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From www.tennisone.com (Bob Larson)
E for Effort
When Andre Agassi bailed out of the Canadian Open after winning Los Angeles, our first response was, "Not this again." After all, Agassi bailed out of Hamburg after winning Rome. He also skipped Monte Carlo (thought that was pretty much expected).
But every gripe contains the germ of an idea. The Masters Series are supposed to be "required" events -- you play or you take a goose egg on your ranking.
So how well is it working? Are people really turning out for these things? We thought we'd check.
We decided to look at Required Event participation over the past two and a half years (since the start of 2000). This has its complications, of course. Not every player is eligible for every Masters Series. Guillermo Canas and Andy Roddick, for instance, missed several last year even after they got their rankings up, because they raised their rankings too late. So we decided to look at the players who were ranked high at the end of the past three years. We wound up with the criterion that players must have been Top 40 at the end of 2001, and Top 40 at the end of at least one of the previous two years, and Top 50 in both. These players are eligible to play all Masters Series, or nearly. There are 27 such players (one of whom, Patrick Rafter, hardly counts in what follows, since he's retired); we threw in a few "near misses" just for fun:
Player .........2001 .2000 .1999
Agassi ........... 3 ... 6 ... 1
Arazi ........... 25 ...30 ...36
Clement ......... 17 ...18 ...56
Corretja .........16 ... 8 ...26
Costa ........... 40 ...26 ...18
El Aynaoui .......38 ...25 ...34
Enqvist ......... 24 ... 9 ... 4
Escude ...........27 ...48 ...37
Federer ......... 13 ...29 ...64
Ferrero ...........5 ...12 ...43
Gambill ......... 21 ...33 ...58
Grosjean ......... 6 ...19 ...27
Haas ............. 8 ...23 ...11
Henman ........... 9 ...10 ...12
Hewitt ........... 1 ... 7 ...22
Hrbaty ...........36 ...17 ...21
Johansson ....... 18 ...39 ...40
Kafelnikov ....... 4 ... 5 ... 2
Kuerten ...........2 ... 1 ... 5
Lapentti .........23 ...24 ... 8
Moya .............19 ...41 ...24
Pavel ........... 28 ...27 ...42
Rafter ........... 7 ...15 ...16
Rios .............39 ...37 ... 9
Rusedski .........31 ...69 ...14
Safin ........... 11 ... 2 ...25
Sampras ......... 10 ... 3 ... 3
Santoro ......... 22 ...31 ...33
Schalken .........26 ...22 ...45
From there, we start counting what they've done. The following table shows how many Grand Slams and Masters Series each of our 29 players played in 2000, 2001, and 2002:
Player . GS/00 MS/00 GS/01 MS/01 GS/02 MS/02
Agassi ..... 4 ... 6 ... 4 ... 7 ... 2 ... 3
Arazi .......4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 4
Clement .....4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Corretja ... 3 ... 8 ... 2 ... 7 ... 2 ... 5
Costa .......3 ... 8 ... 2 ... 9 ... 2 ... 6
El Aynaoui . 4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 4 ... 3 ... 6
Enqvist .....4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Escude ..... 3 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 4
Federer .....4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 7 ... 3 ... 6
Ferrero .....3 ... 9 ... 4 ... 9 ... 2 ... 6
Gambill .....4 ... 5 ... 4 ... 8 ... 3 ... 4
Grosjean ... 4 ... 9 ... 4 ... 7 ... 2 ... 6
Haas ....... 4 ... 7 ... 4 ... 9 ... 2 ... 6
Henman ..... 4 ... 9 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Hewitt ..... 4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Hrbaty ..... 4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 4
Johansson ...4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Kafelnikov . 4 ... 9 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Kuerten .....4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 9 ... 2 ... 3
Lapentti ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Moya ....... 3 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 2 ... 6
Pavel .......3 ... 7 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Rafter ..... 3 ... 7 ... 4 ... 4 ... 0 ... 0
Rios ....... 2 ... 7 ... 3 ... 6 ... 1 ... 4
Rusedski ... 3 ... 6 ... 4 ... 9 ... 2 ... 4
Safin .......4 ... 9 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Sampras .....4 ... 5 ... 4 ... 6 ... 3 ... 5
Santoro .....4 ... 9 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Schalken ... 4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
From this, we can determine exactly how many Required Events each player has played over the past two and a half years (from the 2000 Australian Open to the 2002 Canadian Open):
Player .......Events
Henman ...........35
Kafelnikov .......35
Safin ........... 35
Santoro ......... 35
Clement ......... 34
Enqvist ......... 34
Hewitt ...........34
Johansson ....... 34
Lapentti .........34
Schalken .........34
Ferrero ......... 33
Arazi ........... 32
Federer ......... 32
Grosjean .........32
Haas .............32
Hrbaty ...........32
Moya .............32
Pavel ........... 32
Escude ...........31
Costa ........... 30
Kuerten ......... 30
El Aynaoui .......29
Gambill ......... 28
Rusedski .........28
Corretja .........27
Sampras ......... 27
Agassi ...........26
Rios .............23
Rafter ...........18
There is a certain temptation to call this "willingness to go along with the ATP." That's not really fair -- Safin, for instance, comes out at the top of the list to spite the ATP; he played every Masters Series last year, even when he wasn't healthy, just to force the ATP to pay him. But it's noteworthy that, other than the oft-injured and now-retired Patrick Rafter, the three bottom names on the list are Rios, Agassi, and Sampras.
We can take another twist on this: Let's look at who made the fewest Masters Series appearances, ignoring Slams:
Player ....... Events
Enqvist ...........24
Ferrero ...........24
Henman ........... 24
Kafelnikov ....... 24
Lapentti ......... 24
Safin .............24
Santoro ...........24
Clement ...........23
Costa .............23
Hewitt ........... 23
Johansson .........23
Moya ............. 23
Schalken ......... 23
Grosjean ......... 22
Haas ............. 22
Pavel .............22
Arazi .............21
Escude ........... 21
Federer ...........21
Hrbaty ........... 21
Kuerten ...........21
Corretja ......... 20
Rusedski ......... 19
El Aynaoui ....... 18
Gambill ...........17
Rios ............. 17
Agassi ........... 16
Sampras ...........16
Rafter ........... 11
Ironic, isn't it, that the players the ATP advertises most are the two who play the least at the ATP's biggest events....
E for Effort
When Andre Agassi bailed out of the Canadian Open after winning Los Angeles, our first response was, "Not this again." After all, Agassi bailed out of Hamburg after winning Rome. He also skipped Monte Carlo (thought that was pretty much expected).
But every gripe contains the germ of an idea. The Masters Series are supposed to be "required" events -- you play or you take a goose egg on your ranking.
So how well is it working? Are people really turning out for these things? We thought we'd check.
We decided to look at Required Event participation over the past two and a half years (since the start of 2000). This has its complications, of course. Not every player is eligible for every Masters Series. Guillermo Canas and Andy Roddick, for instance, missed several last year even after they got their rankings up, because they raised their rankings too late. So we decided to look at the players who were ranked high at the end of the past three years. We wound up with the criterion that players must have been Top 40 at the end of 2001, and Top 40 at the end of at least one of the previous two years, and Top 50 in both. These players are eligible to play all Masters Series, or nearly. There are 27 such players (one of whom, Patrick Rafter, hardly counts in what follows, since he's retired); we threw in a few "near misses" just for fun:
Player .........2001 .2000 .1999
Agassi ........... 3 ... 6 ... 1
Arazi ........... 25 ...30 ...36
Clement ......... 17 ...18 ...56
Corretja .........16 ... 8 ...26
Costa ........... 40 ...26 ...18
El Aynaoui .......38 ...25 ...34
Enqvist ......... 24 ... 9 ... 4
Escude ...........27 ...48 ...37
Federer ......... 13 ...29 ...64
Ferrero ...........5 ...12 ...43
Gambill ......... 21 ...33 ...58
Grosjean ......... 6 ...19 ...27
Haas ............. 8 ...23 ...11
Henman ........... 9 ...10 ...12
Hewitt ........... 1 ... 7 ...22
Hrbaty ...........36 ...17 ...21
Johansson ....... 18 ...39 ...40
Kafelnikov ....... 4 ... 5 ... 2
Kuerten ...........2 ... 1 ... 5
Lapentti .........23 ...24 ... 8
Moya .............19 ...41 ...24
Pavel ........... 28 ...27 ...42
Rafter ........... 7 ...15 ...16
Rios .............39 ...37 ... 9
Rusedski .........31 ...69 ...14
Safin ........... 11 ... 2 ...25
Sampras ......... 10 ... 3 ... 3
Santoro ......... 22 ...31 ...33
Schalken .........26 ...22 ...45
From there, we start counting what they've done. The following table shows how many Grand Slams and Masters Series each of our 29 players played in 2000, 2001, and 2002:
Player . GS/00 MS/00 GS/01 MS/01 GS/02 MS/02
Agassi ..... 4 ... 6 ... 4 ... 7 ... 2 ... 3
Arazi .......4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 4
Clement .....4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Corretja ... 3 ... 8 ... 2 ... 7 ... 2 ... 5
Costa .......3 ... 8 ... 2 ... 9 ... 2 ... 6
El Aynaoui . 4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 4 ... 3 ... 6
Enqvist .....4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Escude ..... 3 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 4
Federer .....4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 7 ... 3 ... 6
Ferrero .....3 ... 9 ... 4 ... 9 ... 2 ... 6
Gambill .....4 ... 5 ... 4 ... 8 ... 3 ... 4
Grosjean ... 4 ... 9 ... 4 ... 7 ... 2 ... 6
Haas ....... 4 ... 7 ... 4 ... 9 ... 2 ... 6
Henman ..... 4 ... 9 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Hewitt ..... 4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Hrbaty ..... 4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 4
Johansson ...4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Kafelnikov . 4 ... 9 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Kuerten .....4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 9 ... 2 ... 3
Lapentti ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Moya ....... 3 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 2 ... 6
Pavel .......3 ... 7 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Rafter ..... 3 ... 7 ... 4 ... 4 ... 0 ... 0
Rios ....... 2 ... 7 ... 3 ... 6 ... 1 ... 4
Rusedski ... 3 ... 6 ... 4 ... 9 ... 2 ... 4
Safin .......4 ... 9 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Sampras .....4 ... 5 ... 4 ... 6 ... 3 ... 5
Santoro .....4 ... 9 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
Schalken ... 4 ... 8 ... 4 ... 9 ... 3 ... 6
From this, we can determine exactly how many Required Events each player has played over the past two and a half years (from the 2000 Australian Open to the 2002 Canadian Open):
Player .......Events
Henman ...........35
Kafelnikov .......35
Safin ........... 35
Santoro ......... 35
Clement ......... 34
Enqvist ......... 34
Hewitt ...........34
Johansson ....... 34
Lapentti .........34
Schalken .........34
Ferrero ......... 33
Arazi ........... 32
Federer ......... 32
Grosjean .........32
Haas .............32
Hrbaty ...........32
Moya .............32
Pavel ........... 32
Escude ...........31
Costa ........... 30
Kuerten ......... 30
El Aynaoui .......29
Gambill ......... 28
Rusedski .........28
Corretja .........27
Sampras ......... 27
Agassi ...........26
Rios .............23
Rafter ...........18
There is a certain temptation to call this "willingness to go along with the ATP." That's not really fair -- Safin, for instance, comes out at the top of the list to spite the ATP; he played every Masters Series last year, even when he wasn't healthy, just to force the ATP to pay him. But it's noteworthy that, other than the oft-injured and now-retired Patrick Rafter, the three bottom names on the list are Rios, Agassi, and Sampras.
We can take another twist on this: Let's look at who made the fewest Masters Series appearances, ignoring Slams:
Player ....... Events
Enqvist ...........24
Ferrero ...........24
Henman ........... 24
Kafelnikov ....... 24
Lapentti ......... 24
Safin .............24
Santoro ...........24
Clement ...........23
Costa .............23
Hewitt ........... 23
Johansson .........23
Moya ............. 23
Schalken ......... 23
Grosjean ......... 22
Haas ............. 22
Pavel .............22
Arazi .............21
Escude ........... 21
Federer ...........21
Hrbaty ........... 21
Kuerten ...........21
Corretja ......... 20
Rusedski ......... 19
El Aynaoui ....... 18
Gambill ...........17
Rios ............. 17
Agassi ........... 16
Sampras ...........16
Rafter ........... 11
Ironic, isn't it, that the players the ATP advertises most are the two who play the least at the ATP's biggest events....