¹ Jo Durie beat 5th seed Pam Shriver and 4th seed Tracy Austin at Roland Garros 1983 but I can't find a record of their rankings. However at 1982 year-end they were ranked 6 and 4 respectively and Austin was seeded above everyone bar Navratilova, Evert & Jagger (the top 3) in every tournament until the French Open. Only Austin, Shriver and possibly Wendy Turnbull were contenders for no. 4 and Austin/Shriver had the best results since all 3 entered the same event at the end of March. I can't find their 1982 results to see which of the three had points to defend to be 100% sure, so at worst she beat the no. 5 and almost certainly the no. 4 in either Austin or Shriver.
² This was a five set match with each set first to 4 then a tie break. Must have been some sort of experiment! I'm fairly sure she didn't sneak into the men's draw, even if her opponent was named Laurence.
For equal best performances, I've included the first victory. For matches won by retirement, I've counted them if the player was a set up at the time. I've not counted Laura's Hopman cup matches or other exhibitions. The data is a bit patchy prior to 1987, so I'm not sure if I've found the best performances for the older players. Opponents rankings are for the week of the 1st monday of the tournament main draw, even if the win occurred during qualifying the preceeding weekend.
Currently included in the list are:
- All players who currently were ranked 25 Sep 11 and have beaten a ranked opponent
- All players who have beaten a ranked opponent since 25 Sep 11
- All players who have played Wimbledon main draw since 1975 and beaten a top 200 player since Jan 1987 (when rankings were added to results on the WTA site)
- A few earlier players with (usually Grand Slam) results documented
Missing from the list are:
- Amanda Brown who beat a few opponents in the 1983-1986 period that were probably top 100.
- Players from before computer rankings were introduced in 1975.
- Any Others? Please reply if you know about anyone who should be listed.
-- Edited by RBBOT on Sunday 12th of February 2012 09:07:56 PM
-- Edited by RBBOT on Monday 16th of April 2012 10:40:09 PM
Fascinating list. Thanks. Hate to say this but Mel beat Schiavone at Wimbledon back in 2006. At the time Fran was ranked 14th. Naomi Broady beat Kristina Barrois 89 this week.
-- Edited by kundalini on Sunday 25th of September 2011 05:56:42 PM
I had been intending doing a list like this for the women very soon. I was intending just doing it with currently ranked women, i.e. basically very similar to the existing men's thread.
Thanks for doing all this work and thank goodness I wasn't doing similar at the same time
Corrections made and a few more players added. Steven, when you inevitably find some more errors/omissions feel free to directly edit the table!
Great work! If there are any errors/omissions in this table, I doubt it'll be me who finds them, though I might have picked up on the Schiavone omissions if others hadn't got there first.
__________________
GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!
Well, they've just flown down it a bit! I've added the Wimbledon wildcards since 1986 with top 200 wins and all players who currently have a ranking point and have beaten ranked opposition (I hope)
Wow, that must have taken some research! Btw Morita was ranked 47 when the USO draw came out, but 46 when Laura actually beat her.
Got another one for you btw - Helen Parish's win against Marlot Meddens (NED), then WR 350, in Sutton 25K qualifying in 2009 - the match that was the subject of the battling through the snow epic at http://helenparish.co.uk/2010/12/29/tournament-flashback-1/
-- Edited by steven on Monday 26th of September 2011 11:01:21 PM
__________________
GB on a shirt, Davis Cup still gleaming, 79 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming ... 29/11/2015 that dream came true!