British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

paulisi · Tennis legend

Top 500

indiana · Tennis legend

Looking at the women, they will have those 9 in the top 500 on Monday, which with the women's tour finals going on this week will represent the end of the season for which Steven has comparative top 500 stats ( plus 10, 50, 100 & 200 ).*

9 will represent the equal lowest in these 40 years of season ending stats for number in the top 500.*

Cav will drop out on 16/11, though Katie Swan may be in by then ( indeed a QF win this week in Thailand should seal that ) and Freya is closing in.

Overall, in spite of 9 top 500ers being historically low, there does look real potential upside in the next two or three years with youngsters progressing and such as Robbo and Lisa coming back.

I did suggest early in the year that if anyone gets to 20 top 500ers in time it might well be the women before the men, though after a pretty barren first half of the year it's been very pleasing to see the wins and ranking movements in the men of late.

Edit : * actually the following Monday, 09/11, was the official end of season, and with Cav dropping out then, the women's end of season number in the top 500 did drop to 8, and as Steven confirms in this thread on 09/11 this does represent an outright all time end of season low for GB women top 500ers.

-- Edited by indiana on Monday 23rd of November 2015 05:49:39 PM

Spectator · All-time great

I began to be slightly curious about how our ambitions (and reality) fit within the wider context ... so did a slightly random top-500 count. Basically it includes Davis Cup WG or WG play-off teams, Europe-Africa Zone 1, large countries, and random countries where I seemed to remember at least one decent player.

Anyway, this is the very rough result:

Players (ATP) in the top 500

45 for France
39 for the US
37 for Spain
29 for Italy
24 for Argentina and Germany
22 for Australia
17 for Russia
15 for Brazil
14 for Belgium, the Czech Republic
13 for GB and Serbia
12 for Japan
10 for Austria and India
9 for Croatia
8 for the Slovak Republic
7 for Chile and the Netherlands
6 for Belarus, Colombia, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, Taiwan and Ukraine
5 for China
4 for Bosnia, Canada, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea and Uzbekistan
3 for Sweden
2 for Cyprus, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Ireland, Israel, Lithuania and New Zealand
1 for Barbados, Bolivia, Denmark (hurrah for Freddy!), Egypt, Finland (if Jarkko still counts), Hungary, Tunisia and Zimbabwe

By the way, the country selection for the filter is rather fascinating. It includes the People's Republic of Congo (which ceased to be named so in 1991), Scotland (in anticipation? But according to the ATP it has no ranked players) and Rhodesia (and no, Zimbabwe's lone ranked player does not show up twice). Interesting.

Floody78 · Junior player

Threads like this really bring out the geek in me, thanks for posting it!

Ernests Gulbis for Latvia in the bottom grouping too.

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

IMO this is a better indicator of the competitive health of a tennis nation than the number of players in the top 100. Sort of shows that there is a pipeline and options for people to come through over time, or alternatives should the early front runners fall back for any reason.

I wondered if the same countries would figure highly in the women's game. Only had time to look up the first 2 plus GB, but it would suggest it might be the case. If anyone has time to produce as comprehensive a list as Spectator, I'd certainly find it interesting.

France - 21 players

USA - 50 players

GB - 9 players including Cavaday.

paulisi · Tennis legend

I think you will find a very different mix - Russia for example have 40 players and even Slovakia has 11 players.

A lot more from Eastern Europe and the Far East

-- Edited by paulisi on Friday 30th of October 2015 01:50:08 PM

paulisi · Tennis legend

Based on nations in top 100 WTA

USA 50
Russia 40
Cz 27
Japan 26
China/Italy 23
France 21
Ukraine 18
Romania/Germany 16
Spain 15
Australia/Croatia 13
Belgium/Slovenia 11
Serbia /Swiss 10
GB/Bulgaria 9
Poland 8
Canada/Hungary 6
Sweden/Slovakia 5
Kazak/Belarus/Brazil 4
Latvia 3
Estonia/Denmark 2
Montenegro/Puerto Rico/Colombia 1

The Optimist · ATP qualifying

Thanks for doing that Paulisi. You're right, a definite Eastern European/Asian skew to the women's list. I've been aware of how good the US women have been doing, but was somewhat amazed to see as many as 50 in the top 500. However, a bit sad that, as a grand-slam nation with a rich association that we're in 13th (male) and 10th (women) places in the list - and an awful long way down from the top dogs In terms of absolute numbers. I guess it comes from the very narrow focus on a few players of either sex from a very young age. That and the general lack of marketing or pizazz generated around the sport apart from the grass season. I read a post from sherbert regarding Neil P playing in front of her, his parents and a sizeable group of enthusiastic Estonians at a futures event. I nearly wept. A crowd of 5 at a futures in this country would be cause for celebration.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

14

paulisi · Tennis legend

Men 14, Women 9

Men's cut off is 76pts - Marcus W has 101, Ed Corrie 86, Richard Gabb 80 then below the line Dave Rice 67, Joe Salisbury 57, James Marsalek 49

Women's cut off is 55pts - Tara Moore has 107, Harriet Dart 91, Naomi Cavaday 65 then below the line Freya Christie 48, Katie Swan 46, Laura Robson 45

paulisi · Tennis legend

Bob must be getting very excited - Dave R is hovering around the 500 mark. Lloyd is pushing on along with various others(just need Joe S to have a good singles week and Neil to have another good run next week and it may happen) Who will be the other 2? Marzi and Evan?

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
Bob must be getting very excited - Dave R is hovering around the 500 mark. Lloyd is pushing on along with various others(just need Joe S to have a good singles week and Neil to have another good run next week and it may happen) Who will be the other 2? Marzi and Evan?

Problem is that both Dave R and Rich G have a few points to come off before the end of the year so their place in that Top 500 is not secure/confirmed. But you are right though. I doesn't stop me from getting excited

Come on guys. We can do this.

indiana · Tennis legend

About half way through the year, I would never have seen 'the 20' as remotely in the ballpark this year, nor probably next year if I'm honest, so this has all most certainly livened up over recent months.

Very good to see

DF · Tennis legend

What exactly is the aim ?

paulisi · Tennis legend

The target is 20 men inside the top 500 at anyone time and is seen (by us) as the benchmark for depth in men's tennis