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Carlos Alcaraz breaks into the list, going immediately to 28th, after winning the US Open and reaching the World number 1 ranking.
We'll have to wait and see where he reaches in 10 years.
Also noteworthy is that Holger Rune 63rd. This is helped by his 4-1 win record against top 5 players, which is coming from a very small sample, so it might be misleading. It will get more accurate in the coming years as he plays more matches against top 5 players.
For the last couple of years' rankings, see:
Greatest Tennis Players of the Open Era - by Surface (Year-End 2021) | Mens Tennis Forums
Greatest Tennis Players of the Open Era - by Surface (Year-End 2020) | Mens Tennis Forums
Methodology follows the first table.
Top 100 GOAT list - all surfaces (active players are highlighted in green):
![Font Rectangle Line Parallel Pattern]()
Top movers in 2022
The biggest movers of the year were 1) Djokovic (Wimbledon, Tour finals, spent half the year as world number 1), Nadal (2 slams), and Daniil Medvedev (primarily because he reached the World Number 1 ranking).
The top movers list excludes Alcaraz and rune because they didn't have any points last year.
![Facial expression Smile Handwriting Rectangle Font]()
Methodology:
The focus was to try and be as objective as humanly possible.
1. Screening: only players who have won at least 1 grand slam, or 1 Masters 10000, an ATP finals title, or an Olympic Gold Medal are screened in.
2. Criteria were decided such that they were 1) generally recognized as important records, and 2) unambiguously positive/good (example: number of weeks in 2nd place doesn't count as unambiguously good, because 2nd place isn't as good as first), 3) not too nichey (number of slams won without losing a set is somewhat nichey), 4) not based on timing at all (e.g. no number of consecutive titles, or CYGS) and 5) in the Open Era.
3. Two lists are compiled with all the criteria, and each player's score.
4. There are 5 GOAT lists (a total one, and one for each surface:
GOAT lists: The first list, which I am calling the "GOAT" list, measures players' greatness mostly based on their achievements, putting a lot of weight on Grand Slams and other big titles. This is done by surface - so there are 5 of these lists. There is one overall list, and one for each surface (hard courts, clay, grass, and carpet)
Criteria for GOAT list:
Number of Grand Slams: 50 points
Number of World Tour Finals: 25 points
Number of Olympic Gold Medals: 25 points
Number of Masters 1000: 10 points
Number of ATP 500 tournaments: 4 points
Number of ATP 250 tournaments: 2 points
Peak Elo rating: 50 points per every standard deviation above the minimum (approximately 50 GOAT points per 135 Elo ranking points above the minimum of 1910)
Winning percentage in Grand Slams: 50 points per standard deviation above the minimum
Winning percentage against Top 5 players: 50 points per standard deviation above the minimum
Total weeks at Number 1: 1 point per week
Number 1 bonus: 50 bonus points to any player who has ever been Number 1
PS: note that for the lists by surface, there are a couple of methodological differences compared with the overall GOAT list. First, there are no ATP rankings by surface, so to compute the weeks at number 1 by surface, I use the Elo rankings provided by Ultimate Tennis Statistics - Rankings Table. The second difference is that instead of using the winning percentage in Grand Slams, I use the winning percentage in Big Titles - that's mainly because the Carpet surface never had a Grand Slam, so I wanted to keep things consistent.
Here are the tables by surface:
HARD COURT GOAT:
![Line Parallel Font Rectangle Pattern]()
CLAY COURT GOAT:
![Rectangle Line Font Parallel Pattern]()
GRASS COURT GOAT:
![Font Parallel Pattern Rectangle Screenshot]()
CARPET COURT GOAT:
![Font Parallel Pattern Rectangle Number]()
We'll have to wait and see where he reaches in 10 years.
Also noteworthy is that Holger Rune 63rd. This is helped by his 4-1 win record against top 5 players, which is coming from a very small sample, so it might be misleading. It will get more accurate in the coming years as he plays more matches against top 5 players.
For the last couple of years' rankings, see:
Greatest Tennis Players of the Open Era - by Surface (Year-End 2021) | Mens Tennis Forums
Greatest Tennis Players of the Open Era - by Surface (Year-End 2020) | Mens Tennis Forums
Methodology follows the first table.
Top 100 GOAT list - all surfaces (active players are highlighted in green):
Top movers in 2022
The biggest movers of the year were 1) Djokovic (Wimbledon, Tour finals, spent half the year as world number 1), Nadal (2 slams), and Daniil Medvedev (primarily because he reached the World Number 1 ranking).
The top movers list excludes Alcaraz and rune because they didn't have any points last year.
Methodology:
The focus was to try and be as objective as humanly possible.
1. Screening: only players who have won at least 1 grand slam, or 1 Masters 10000, an ATP finals title, or an Olympic Gold Medal are screened in.
2. Criteria were decided such that they were 1) generally recognized as important records, and 2) unambiguously positive/good (example: number of weeks in 2nd place doesn't count as unambiguously good, because 2nd place isn't as good as first), 3) not too nichey (number of slams won without losing a set is somewhat nichey), 4) not based on timing at all (e.g. no number of consecutive titles, or CYGS) and 5) in the Open Era.
3. Two lists are compiled with all the criteria, and each player's score.
4. There are 5 GOAT lists (a total one, and one for each surface:
GOAT lists: The first list, which I am calling the "GOAT" list, measures players' greatness mostly based on their achievements, putting a lot of weight on Grand Slams and other big titles. This is done by surface - so there are 5 of these lists. There is one overall list, and one for each surface (hard courts, clay, grass, and carpet)
Criteria for GOAT list:
Number of Grand Slams: 50 points
Number of World Tour Finals: 25 points
Number of Olympic Gold Medals: 25 points
Number of Masters 1000: 10 points
Number of ATP 500 tournaments: 4 points
Number of ATP 250 tournaments: 2 points
Peak Elo rating: 50 points per every standard deviation above the minimum (approximately 50 GOAT points per 135 Elo ranking points above the minimum of 1910)
Winning percentage in Grand Slams: 50 points per standard deviation above the minimum
Winning percentage against Top 5 players: 50 points per standard deviation above the minimum
Total weeks at Number 1: 1 point per week
Number 1 bonus: 50 bonus points to any player who has ever been Number 1
PS: note that for the lists by surface, there are a couple of methodological differences compared with the overall GOAT list. First, there are no ATP rankings by surface, so to compute the weeks at number 1 by surface, I use the Elo rankings provided by Ultimate Tennis Statistics - Rankings Table. The second difference is that instead of using the winning percentage in Grand Slams, I use the winning percentage in Big Titles - that's mainly because the Carpet surface never had a Grand Slam, so I wanted to keep things consistent.
Here are the tables by surface:
HARD COURT GOAT:
CLAY COURT GOAT:
GRASS COURT GOAT:
CARPET COURT GOAT:
There is no such nomenclature. Just call it ATP finals or tour finals.
