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Ken Rosewall : 23 major singles titles
''Rosewall's wins at the Wembley Pro in 1968 and the U.S. Pro in 1971 are not included in the list of his "major" titles because those tournaments were not major events after the start of the open era.'' Rod Laver : 19 major singles titles
''Laver's wins at the Wembley Pro in 1969 and 1970, the U.S. Pro in 1968 and 1969, and the French Pro in 1968 are not included in the list of his "major" titles because those tournaments were not major events after the start of the open era.'' Pancho Gonzales : 14 major singles titles
Pete Sampras : 14 major singles titles
Bill Tilden : 13 major singles titles
PROFESSIONAL TENNIS BEFORE THE START OF THE OPEN ERA Before the start of the Open Era in 1968 , the professional circuit was much less popular than the traditional amateur circuit. For example, Wimbledon in 1957 was a success despite its being an amateur-only tournament and exclusion of Pancho Gonzales , Pancho Segura , Frank Sedgman , Ken Rosewall , and Tony Trabert . The only exceptional male player who entered Wimbledon that year was Lew Hoad . In contrast, the Pro Tournament of Champions in Forest Hills, New York, which was held just a few weeks after Wimbledon, experienced small crowds and lost money, despite the presence of the top professional players. Until the start of the open era, there was a marked difference in skill between professional and amateur players. For example, Hoad turned professional in July 1957 , just after winning the Wimbledon final 6-2, 6-1, 6-2. Although he had been the top amateur player, Hoad won just two of his first eleven matches on the professional tour. The professional tour before the start of the open era was not popular and was fragile financially. It was difficult for the tour to establish tradition because poor attendance or the lack of television coverage could cause any professional tournament to be cancelled at any time. In contrast, the amateur tour had loads of tradition because the events did not change from year to year and because the schedules of amateur players were virtually dictated by their national tennis federations. For example, Gottfried Von Cramm was not allowed to enter the singles event at the French Championships in 1937 , although he was cruelly forced to play the doubles event there. He was not allowed to participate in any Grand Slam tournament between the 1938 French Championships and the 1939 U.S. Championships . Another example is John Bromwich , the best Australian player, who was prevented by Norman Brookes , president of the Australian Lawn Tennis Association , from playing Wimbledon three consecutive years (1938, 1939, 1946 ) because Brookes' priority was to win the Davis Cup . There were many similar examples, which finally motivated tour players to create the Association Of Tennis Professionals in 1972 because they no longer wanted to be dependent on tennis federations or professional tennis promoters. Since ; and (3) the Davis Cup. Before 1983, however, and in particular before the start of the open era in 1968, the hierarchy of professional tournaments changed virtually every year. For example, in 1934 , the U.S. Pro was a high-class tournament with all the best players, but just two years later, this tournament was ordinary because only professional teachers (no leading touring pros) entered the event. Before the start of the open era and in addition to numerous small tournaments and head-to-head tours between the leading professionals, there were a few major professional tournaments that stood out at different periods:
Because of the instability of the professional tour, the greatest tournaments in a given year could be the three "championship tournaments" (such as in 1964) or other tournaments (such as in 1959 when the greatest tournaments probably were the Forest Hills Pro, the Masters Pro in Los Angeles, and almost all the Australian pro tournaments). However these 3 tournaments were considered by some tennis experts as the 3 tournaments of the professional Grand Slam (until 1967). Some years as in 1948, only one of them was held, the U.S Pro in this case, and even in 1944 none was organized : this explains why professionals players have less impressive records than those of the modern players but it doesn't mean that the banished players of the pre-open era were less great than their open era colleagues. ''Fundamental remark'' As any statistics, those of this article should be prudently considered because a) they are mixing performances of the amateur circuit (until 1967), the professional circuit (until 1967) and the open circuit (since 1968) and b) they don't always take into account the greatest events of a given year (see the 1959 example above). For instance Rosewall's amateur successes between 1953 and 1956 aren't worth much because the very best players were professionals and then couldn't play the same events as Rosewall. Another example : when Rod Laver captured the amateur Grand Slam in 1962 he was probably only the 5th player in the world behind Rosewall, Hoad, Segura and Gimeno, all professionals, and therefore his 1962 Grand Slam is worth nothing. In 1967 this same Rod Laver was omnipotent on fast courts by winning all the greatest pro tournaments that year, Wimbledon Pro (grass), the U.S. Pro (grass), Wembley Pro (indoor wood, fastest surface ever used in tennis) and the French Pro (indoor wood). In the classic statistics these tournaments are seldom listed because only the amateur tournaments were taken into account but no one (not even Newcombe or Emerson, the best amateurs in 1967) disputed Laver's supremacy in 1967 : in the above Laver's statistics (19 major tournaments) three of the four previous tournaments are listed. But to give you another ironic example : the one tournament not chosen is "1967 Wimbledon Pro" because it wasn't a "Grand Slam pro" tournament (and of course not a Grand Slam amateur tournament) but it was probably the greatest pro event of the 60's and in particular of 1967. It just indicates once more that the Grand Slam label is not always attributed to the greatest tournaments of a given year. In reality to fairly compare pre-open era players records with open era players's it would be necessary to select from the tennis beginnings the 4 greatest events of each year, knowing it would change every year ''(some years it is awfully difficult to choose the 4 greatest tennis events)''. Thus, for instance, Ken Rosewall's record of 23 victories, indicated above, would be reduced to about 21 tournaments "equivalent to the modern Grand Slam tournaments" : ''Wembley Pro 1957, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963 - New York City-Madison Square Garden Pro 1966 - French Pro 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966 - French Open 1968 - U.S. Pro 1963, 1965 - U.S. Open 1970 - Australian Open 1971 - WCT Finals 1971, 1972. In that list on one hand have disappeared all Rosewall's great amateur successes (Australia 1953, 1955 - Roland Garros 1953 - U.S. 1956) and also the 1972 Australian Open without eighteen of the twenty best players but on the other hand have appeared some great pro tournaments which weren't one of the 3 classic ones (see Ken Rosewall 's article). MALE TENNIS PLAYERS WITH MOST SINGLES TITLES ''(PROVISIONAL AND EVOLUTIONARY LIST ACCORDING TO THE NEW DISCOVERIES)'' Sources: ATP; Michel Sutter, Vainqueurs Winners 1946-2003, Paris 2003; Joe McCauley, The History of Professional Tennis, London 2001; Robert Geist, Der Grösste Meister Die denkwürdige Karriere des australischen Tennisspielers Kenneth Robert Rosewall, Vienna 1999 ; Tony Trabert in "Tennis de France" magazine; ATP ; John Barrett editor,World of Tennis Yearbooks, London 1969 to 1983 # Rod Laver : 181 tournaments ''(See all the complete details in the corresponding article.)'' # Bill Tilden : about 145 tournaments # Ivan Lendl : 143 tournaments ''(see all the complete details in the corresponding article.)'' # Jimmy Connors : 138 tournaments ''(See all the complete details in the corresponding article.)'' # Jaroslav Drobny : 132 tournaments # Ken Rosewall : 121 tournaments ''(See all the complete details in the corresponding article.)'' # Tony Wilding : 105 tournaments ''(See all the complete details in the corresponding article.)'' # Roy Emerson : 105 tournaments # John McEnroe : 98 tournaments ''(See all the complete details in the corresponding article.)'' # Björn Borg : 96 tournaments ''(See all the complete details in the corresponding article.)'' # Ilie Năstase : 88 tournaments ''(See all the complete details in the corresponding article.)'' # Pancho Gonzales : 85 tournaments ''(See all the complete details in the corresponding article.)'' # Budge Patty : 76 tournaments # Manuel Santana : 72 or 73 tournaments ''(73 if the demonstration tournament at the 1968 Olympic Games is counted)'' # Arthur Ashe : 70 tournaments # John Newcombe : 68 tournaments # Guillermo Vilas : 66 tournaments ''(See all the complete details in the corresponding article.)'' # Martin Mulligan : 66 tournaments # Pete Sampras : 64 tournaments Before 1972 tennis results weren't automatically registered as it is now with the ITF (International Tennis Federation) and the ATP. Many have been lost or even never recorded. In particular many professional results before 1968 have disappeared or are contradictory (for instance Ray Bowers, who gives a very detailed account of the 1926-1941 pro era called "History of the Pro Tennis Wars" in the "Tennis Server" Web site, categorically affirms that there was no 1936 Wembley Pro tournament (and no 1938 edition too) while McCauley lists a final result). However the most important ones have been preserved. Now the ATP data aren't far from being exhaustive. They only begin in 1968 and they omit many results until 1971-1972 and even after. For example you can't find any results of the Dunlop Sydney Open in March 1970 (won by Laver) or of the New South Wales Championships in 1973 (Mal Anderson) or in 1974 (Tony Roche). Therefore the global amounts listed here are at least equal if not superior to those of the ATP ''(even the modern players as Connors, Lendl, McEnroe, Nastase, Ashe or Borg have more titles here (for instance Borg won his first tournament at Helsinki in 1973 and it doesn't appear in the ATP statistics))''. MALE TENNIS PLAYERS WITH MOST MAJOR PRO TOURS WON BEFORE THE OPEN ERA In the years before the Open Era , male professionals often played more frequently in tours than in tournaments because a head-to-head tour between two tennis stars was much more remunerative than a circuit of pro tournaments and the number of professional tournaments was small. For example, Fred Perry earned U.S. $91,000 in a 1937 North America n tour against Ellsworth Vines but won only U.S. $450 for his 1938 victory at the U.S. Pro Tennis Championships . Vines probably never entered a tournament between the London Indoor Professional Championship in October 1935, which he won, and the May 1939 edition of that tournament, which he lost. In 1937, Vines played 70 matches on two tours and no matches in tournaments. Even in the 1950s, some professionals continued to play numerous tour matches. During his first five months as a professional (January through May 1957), Ken Rosewall played 76 matches on a tour against Pancho Gonzales but only 9 matches in tournaments. As an example of the small number of professional tournaments held before the open era, Joe McCauley has determined that for 1952, only 7 professional tournaments were played by the top international players, and 2 other professional tournaments (the British Pro and the German Pro) were reserved for domestic players. It was only during the 1960s that professional tournaments became more significant than tours. The prevalence of head-to-head tours and the small number of professional tournaments makes it necessary to consider the tours when comparing male players from before the open era with male players during the open era. The following lists the pre-open era professionals who won the most tours based on the information currently available. Pancho Gonzales : 7 major pro tours
Ellsworth Vines : 5 major pro tours
Jack Kramer : 4 major pro tours
Bill Tilden : 3 major pro tours
Donald Budge : 3 major pro tours
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