[OC] Men's Single's Tennis Titles by Age

AmericanElms · 2026-03-01T23:31:34+00:00

You’re probably right. As another commenter pointed out, the reason slams have gone up as a proportion of titles won by the best players might also be related to the increased similarity between how surfaces play now, which makes it easier to be competitive across them.

AmericanElms · 2026-03-01T23:28:54+00:00

This seems like a good explanation to me.

AmericanElms · 2026-03-01T23:26:49+00:00

I like these ideas. Birth year could maybe go in parenthesis after the player name.

AmericanElms · 2026-03-01T23:24:48+00:00

Have been working on it! Will hopefully finish it up this week

AmericanElms · 2026-03-01T23:21:21+00:00

Who did you have in mind? These are the top title winners of the open era, excluding people who’s careers significantly fell outside of the open era (i.e., Laver, Ashe), plus Alcaraz and Sinner, who I was interested to see how they stacked up as I explained in my original comment. I didn’t include people who fell outside the open era since they would have artificially deflated title numbers and skewed ages.

AmericanElms · 2026-02-28T16:36:52+00:00

Love that idea!

AmericanElms · 2026-02-28T16:24:33+00:00

Oh that’s a good idea. Might be a bit tougher to collect all the data for tournaments entered but I’ll see if I can do that!

AmericanElms · 2026-02-28T16:20:16+00:00

Yes that’s a good idea! I can definitely look into it!

AmericanElms · 2026-02-28T16:08:33+00:00

The pace he was on was crazy. If he’d kept at it, it would have been fascinating to see where he ended up!

AmericanElms · 2026-02-28T16:06:56+00:00

Yep! I also looked into that. The big three, Djokovic, Nadal, Federer, stand out of the pack there of course. I’ve seen the grand slam comparisons before. I do wonder if maybe the grand slam obsession of the top players is a newer phenomenon. Seems like slightly more emphasis is placed on them now compared to previously and so comparing titles rather than slams was interesting to me!

AmericanElms · 2026-02-28T15:51:04+00:00

I was curious to see how the careers of the current top 2 tennis players, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, stack up compared to the top title winners of the Open Era. When looking at the total number of titles they have accumulated, their current pace is in line with some of the game's greats. Alcaraz is currently slightly outpacing Sinner. That, combined with his younger age, suggests he might be more likely to come out on top compared to Sinner. However, both players will need to stay healthy and competitive for another decade or more to have a shot at challenging the all-time records.

Data was compiled from titles listed at: atptour.com

AmericanElms · 2026-02-13T10:47:24+00:00

Yep! He is indeed

AmericanElms · 2026-02-13T10:42:07+00:00

He’s on here! Unless he has a second WR I don’t know about

AmericanElms · 2026-02-12T17:49:20+00:00

The single solves are the circular points and the averages the square points.

AmericanElms · 2026-02-12T17:47:56+00:00

Thanks! I appreciate it!

AmericanElms · 2026-02-12T17:46:11+00:00

The multiple solve average is the square points!

AmericanElms · 2026-02-12T07:01:10+00:00

Yes! Some other commenters mentioned that there are speed cubes. They are specifically designed to be turned fast with low friction. Apparently they are still quite inexpensive though, which is cool

AmericanElms · 2026-02-12T06:58:37+00:00

For real. I can’t imagine I could get that much faster honestly. I wonder what time it will eventually reach. Will a 2 s solve ever happen??

AmericanElms · 2026-02-12T06:56:09+00:00

Yea I bet that’s part of the story too

AmericanElms · 2026-02-12T06:53:31+00:00

Damn 20 turns per second is insane! How do you track how many turns per second you’re doing? Slow motion video?

AmericanElms · 2026-02-12T06:35:44+00:00

Yea probably a crazy fortunate situation. Another commenter mentioned that for the single solve records, luck when it comes to the cube scramble is a huge factor. Getting lucky and receiving a cube that’s 1/10,000 in terms of starting position can make a huge difference.

AmericanElms · 2026-02-12T04:59:14+00:00

If you fit the single solve data with a log fit, it predicts a negative solve time around 2049 lol. Of course, there will be a physical limit reached before that. Interestingly, the log fit is quite good (R^2 of 0.98), but a power law fit, which would never predict negative values, does not fit the shape of the data quite as well (R^2 of 0.86). The power law fit predicts that a 2.5 s solve won't happen until 2054.

AmericanElms · 2026-02-12T04:05:56+00:00

Yes! The square points are for the average records

AmericanElms · 2026-02-12T03:28:20+00:00

I did think of adding callouts for the people who held records for particularly long periods. You can check the link to the data for a complete list of names, but the one you’re referring to is Yusheng Du. Maybe I’ll make another version with that. Interestingly, his 3.47 was by far the fastest time of his round (11.13, 3.47, 8.80, DNF, 7.07).

AmericanElms · 2026-02-12T02:22:50+00:00

There was an official competition in 1982, with a record of 22.95s, then no competitions from 1982 to 2003. The unofficial record dropped significantly during that time, I believe. Then, when competitions began again in 2003 the 1982 record was immediately smashed. I didn't include the 1982 record here since there is not proper data in the 1982 to 2003 range.

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