Most tennis fans know who Greg Sharko is, if only by reputation. He’s the director of media information for the ATP, a gold-level follow on Twitter (@SharkoTennis), and a master statistician who goes to sleep each night with a smile on his face, counting not sheep but unforced forehand errors at break-point down.
They call Greg “Shark”—how could he have any other nickname, even if his personality is a lot more panda than Great White? Shark is a universally popular and relied upon source of what I think of as “liquid statistics”—stats that must be created in a rolling, ongoing fashion to meet some need of the moment, like the answer to the question, “When was the last time Portugal had two players in the quarterfinals of an ATP 250 and both were obliged to play their next match against lefthanders?”
Ok, I exaggerate. But not by much.
Thankfully, Shark hasn’t been replaced by algorithms yet. For we rely on him to ask what in his line of work amounts to the equivalent of existential questions like, “What is the meaning of life?” Stuff like, “When was the last time all four semifinalists advanced at a major after winning in straight sets?” Or, “How many men have come back from match-point down in two matches to win a tournament?”
Each year, Shark culls various stats and comes up with “highlights.” He emailed the 2013 edition to me and others the other day, so let me share some of his findings with you.
—Bob and Mike Bryan won 11 doubles titles for the third time in their careers, and finished No. 1 for a record ninth time (in 11 years).
—It was a great year for breaking through to the promised land. Eight of the 33 players who won at least one ATP tournament in 2013 (there were 65 events in all) were first-timers; the only player who won his first ATP title in 2012 was Martin Klizan.
—Spain was the most prolific nation among the 19 that produced champions, bagging over 25 percent of the titles on offer (17) thanks to the efforts of six different players in 35 finals. That meant a Spaniard was in more than half of all finals played in 2013.
—Eleven men aged 30 or over accounted for 16 titles—the most since 19 “elders” won tournaments in 1975.
—A record 30 players surpassed $1 million mark in prize money in 2013.
—The lowest ranked player to win a title? That was 32-year-old Nicolas Mahut, who was ranked No. 240 when he won ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
—The youngest titlist? Twenty-year-old Bernard Tomic, who won Sydney.
—The biggest rankings leap into the Top 100 was that of Pablo Carreno Busta, who gained 650 spots to earn a year-end ranking of 65. Ten players jumped at least 100 places to finish in the ATP Top 100.
—The Top 50 player who made the biggest advance in 2013 was Ernests Gulbis, who rose 115 places from his year-end ranking in 2012. At the start of 2013, Gulbis was down to No. 139 and talking trash about all the guys ranked above him. Give the wacky Latvian credit, he turned out to be right when it came to 115 of those guys. Gulbis finished last year No. 24, tying his previous best year-end ranking.
—The youngest player in the Top 100 was Jiri Vesely, who’s 20. The oldest in the Top 100 was 35-year-old Tommy Haas, who finished the year at No. 12. He was the oldest plater to reach the Top 20 since Agassi did it at the same age. (Even more impressively, Agassi made it all the way to No. 7 in 2005.)
—The 17 combined titles won by No. 1 Rafael Nadal (10 titles) and No. 2 Novak Djokovic were the most by a sum of the top two players’ haul since 2006. That year, Roger Federer won 12 and Nadal won five. In 2013, Nadal and Djokovic won three of the four majors and a whopping eight of the nine Masters 1000 events.
This one merits a little further analysis and comparison.
Does anything more convincingly underscore the theory that tennis is a sport of instant gratification—and near-instant amnesia—than a quick look back at stats like these?