Grand Slams: too few top matches for women?
While the best players in the world regularly compete in the Grand Slam tournaments for men, the situation is very different for women.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Jan 28, 2022, 07:15 am
Ashleigh Barty and Iga Swiatek had it in their hands today that two top ten women would still meet at this year's Australian Open. It would have been a match-up between numbers one and seven. Alone: While Barty made short work of Madison Keys, Swiatel defeated Danielle Collins almost as smoothly. And with that, the only meeting of two women who are currently on the top floor of the WTA tour falls through.
The situation is completely different for men. And that despite the fact that Novak Djokovic is missing the best player in the world. But there were already two absolute top meetings in the quarter-finals, first between Stefanos Tsitsipas (4) and Jannik Sinner (10), then between Daniil Medvedev (2) and Félix Auger-Aliassime . After two more top ten men are in the semifinals with Rafael Nadal (5) and Matteo Berrettini, there are three more (according to the world rankings) high-class encounters.
Djokovic, Nadal, Federer almost always in the semifinals
An outlier? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that. Resourceful spirits, above all a fan of Lucas Pouille, who operates on Twitter under the handle "@AnnaK_4ever", published statistics a few days ago that show the number of top ten matchups in certain periods of time. Looking at the last ten majors (i.e. since Wimbledon 2019), there have been 33 of them for men. For women, it remains at seven after the final between Barty and Swiatek burst.
A historic low if you always count back in increments of ten. And also due to the fact that among the men with Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer , Rafael Nadal and for many years Andy Murray there were players who could always be expected at least in the semifinals of the Grand Slam tournaments. And who had to beat a few bigger calibers on the way there, and in the end often just a different one of the Big Four.
Four debutants in the semifinals of the French Open
For women, on the other hand, the potential for surprises seems much greater: See also the French Open 2021, where four debutants were in the semi-finals with the eventual winner Barbora Krejcikova, Maria Sakkari, Tamara Zidansek and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
An explanation could also be that the men play in best-of-five mode. This gives the favored players a few more opportunities to compensate for a bad start with a violent performance. See, for example, Novak Djokovic's comeback against Lorenzo Musetti after a 2-0 set deficit in Roland Garros 2021.
Here is the men's individual tableau in Melbourne
Here is the women's individual tableau in Melbourne
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