NADAL , FEDERER , DJOKOVIC , MURRAY / THE BIG FOUR @ THE FOUR GRAND SLAMS BY DR. DON BROSSEAU

Written by: Tennischiro on 30th July 2014

NADAL , FEDERER , DJOKOVIC , MURRAY / THE BIG FOUR @ THE FOUR GRAND SLAMS BY DR. DON BROSSEAU

epa04035823 Andy Murray of Britain is seen during his quarter final match against Roger Federer of Switzerland at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 22 January 2014. EPA/JOE CASTRO AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

The Big Four in the Four Grand Slams

If you take a look at Part 2 of this series on the Big Four

https://archive.10sballs.com/2014/07/25/more-from-10s-chiro-federer-murray-djokovic-rafael-nadal-part-2/

you will see that since they first took up the first four slots on September 8, 2008 only in 2009 when Del Potro won the US Open and 2012 when Rafa was out for the last half of the year and David Ferrer had a great year has anyone else been able to pierce the 6000 point barrier.

You can find Part 1 at

https://archive.10sballs.com/2014/07/25/federer-nadal-murray-the-bouncer-novak-djokovic/

In fact, in checking the ATP Year End ranking figures back to the beginning of the “ATP World Tour” in 1990, no one else (with the two exceptions of Ferrer and Del Potro who both broke into the 6000’s at year-end only once) has managed to crack that 6000 point barrier and they have done it numerous times. Perhaps they changed the points schedule in 2009, but from year-end 2009 to year-end 2012, Andy Murray at 5760 points at year-end 2010 was the only total below 6000 points for any of the Big Four.

Just look at the year-end totals for each player for 2008 through 2013, which includes the bad years for injuries for all of them.

Year end totals and cumulative from 2008 to 2013:

Federer: 5305, 10550, 9145, 8170, 11075, 4205 = 48450

Nadal: 6675, 9205, 12450, 9595, 6690, 13030 = 57645

Djokovic: 5295, 8310, 6240, 13630, 12920, 12260 = 58655

Murray: 3720, 7030, 5760, 7380, 8000, 5790 = 37680

source – ATP Year End rankings on the ATP website:

12/29/2008: 1.RN(6675) 2.RF(5305) 3.ND(5295) 4.AM(3720) 5.NiD(2715)

12/28/2009: 1.RF(10550) 2.RN(9205) 3.ND(8310) 4.AM(7030) 5.DP(6785)

12/27/2010: 1.RN(12450) 2.RF(9145) 3.ND(6240) 4.AM(5760) 5.RS(5580)

12/26/2011: 1.ND(13630) 2.RN(9595) 3.RF(8170) 4.AM(7380) 5.DF(4925)

12/31/2012: 1.ND(12920) 2.RF(10265) 3.AM(8000) 4.RN(6690) 5.DF(6505)

12/30/2013: 1.RN(13030) 2.ND(12260) 3.DF(5800) 4.AM(5790) 5.DP(5255) 6.RF(4205)

07/07/2014: 1.ND(13130) 2.RN(12670) 3.RF(6100) 4.SW(5770) 5.TB(4410) 10.AM(3040)

What becomes clear is that in recent years, about 6000 points will nearly guarantee you a spot in the top 4, maybe even the top 3. If you are really in the top 4 in any tournament, you should make it to the semifinals. And if you were a member of the Big Four during this stretch, you didn’t have to beat any of the other members of the Big Four to get to the semis. If you could average semifinals in the Australian, French, Wimbledon and US Open, you were already halfway to that number four ranking and the associated seeding. The majors are worth 2000 to win, 1200 for finals, 720 for semis and 360 for quarters.

So let’s look at the performance of the Big Four in the majors over the last 6 years. Just to figure out an average performance (this is not a linear correlation to the actual points they are earning), I’m going to award 8 points for a win, 4 points for finals, 2 points for semis, 1 point for quarters and 1/2 point for round of 16 and 1/4 point for round of 32 and 1/8 point for 2nd round and 0 for 1st round loss. We’ll start with 2008, the initial year they all made the top 4.

10S Chiro’s Grand Slam Index

Australian French Wimbledon US Open

Federer:

2008 2 4 4 8

2009 4 8 8 4

2010 8 1 1 2

2011 2 4 1 2

2012 2 2 8 1

2013 2 1 1/8 1/2

20+ 20+ 22 1/8+ 17 1/2= 79 5/8

79.625/24 = 3.32

2014 2+ 1/2+ 4 = 6.5/3 = 2.17

Note: Just think what Federer’s Index would be for 2004 through 2009 when he reached the semis 22 times in a row (23rd in 2010) and won 14 majors.

Nadal:

2008 2 8 8 2

2009 8 1/2 – 2

2010 1 8 8 8

2011 1 8 4 4

2012 4 8 1/8 –

2013 – 8 0 8

16+ 40 1/2+ 20 1/8+ 24 = 100 5/8

100.625/21 = 4.79

2014 4+ 8+ 1/2 = 12.5/3 = 4.17

Djokovic:

2008 8 2 1/8 2

2009 1 1/4 1 2

2010 1 1 2 4

2011 8 2 8 8

2012 8 4 2 4

2013 8 2 4 4

34+ 11 1/4+ 17 1/8+ 24 = 86 3/8

86.375/24 = 3.60

2014 1+ 4+ 8 = 13/3 = 4.33

Murray:

2008 0 1/4 1 4

2009 1/2 1 2 1/2

2010 4 1/2 2 1/4

2011 4 2 2 2

2012 2 1 4 8

2013 4 – 8 1

14 1/2+ 4 3/4+ 19+ 15 3/4 = 54

54/23 = 2.35

2014 1+ 2+ 1 = 4/3 = 1.33

So, summarizing those 10S Chiro Grand Slam Indices for 2008 to 2013,

Nadal = 4.79 means he is averaging better than a final which means over 5000 points per year just from the 4 Majors.

Djokovic = 3.60 means he is significantly behind Nadal, but for the last 3 3/4 years, he is well ahead with an average of almost 5 (73/15 = 4.87) to Nadal’s (57/13 = 4.38).

Federer = 3.32 shows he is still competitive, especially vs Murray’s 2.35. Even in the last 3 3/4 years, Fed holds a better than semis average at 2.13, despite giving away a good 4 or 5 years to the others. Murray comes in at (42/14 = 3.0) for the last 3 3/4 years with his recent wins at Wimbledon and the US Open. But over the longer span of dominance of these four players as the Big Four, Murray is really a little behind.

Still, all four of these players manage to average better than semifinals in the Grand Slam events over time with their finals appearances and victories. That means they have half the points they need to stay ahead of the rest of the field in just those 4 events. And they really have separated themselves from the rest of the field over the last 7 years.

In Part 4 of this Big Four series, I will try to explain why the next 3 weeks in Washington, D.C. and especially Toronto and Cincinnati are so important.

10sChiro

to see other articles by 10sChiro, go to

https://archive.10sballs.com/category/columnists/dr-chiro/

https://archive.10sballs.com/author/don/

For more information about about lessons with TennisChiro at Griffith Park or Arcadia Park or his videotaping and analysis service, just dial **tennispro on your cell phone. You will get a text with his email and phone number

Topics: 10sballs, 10sChiro, Andy Murray, Atp, Federer, Grand Slams, Novak Djokovic, Rafa, Rf, Tennis, Tennis News, The Big Four

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10sBalls_com says:

July 30, 2014 at 11:28 am

@RafaelNadal, @rogerfederer, @DjokerNole, @andy_murray /THE BIG FOUR @ THE FOUR GRAND SLAMS BY DR. DON BROSSEAU- http://t.co/26kwL4lJ71 #ATP
TheBoodles says:

July 30, 2014 at 12:03 pm

RT @10sBalls_com: @RafaelNadal, @rogerfederer, @DjokerNole, @andy_murray /THE BIG FOUR @ THE FOUR GRAND SLAMS BY DR. DON BROSSEAU- http://t…