This year, I ranked the top 128 players of the last 100 years. I wrote long-form essays about each one, which I’ve published over the last eleven months. You can see the introduction to the project here, jump into the middle with Helen Jacobs, or skip to the end and read about the greatest player of all time, Rod Laver.
Carl Bialik joined me for a podcast episode to mark the end of the project. We solicited questions, and many of you came through–we ended up with a list of over 200 questions! Spoiler alert: Even after three hours, we didn’t get through them all. I may write something in the next couple of weeks touching on some of the questions we didn’t have time for.
We talk about the algorithm, players with controversial rankings (or no rankings at all), reactions to the project, and much, much more. The full list of questions, with time stamps, is below. Surely, though, you’ll want to listen to the whole thing. Thanks to Carl for hosting and organizing the episode, and to all of those who made suggestions.
Thanks for listening!
(Note: this episode is about 2 hours, 54 minutes minutes long; in some browsers the audio player may display a different length. Sorry about that!)
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Music: Everyone Has Gone Home by texasradiofish (c) copyright 2020. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license. Ft: spinningmerkaba
The algorithm
- What is and isn’t your ranking system, concisely? (00:04:30)
- Why did you settle on the three main components? (00:08:10)
- Is the 128 your answer to the GOAT debate? (00:12:30)
- Are there ways you’d consider improving the algorithm? (00:14:20)
- Do Suzanne Lenglen and Bill Tilden have a disadvantage in the algorithm (compared to modern players) because there weren’t a lot of established players with “deep” Elo rankings for them to beat? (00:15:35)
- Did you change any rankings based on what you found after you started to research players? (00:20:30)
- You mentioned that a few players got a slight bump thanks to off-court contributions/legacy. Which players (other than Ora Washington), and how much? (00:22:45)
- How soon will the pre-Open era men’s Elo ratings become public on the website? (And other info including all data for selecting/ranking 128) (00:25:40)
- Do you feel different about your methodology after researching all 128 players than at the start? (00:28:25)
- Is it a weakness of the algorithm that the importance of the tournament and round doesn’t make a difference to the impact of a match on Elo? (00:31:40)
- Why put men and women on the same list? (00:35:15)
Second-guessing
- Who is the most underrated player in tennis history? (00:39:00)
- Who is the most overrated player in tennis history? (00:41:50)
- What do people most often get wrong when trying to rank the GOATs? (00:43:10)
- What player ranking (either in absolute terms or relative to another player) do you disagree with the most? (00:47:40)
- Who didn’t make the cut who most surprised you? (00:51:15)
Hypotheticals
- From the 128 algorithm is there any indication how the level among the (1926-68) pro men’s players compared to the amateur players of the time? (00:53:40)
- Do you think the men’s pro game served to delay the start of the open era? Or is it possible that without the pro game, tennis might never have gone open, and become like so many Olympic sports that have no money – such as skating or many track and field events? (00:57:55)
- With the return of career length to pre-1970 levels, is it fair to say that the inability of the top players in the 1980s and ’90s to stay at the top was due to rapid changes in equipment technology? (that have since slowed down) (01:00:35)
- Modern players have both better equipment and better coaching/training/analytics than past players did. Which do you think gives modern players a greater advantage over their past peers, equipment or coaching/training/analytics? (01:03:35)
Laver and Graf
- What happened to Laver at Slams after 1969? (01:05:05)
- Realistically how possible is it for Djokovic to catch up to Laver? Working on the assumption he won’t be improving on his peak metrics at this stage of his career, how many 2019-2022 type seasons does he need to put up to close the gap? (01:07:20)
- If Monica Seles had not been stabbed, do you think Graf would still have been the top woman in the 128? (01:09:00)
- What do you think would happen if Graf were to play Helen Wills or Suzanne Lenglen? (01:11:15)
Rankings of note (or not)
- Michael Stich (01:13:25)
- David Ferrer (01:15:30)
- Pam Shriver (01:16:20)
- Gabriela Sabatini (01:18:00)
- Marat Safin (and Kuerten and Kafelnikov) (01:20:00)
- Adriano Panatta (01:22:25)
- Amanda Coetzer (01:24:00)
- Barbara Schett (01:25:45)
- Carlos Alcaraz (01:25:00)
- Dominic Thiem (01:28:05)
- Angelique Kerber (01:28:50)
- Iga Swiatek (01:29:10)
- Doubles specialists (01:30:25)
- Wheelchair players (01:31:25)
- If Ora Washington merited a spot, are there pre-integration Black men players who belong on the list as well? (01:32:35)
Essays and research
- Which player do you think overcame the most to get to the top? (01:34:35)
- Which match do you most wish you had attended? (01:37:35)
- Why are there so few LGBT men in the 128? And why are the ones we know about (Tilden, von Cramm) from so long ago? (01:38:55)
- What was your least favorite newspaper or writer or other source? (01:41:50)
- There are only six black athletes in the 128 and another seven or so who might be identified as people of color by some standard. Does tennis have a racism problem? Is it improving? (01:44:30)
- Why do you hate Justine Henin so much? (01:47:10)
- Who is your favorite pre-WW1 women’s player and why? (01:51:30)
- Which tennis era did you most enjoy researching and writing about? (01:53:45)
- What player would you most have liked to write an essay about, but didn’t get the chance to because they didn’t make the list? (01:57:55)
Reactions
- Do you receive a lot of criticism when fans think you’ve placed their favorite player too low? (02:00:35)
- Which player’s placement generated the most controversy? (02:03:05)
- Have you gotten any reactions from players themselves? (02:04:35)
- What has been the oddest reaction to a post? (02:05:30)
- How many people do you think have read every word? (02:06:30)
- Have you heard from Joe Posnanski about the project? (02:08:35)
Jeff, post-128
- Has the 128 scratched an itch and can you now stop thinking about the best of all times as much? (02:09:20)
- What are your goals for the tennisabstract.com website? (02:12:55)
- What advice would you give yourself in January, looking back? (02:14:40)
- Do you foresee re-running the 128 calculation ever again? More than once? (02:20:45)
- What number do you wish you’d done? (02:22:15)
- How much will you miss doing the 128? (02:25:25)
- How proud are you of the result? (02:26:50)
- Will you publish the results and essays in a book? (02:33:25)
- Who would you like to thank for support in this journey? (02:35:30)
- What will you do next? (02:41:25)