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By Chris Oddo | Wednesday, February 2, 2016

Some number to chew on as we reflect on the first month of the tennis season...

Big Four Domination at Majors. Or Big Five. Either Way.

In the last 44 majors, starting with the French Open in 2005: All but four have been won by big four. Call it the “Big Five,” and add Stan Wawrinka and all but two have been won by the big five. Who will be the next to break through from outside these five players?

Nole Dominant since 2011

What was public perception of Novak Djokovic in terms of where he sat in the tennis pantheon in 2010? Does anybody even remember??? Ah, no matter, it's all changed now anyway. Here are the Grand Slam titlists since the beginning of 2011:

Djokovic, 10
Nadal, 5
Federer, 1
Cilic, 1
Wawrinka, 2
Murray, 2

Also note that Djkovic tied Jimmy Connors for 2nd on the all-time Grand Slam consecutive quarterfinals list with 27. Can he possibly get to Roger Federer's 36?

Something that’s never happened to Serena Williams happened in Melbourne

Serena Williams was 8-0 before in Grand Slam finals’ deciders before heading into a third set with Angelique Kerber last Saturday in Melbourne. And a funny thing happened: She didn’t come away with the win. Williams had an eleven-match win streak in matches that went to deciders at majors until falling to Roberta Vinci at last year's U.S. Open. Now she's dropped two straight. Is it the end of an era or another reason for Williams to emerge as a more motivated, more dominant athlete?

Sharapova has a lot of aces

It didn’t make a difference during her quarterfinal with Serena Williams, but Maria Sharapova has a share of the WTA’s ace lead after January. Sharapova (five matches) and Williams (seven matches) have each hit a WTA-leading 54 aces. Sharapova also led all women in Melbourne with 24 double-faults...


He’s going to be No. 1 for a long time

Novak Djokovic will tie Jimmy Connors next week for the 5th-longest streak at No. 1. The Serb, who has held the WTA’s top spot since July 7, 2014, will clock his 84th consecutive week on Monday. He's enjoying his 184th week at No. 1 this week, which is 5th-most all-time.

Another amazing fact about the Serb, pointed out by Sergiy Stakhovsky on Twitter yesterday: Take away all of Djokovic’s Slam points and he’s still No. 1. That really is pretty preposterous.

More on Nole’s amazing rise

Djokovic has compiled a 92-5 match record during his streak of 17 consecutive finals: He’s gone 13-4 in those finals and has held a 36-5 record over the Top-10 in that span. He’s also won 17 of his last 18 against the Top-10.

Djokovic’s 5 consecutive major finals is the third-most in Open Era (tied w/ Rafa 5 – 2011 Roland Garros - 2012 Roland Garros) and behind only Federer (8 – 2008 Roland Garros - 2010 Australian Open and 10 – 2005 Wimbledon - 2007 US Open)

Djokovic is now just one final shy of the ATP Open Era record for consecutive finals

At the Australian Open he tied Federer, who reached 17 finals in 2005, ended in Aug 2006 (12-5), and is now one shy of Ivan Lendl’s record of 18. He'll surely break that, won't he?

Men, at least at this year’s Australian Open, were better challengers than women

Here are the final tallies:

Total: Men, 765. Women, 385
Correct: Men 241. Women 101
Incorrect: Men 524. Women 284
Percentage: Men, 31.5. Women 26.23
Per match: Men: 8.69. Women, 4.43


Angelique Kerber’s return game was magnificent in Melbourne

Kerber had more breaks than any man or woman in Australia (38). Andy Murray, who led the men, had 37, Novak Djokovic had 35. The next-closest women had eight less breaks than Kerber. Serena Williams had 30.

 

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