Shark Bites

Australian Open 2009

16.01.2009

Getty ImagesThe ATP World Tour’s Big 4 sets their sights on repeated Grand Slam success.

ATP World Tour stats and information guru Greg Sharko takes a look at the numbers behind the stories on the ATP circuit.

YEAR-END BIG 4 LEAD THE WAY

In the 2008 year-end South African Airways ATP Rankings, the Big 4 of Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray all reached at least one Grand Slam final during the season. The seven total Grand Slam appearances by the year-end Top 4 was also the most since 2000. It was also the first time in five years the top trio each won a Grand Slam title. Since 2000, on six occasions the year-end Top 4 players have each reached at least one Grand Slam final during the season. Here is a look at how that group performed in a Slam final:

Year	No. 1	No. 2	No. 3	No. 4
2008	Nadal	Federer	Djokovic	Murray
	Roland Garros (W) Wimbledon (W)	Roland Garros (F) Wimbledon (F) US Open (W)	Australian Open (W)	US Open (F)
2005	Federer	Nadal	Roddick	Hewitt
	Wimbledon (W) US Open (W)	Roland Garros (W)	Wimbledon (L)	Australian Open (L)
2004	Federer	Roddick	Hewitt	Safin
	Australian Open (W) Wimbledon (W) US Open (W)	Wimbledon (L)	US Open (L)	Australian Open (L)
2003	Roddick	Federer	Ferrero	Agassi
	US Open (W)	Wimbledon (W)	Roland Garros (W) US Open (L)	Australian Open (W)
2002	Hewitt	Agassi	Safin	Ferrero
	Wimbledon (W)	US Open (L)	Australian Open (L)	Roland Garros (L)
2000	Kuerten	Safin	Sampras	Norman
	Roland Garros (W)	US Open (W)	Wimbledon (W) US Open (L)	Roland Garros (L)

FIRST-TIME GRAND SLAM FINALISTS IN OZ

The Australian Open has seen seven first-time Grand Slam finalists in the past decade. All seven of the players, who went on to reach career-high South African Airways ATP Rankings the year of their final run, had never advanced past the quarter-finals at a Grand Slam tournament prior to reaching the Australian Open final. Six of the seven were ranked between No. 18 and No. 54, and five of the seven were playing in their fourth to eighth Australian Open:

Year	First-Time G.S. Finalist (Rank)	Result	A.O. Appearance, Previous Year Result	Best ATP Ranking After
2008	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (No. 38)	l. to Djokovic	2nd, 1st RD	No. 6 (Nov. 17, 2008)
2007	Fernando Gonzalez (No. 9)	l. to Federer	7th, 1st RD	No. 5 (Jan. 29. 2007)
2006	Marcos Baghdatis (No. 54)	l. to Federer	2nd, 4th RD	No. 8 (Aug. 21, 2006)
2003	Rainer Schuettler (No. 36)	l. to Agassi	5th, 3rd RD	No. 5 (Apr. 26, 2004)
2002	Thomas Johannson (No. 26)	d. Safin	8th, 3rd RD	No. 7 (June 10, 2002)
2001	Arnaud Clement (No. 18)	l. to Agassi	4th, 4th RD	No. 10 (Apr. 2, 2001)
1999	Thomas Enqvist (No. 21)	l. to Kafelnikov	8th, 2nd RD	No. 4 (Nov. 15, 1999)

Here are some of the players who fit the criteria and are possible contenders to reach their first Grand Slam final this year in Melbourne:

Rank (1/12/09)	Player	A.O. Appearance	Result in '08	Previous Best G.S. Result
No. 20	Marin Cilic	3rd	4th RD	4th RD
No. 21	Tomas Berdych	6th	4th RD	QF
No. 29	Paul-Henri Mathieu	6th	4th RD	4th RD five times
No. 33	Philipp Kohlschreiber	5th	4th RD	4th RD twice
No. 51	Ernests Gulbis	2nd	1st RD	QF

WORLD NO. 1 DOUBLES WINNERS

Rafael Nadal’s doubles title in Doha marked only the fifth time in the past 20 years a No. 1 singles player has captured an ATP World Tour doubles title. The Doha final was also the first time a No. 1 singles player has played a No. 1 doubles player, Nenad Zimonjic, in a title match on the ATP World Tour (since 1990):

World No. 1	Tournament (partner)
Rafael Nadal	2009 Doha (w/M. Lopez)
Roger Federer	2008 Beijing Olympics (w/Wawrinka)
Roger Federer	2005 Halle (w/Allegro)
Gustavo Kuerten	2001 Acapulco (w/Johnson)
Stefan Edberg	1991 Tokyo (w/Woodbridge)

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