Last week, we learned that Albert Ramos is not very good at doubles. In Barcelona, he lost his first-round doubles match, running his losing streak to 21 straight and his career tour-level record to an astonishing 14-79.
Ramos hasn’t won a doubles match since Marrakech last year, so he has fallen off the doubles ranking list entirely. Elo isn’t so kind: Of the 268 players with at least one tour-level doubles match since 2014, Ramos ranks dead last, with an Elo rating of 1260, 130 points behind the second worst, Paul-Henri Mathieu, and 240 points below the default rating of 1500 given to a player when he first arrives on tour. If two players with Ramos’s rating were to play an elite team like Kontinen/Peers, Elo would give the Ramos team little more than a 2% chance of winning.
It turns out that the Barcelona loss was a notable one, setting the mark for the longest tour-level doubles losing streak since 2000. Here is the list:
PLAYER LOSSES YEARS Albert Ramos 21 2016-17* Florent Serra 20 2008-10 Lars Burgsmuller 18 2001-03 Ryan Sweeting 17 2010-12 Mikhail Kukushkin 17 2014-16 Gael Monfils 16 2012-15 Jack Waite 16 2001-02 Mikhail Youzhny 16 2002-03 Luke Jensen 15 2000-02 Ratiwatana brothers 15 2008-09 Taylor Dent 15 2001-04
* active streak
My database isn’t as complete before 2000, so I can’t confidently say whether there were longer streaks earlier in ATP history.
Among active players, Ramos’s run of futility stands far above the pack. There are 14 players with active streaks of 8 or more tour-level losses, though as you’ll see, I’m defining “active” quite broadly:
PLAYER STREAK START Albert Ramos 21 2016 Lukas Lacko 13 2012 James Ward 11 2010 Marinko Matosevic 11 2014 Jimmy Wang 11 2006 Zhe Li 11 2010 Omar Awadhy 10 2002 Jose Rubin Statham 10 2006 Mikhail Youzhny 10 2015 Paul Henri Mathieu 9 2016 Juan Monaco 9 2015 Lucas Pouille 8 2016 Andre Begemann 8 2016 Daniel Gimeno Traver 8 2015
Many of the players on this list are attempting comebacks from injury or trying to rebuild their rankings to enter more ATP events, so few of them are likely to threaten Ramos’s mark. If he continues on tour, Mathieu may have the best chance: He has racked up five different losing streaks of 8 or more matches, including a 12-loss stretch between 2002 and 2005.
One of the things that makes Ramos’s streak so remarkable is that he has continued to enter doubles draws so frequently, playing both singles and doubles in 20 of his 31 events. Some of his peers have had poor doubles seasons, but few of them have kept trying so assiduously. Here are the 15 players with the worst doubles winning percentages in the last 52 weeks, minimum 10 matches:
PLAYER MATCHES WINS WIN PERC Albert Ramos 20 0 0.0% Jiri Vesely 10 1 10.0% Alexander Bury 13 2 15.4% Taylor Fritz 11 2 18.2% Gilles Simon 11 2 18.2% Benoit Paire 16 3 18.8% Inigo Cervantes Huegun 10 2 20.0% Lucas Pouille 15 3 20.0% Hans Podlipnik Castillo 13 3 23.1% Paolo Lorenzi 33 8 24.2% Marcos Baghdatis 12 3 25.0% Adrian Mannarino 15 4 26.7% Andreas Seppi 15 4 26.7% Joao Sousa 30 8 26.7% Neal Skupski 17 5 29.4%
Paolo Lorenzi might be a bit better than his position on this list makes him look: Over the last year, he has partnered Ramos four times, more than any other player.
Then again, Lorenzi has struggled with plenty of doubles partners. Here are the least successful doubles players since 2000, minimum 50 matches:
PLAYER MATCHES WINS WIN PERC Albert Ramos 93 14 15.1% Robby Ginepri 97 21 21.6% Gilles Simon 151 33 21.9% Gael Monfils 92 21 22.8% Adrian Mannarino 58 14 24.1% Benoit Paire 93 23 24.7% Paul Henri Mathieu 105 26 24.8% Jack Waite 68 17 25.0% Florent Serra 72 18 25.0% Santiago Giraldo 99 27 27.3% Aleksandar Kitinov 88 24 27.3% Marinko Matosevic 61 17 27.9% Bernard Tomic 63 18 28.6% Younes El Aynaoui 56 16 28.6% Paolo Lorenzi 104 30 28.8%
Ramos, once again, is in a league of his own. Beyond him and Robby Ginepri, the list is dominated by a surprising number of Frenchmen, including Florent Serra, who outranks several of his countrymen, but appeared earlier with the 20-match losing streak that Ramos finally overtook.
Ironically, since Ramos’s losing streak has coincided with career-best success on the singles circuit, he will find it easier than ever to enter doubles draws. With the press that comes with the streak, however, potential partners may finally think twice before signing up with the worst tour-level doubles player of their generation.