Patrice Kuchna
Peter Doohan
Ramon Delgado
Richey Reneberg
Robert Seguso
Rodolphe Gilbert
Slava Dosedel
Stephane Huet
Todd Witsken
Vincent Spadea
McEnroe, Becker, Edberg - I looked at all their slam losses and assigned a 'hack factor' to each
player they lost to, on a scale of 0-4. All players are listed at the botom of the page with their
hack factors, but in general:
0 - one of the above players, + Newcombe, Vilas, Fed, and Courier.
1 - won 1-3 slams. I knocked Gomez, Costa, and Johansson and Kriek down to level 2.
2 - showed F/SF slam talent.
3 - solid pro, on occasion might reach slam QF/SF
4 - true journeyman, never reached any slam QF
I did this very quickly - I'm certain there will be legit arguments about knocking someone up or
down one level. I'd be surprised if there were arguments about moving someone up or down
_two_ levels, though. I also did not adjust for surfaces, e.g. Costa 2 on clay, 4 on grass, but
since Costa never beat anyone on grass anyway, it's a small thing that I might fix later.
Here are the big guns with their slam losses categorized by hack factor:
Andre Agassi
0 HF - 17
1 HF - 12
2 HF - 9
3 HF - 8
4 HF - 7
GS Losses - 53
Bjorn Borg
0 HF - 6
1 HF - 4
2 HF - 6
3 HF - 1
GS Losses - 17
Boris Becker
0 HF - 15
1 HF - 5
2 HF - 3
3 HF - 12
4 HF - 5
GS Losses - 40
Ivan Lendl
0 HF - 23
1 HF - 9
2 HF - 4
3 HF - 7
4 HF - 6
GS Losses - 49
Jimmy Connors
0 HF - 22
1 HF - 8
2 HF - 9
3 HF - 8
4 HF - 3
GS Losses - 50
John McEnroe
0 HF - 19
1 HF - 2
2 HF - 3
3 HF - 12
4 HF - 2
GS Losses - 38
Mats Wilander
0 HF - 11
1 HF - 6
2 HF - 7
3 HF - 12
4 HF - 1
GS Losses - 37
Pete Sampras
0 HF - 8
1 HF - 11
2 HF - 5
3 HF - 8
4 HF - 6
GS Losses - 38
Roger Federer
0 HF - 1
1 HF - 7
2 HF - 5
3 HF - 7
4 HF - 1
GS Losses - 21
Stefan Edberg
0 HF - 17
1 HF - 7
2 HF - 6
3 HF - 12
4 HF - 6
GS Losses - 48
---------------------
Expressed as % of total losses:
To other greats (Hack Factor 0)
50% John McEnroe
47% Ivan Lendl
44% Jimmy Connors
38% Boris Becker
35% Stefan Edberg
35% Bjorn Borg
32% Andre Agassi
30% Mats Wilander
21% Pete Sampras
5% Roger Federer
To near greats (Hack Factor 1)
33% Roger Federer
29% Pete Sampras
24% Bjorn Borg
23% Andre Agassi
18% Ivan Lendl
16% Mats Wilander
16% Jimmy Connors
15% Stefan Edberg
13% Boris Becker
5% John McEnroe
Combining Hack Factor 0+1:
65% Ivan Lendl
60% Jimmy Connors
59% Bjorn Borg
55% John McEnroe
55% Andre Agassi
50% Boris Becker
50% Stefan Edberg
50% Pete Sampras
46% Mats Wilander
38% Roger Federer
----------------
Loss % to Hack Factor 2:
35% Bjorn Borg
24% Roger Federer
19% Mats Wilander
18% Jimmy Connors
17% Andre Agassi
13% Pete Sampras
13% Stefan Edberg
8% Ivan Lendl
8% John McEnroe
8% Boris Becker
----------------
Loss % to Hack Factor 3:
33% Roger Federer
32% Mats Wilander
32% John McEnroe
30% Boris Becker
25% Stefan Edberg
21% Pete Sampras
16% Jimmy Connors
15% Andre Agassi
14% Ivan Lendl
6% Bjorn Borg
Loss % to Hack Factor 4:
16% Pete Sampras
13% Andre Agassi
13% Boris Becker
13% Stefan Edberg
12% Ivan Lendl
6% Jimmy Connors
5% John McEnroe
5% Roger Federer
3% Mats Wilander
0% Bjorn Borg
Combining Hack Factor 3+4:
43% Boris Becker
38% Roger Federer
38% Stefan Edberg
37% John McEnroe
37% Pete Sampras
35% Mats Wilander
28% Andre Agassi
27% Ivan Lendl
22% Jimmy Connors
6% Bjorn Borg
Becker, the king of hack losses! The Doohan disaster was only the beginning, soon to be
followed by the likes of Cahill, Haarhuis and (shudder) Gilbert.
Also included in Becker's hack losses are Scanlon (84 Wimbledon) and Testerman (84 AO)
which points to the weakness of this measurement - many, if not most, of the bad losses on the
greats' resume came at the beginning or tail end of their careers, and as such should be taken
with a grain of salt. Does Agassi's loss to Benjamin Becker or Sampras' loss to Saceanu (89
AO) really mean anything, in the grand scheme of things? For me, not really. A further
refinement of this study would be to eliminate the back/front end and concentrate only on the bad
losses in the prime of a players' career.
----------------------
Classification of players in study
Hack Factor 0
Andre Agassi
Bjorn Borg
Boris Becker
Guillermo Vilas
Ivan Lendl
Jim Courier
Jimmy Connors
John McEnroe
John Newcombe
Mats Wilander
Pete Sampras
Roger Federer
Stefan Edberg
-----
Hack Factor 1
Adriano Panatta
Arthur Ashe
Carlos Moya
Goran Ivanisevic
Gustavo Kuerten
Ilie Nastase
Juan Carlos Ferrero
Lleyton Hewitt
Manuel Orantes
Marat Safin
Michael Chang
Michael Stich
Pat Cash
Patrick Rafter
Petr Korda
Rafael Nadal
Richard Krajicek
Roscoe Tanner
Sergi Bruguera
Thomas Muster
Vitas Gerulaitis
Yannick Noah
Yevgeny Kafelnikov
--------
Hack Factor 2
Albert Costa
Alberto Berasategui
Alex Corretja
Alex Metreveli
Anders Jarryd
Andrei Medvedev
Andres Gomez
Brian Gottfried
Cedric Pioline
David Nalbandian
Dick Stockton
Guillermo Coria
Guy Forget
Harold Solomon
Henri Leconte
Johan Kriek
Jose Higueras
Jose-Luis Clerc
Kevin Curren
Magnus Norman
Mark Philippoussis
Miloslav Mecir
Nikola Pilic
Phil Dent
Raul Ramirez
Roger Taylor
Roy Emerson
Sebastien Grosjean
Thomas Enqvist
Thomas Johansson
Tim Henman
Todd Martin
Tom Gorman
Victor Pecci
Vijay Amritraj
Wayne Ferreira
----------
Hack Factor 3
Aaron Krickstein
Alexander Volkov
Andrei Cherkasov
Andrei Chesnokov
Arnaud Clement
Ben Testerman
Bernd Karbacher
Bill Scanlon
Bob Carmichael
Brad Gilbert
Brian Teacher
Christian Bergstrom
Christophe Roger-Vasselin
Colin Dibley
Dan Goldie
Darren Cahill
David Wheaton
Derrick Rostagno
Fabrice Santoro
Galo Blanco
Guillermo Perez-Roldan
Henrik Sundstrom
Hicham Arazi
Ismail El Shafei
Jacco Eltingh
Jaime Yzaga
Jarkko Nieminen
Jay Berger
Jiri Novak
Joakim Nystrom
Jonas Bjorkman
Jonas Svensson
Karel Novacek
Karol Kucera
Magnus Larsson
MaliVai Washington
Marc Rosset
Mario Ancic
Mark Cox
Mark Woodforde
Max Mirnyi
Michiel Schapers
Mikael Pernfors
Mikael Tillstrom
Nicklas Kulti
Nicolas Escude
Paradorn Srichaphan
Pat Dupre
Patrick McEnroe
Patrik Kuhnen
Paul Annacone
Paul Haarhuis
Paul Kronk
Paul McNamee
Peter McNamara
Ramesh Krishnan
Slobodan Zivojinovic
Thierry Champion
Tim Gullikson
Todd Woodbridge
Tommy Haas
Wally Masur
--------------
Hack Factor 4
Adrian Voinea
Andrea Gaudenzi
Andrei Olhovskiy
Arnaud Boetsch
Benjamin Becker
Charlie Fancutt
Chris Woodruff
Christian Saceanu
Christo Van Rensburg
Dick Norman
Doug Flach
Eric Winogradsky
Erik Van Dillen
Gary Muller
George Bastl
Gilbert Schaller
Henrik Holm
Horacio De La Pena
Jaime Oncins
Jean-Philippe Fleurian
Jeff Borowiak
Jens Knippschild
Jeremy Bates
Jerome Haehnel
John Fitzgerald
Jonathan Stark
Kenneth Carlsen
Luis Herrera
Luis Horna
Neil Borwick
Neville Godwin
Patrice Kuchna
Peter Doohan
Ramon Delgado
Richey Reneberg
Robert Seguso
Rodolphe Gilbert
Slava Dosedel
Stephane Huet
Todd Witsken
Vincent Spadea