The Tennis world has often had the perception around a very even Women’s tour, and a very top-heavy Men’s tour dominated by a couple of all-time greats.
Having a look back to the start of 2017, looking at the last 5 years (factoring in the reduced 2020 and the incomplete 2022), we thought we’d analyse the spread of tour victories, and compare that to slams.
The consensus is that the slams have largely been dominated by Djokovic and Nadal, but the spread across the broader tour hasn’t been as obvious.
The Women’s game is certainly transitioning post the dominance of Serena Williams, who has just 2 WTA tour titles and 1 slam since the start of 2017.
The Men’s tour saw a rejuvenated Federer win 3 majors across 2017/2018 before Djokovic and Nadal won every major bar the last 3 US Opens after that.
Across each of those 5 years, the spread of winners across both tours is even, with 33.3 different players winning ATP titles on average each year, and 33.7 on the WTA tour.
Men have had a greater tendency to win multiple titles and go on strong runs with an average of just under 13 multiple title winners a year compared to 10.5 on the WTA tour.
Overall, the top 5 men on the ATP tour during that time have won 95 titles between them, compared to 57 amongst the top 5 women.
Within seasons that is even more telling, with 10 men winning at least 5 titles in 1 year, compared to only the 4 women.
Iga Swiatek is currently enjoying the most dominant WTA season by any player since Serena Williams in 2013 with 7 individual titles, including 2 slams.
Roger Federer’s 7 titles in 2017 is the peak for the men in that time, and he also won 2 majors.
Significantly, Alexander Zverev has won 19 tour titles without winning a slam. This is 4 more titles than the most prolific player on the WTA tour, Ash Barty, but Barty is an Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon champion.
If you look at the slams, that is where the difference is most telling. 6 players have won slams on the Men’s tour since the start of 2017, compared to 15 women.
Osaka with 4, Barty and Swiatek with 3 have been the standouts on the Women’s tour, but Djokovic and Nadal have won a staggering 17 between them of the 23 on offer.
The number of different Women to win titles overall amounts to 34% of the total tournaments played, compared to 31% amongst Men. However, in slams it is 65% compared to 26%.
The dominance of the Men’s tour in the last 2-3 years has gradually shifted with Tsitsipas (9), Ruud (9), Alcaraz (6), Sinner (6), Hurkacz (5) and Berrettini (7) making inroads on tour, but so far producing just 1 slam title between them.
As always, that is the next step. The next generation of men transitioning from best of 3 to best of 5 and started to bring down the top couple of stars.
Just maybe, Iga Swiatek is about to flip the entire script and become the dominant force on the women’s tour for the next decade.
ATP:
2017: Events 67, Winners 35, Multiple winners 14
2018: Events 67, Winners 38, Multiple winners 16
2019: Events 66, Winners 40, Multiple winners 12
2020: Events 32, Winners 19, Multiple winners 8
2021: Events 62, Winners 32, Multiple winners 15
2022: Events 56, Winners 36, Multiple winners 11
AVERAGE: 33.33 winners per year, 12.7 multiple.
WTA:
2017: Events 60, Winners 43, Multiple 11
2018: Events 58, Winners 35, Multiple 14
2019: Events 58, Winners 36, Multiple 14
2020: Events 24, Winners 18, Multiple 4
2021: Events 56, Winners 39, Multiple 10
2022: Events 48, Winners 31, Multiple 10
AVE: 33.66 winners per year, 10.5
TOP 5 TITLES
WOMEN
15 Barty
12 Svitolina
10 Swiatek
10 Halep
10 Kvitova
10 Sabalenka
10 Pliskova
MEN
24 Djokovic
23 Nadal
19 Zverev
15 Federer
14 Medvedev
TOP 5 SLAMS
WOMEN
4 Osaka
3 Barty
3 Swiatek
2 Halep
1 Eleven players
MEN
9 Djokovic
8 Nadal
3 Federer
1 Medvedev, Alcaraz, Thiem
Players to win 5 titles in 1-year (MEN)
7 Federer (2017)
6 Nadal (2017)
6 Zverev (2017)
6 Zverev (2021)
5 Nadal (2018)
5 Djokovic (2019)
5 Thiem (2019)
5 Rublev (2020)
5 Djokovic (2021)
5 Ruud (2021)
5 Sinner (2021)
5 Alcaraz (2022)
Players to win 5 titles in 1 year (WOMEN)
7 Swiatek (2022)
5 Svitolina (2017)
5 Kvitova (2018)
5 Barty (2021)
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