Tennis Open Era

The Open Era in tennis began in 1968, when the Grand Slam events such as the Wimbledon Championships abandoned the longstanding rules of amateurism and allowed professionals to compete.

Professionals, hitherto a rather small part of the tennis scene, swiftly achieved overwhelming dominance.

Open Era Facts/Records

Pete Sampras of the United States holds the record for most Grand Slam singles events won in the Open Era, with 14. This is an absolute record for any man.
- Shares record with Roger Federer of having had 4 winning streaks of 20 or more consecutive matches.

Rod Laver of Australia is the only male player to win the Grand Slam in the open era.

Roger Federer of Switzerland holds several Open Era records:
- Longest winning streak on hard court: 56 (2005-06).
- Longest winning streak against Top-10 players: 26 (2003-2005).
- Most finals won in succession: 24 (2003-2005).
- Highest number of ranking points at the end of the year: 6,725 (2005).
- Highest number of ranking points at any time of the year: 7,275 (2006).
- Highest number of Race points (since 2000): 1,345 (2005).
- Earliest to seal Year-end No. 1 spot: September (2004).
- Winner of his first 7 Grand Slam finals.
- First man to win 4 ATP Masters Series (since 1990) titles in one season.
- Has held a record-tying (with Pete Sampras) 4 winning streaks of 20 or more consecutive matches:
  - 23 (Jun 2004-Aug 2004: W Halle, Wimbledon, Gstaad, Toronto, 1st round Cincinnati).
  - 26 (Aug 2004-Jan 2005: W U.S. Open, Bangkok, Tennis Masters Cup, Doha, SF Australian Open).
  - 25 (Feb 2005-Apr 2005: W Rotterdam, Dubai, Indian Wells AMS, Miami AMS, QF Monte Carlo).
  - 35 (Jun 2005-Nov 2005: W Halle, Wimbledon, Cincinnati AMS, U.S. Open, Davis Cup match, Bangkok, F Tennis Masters Cup).
- First man to win at least 10 titles in a season without losing in a final (2004).
- First man ever to record "double bagel" at a Year-End Championship (Federer b. Gastón Gaudio, SF 2005 Tennis Masters Cup).
- Only player to have won consecutive Wimbledon and US Open titles in back-to-back years.
- Has reached 11 consecutive finals between June 2005 and April 2006.

Ivan Lendl
- Longest match winning streak indoors: 66 (between October 1981 and January 1983).
- Shares Grand Prix record with Jimmy Connors (1974) and Guillermo Vilas (1977) for most tournaments won in a single year: 15 (1982).
- Only player to have won three tournaments in consectutive weeks on three different surfaces.

2005
- Rafael Nadal of Spain became the first male teenager to reach the second place in the ATP Entry Rankings since Boris Becker.
- Nadal has won 8 titles on clay in 2005, most since Thomas Muster (7) in 1995.
- Nadal's 24 match winning streak is the longest streak of any teenager in the Open Era.
- For the first time since 1990 two men have won 10 singles titles each in one season: Roger Federer (11) and Rafael Nadal (11).
2006
- Roger Federer's victory at the Australian Open meant his 7th win in 7 Grand Slam finals; a record. Only Williams Renshaw and Richard Sears achieved the same feat, but they played in 19th century. Interestingly, all of Renshaw's wins came at Wimbledon and all of Sears' wins at the U.S. Open.
- Federer became the first player to win the Indian Wells-Miami double for the second consecutive year.

Margaret Smith Court of Australia holds the Open Era record for most Grand Slam singles titles by any person, with 24.
Margaret Court Smith and Steffi Graf are the only two female players to win the Grand Slam in the open era. Graf also won the Olympic gold medal that year (1988), making her the only player ever to win the Golden Slam.
2003
- Jennifer Capriati (U.S.) became the first woman in the Open Era to lose in the first round as a defending champion. (Anastasia Myskina (Russia) would follow her example at the 2005 French Open).
2005
- Justine Henin-Hardenne (Belgium) lost in the first round at Wimbledon and became the first reigning French Open champion to do that.
- Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) became the fourth woman to lose in her opening match as a defending Grand Slam champion at the 2005 US Open.
- Maria Sharapova became the first Russian women to reach the number one spot in the rankings, holding it for 7 non-consecutive weeks. 22 August 2005
- Lindsay Davenport created history in Indian wells 2005, while holding the top spot, by becoming the first ever player to double bagel (defeat by 6-0, 6-0) Maria Sharapova - it was the first time in history of tennis when a player in the top three had been double-bageled.