Future Tennis Stars

No one wanted to see Jelena Jankovic win the US Open more than me. Well, maybe Jelena…and her mom. If you didn’t realize it, Jelena is by far and away the most popular player on the site, take a look. Of the top 24 photos on the site, 22 are of Jelena, not bad.

But like I did with the men, I wanted to see just how the women fared in their first Grand Slam final. A total of thirty seven women won a Grand Slam in the Open era. Of those, 15 women lost their first final before taking a Slam while 22 won their first final. After going through both lists, you’re in pretty good company either way.

For those that lost their first Slam:

Those are some big names and big numbers. Those 15 women won a total of 80 Slams and only 5 have 1 Major to their name but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Ana Ivanovic will soon bee off that list. Kerry Reid on the other hand is a safe bet to stay on it.

That’s an average of 5.3 Slams per person but if you take the One Slam Wonders off it and it jumps to 7.5. It took them an average of 10.4 Slams to bag their first Major after reaching their first final. Again, if you take away the One Slam Wonders, that number drops to 8.7.

Now for that other group…

You will notice that the two biggest winners, Court and Graf are in this group, as are Seles, Hingis and Serena. There are also a lot of players that won less than 5 Slams and most of those only won 1.

This group of 22 women won a whopping 103 Slams, an average of 4.6 per player. However, 17 won less than 5 and 9 won only 1. If you take off the One Slam Wonders, that average gets a huge boost to 7.2 Slams but that is lifted of course by Court and Graf who won a combined 46 Slams, almost half of the 103.

So after Serena beat Jelena for the title, I was pissed even though it was a tremendous final. However after looking at the numbers, I must say that it’s encouraging because players who lost their first final are less likely to win only 1 Slam. So relax fellow Jelena fans, it will get better, much better.

For all you diehard Andy Muray fans, I say buck up. The sun did rise this morning and it will be ok. Ask yourself this question, is Murray losing his first Grand Slam final THAT BAD? As it turns out, no, it isn’t.

I had a little time on my hands (bored) when the action was rained out on Saturday when the semifinals and women’s final should have been played. I thought I would hop in my DeLorean and take a trip back to the start of the Open Era and see how the men fared when they either won or lost their first Slam final. Note that although players like Rod Laver reached, then won, their first Major before the Open Era began, I am including players that did win Majors in the Open Era regardless if their first Slam came before 1968.

Of the 49 men that won Slams in the Open Era, 35 won their first Slam final and 14 didn’t.

For those that lost their first Slam final, first let’s take a look at the names: Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Ivan Llendl and Andre Agassi to name a few, did not win their first Slam. Some like Llendl and Agassi took a few finals before they were able to bag their first major and they each went on to win 8 Slams. Not bad.

Let’s take a further look:

Some pretty big names and some pretty good results. Some players like Korda and Ivanisevic won only 1 Slam and had a pretty long stretch between reaching their first final and winning their first title but that’s at the far end.

On average these players won 3.3 Slams and it took them 8.7 Grand Slams from when they reached the finals to when they won their first Major. Of the 14 players in this list, 7 won only one major title. Ferrero and Ivanisevic are pretty safe bets to not win another Slam but I am pretty sure we will be crossing Djokovic off this list soon enough.

Now, if you take off the one Slam wonders, the numbers increase quite a bit. On average, the 7 on the list that did win more than one Slam, won 6.1 Majors and it took them 6.5 Slams to do so. Not bad, not bad at all.

However, if you look at those who did win their first Slam…

Those are some pretty big names. Sampras, Borg, Conners, McEnroe, Federer, Nadal all won their first Slam final. Granted, you get more one Slam wonders in this group like Muster, Gaudio, Chang and others but in total, those 35 men won a total of 124 Slams, an average of 3.5 per player.

If you take away the 16 one Slam wonders the remaining 19 men won 105 Slams, an average of 5.5 per player and of those 19 less than half, only 9, won less than 5 Slams.

So be patient Andy Murray. Newcombe, Llendl, Agassi and Laver all won at least 7 Slams, that’s not bad company to be in.