The 50 Most Accomplished Players of the Open Era: a Data-Based Approach

This is an attempt to devise a ranking of player accomplishments without resorting to judgement. The scoring system is explained below. The ranking captures only achievements at the Grand Slams, and only for players with significant successes during the open era. Active players - whose score can still improve - are bolded. The permanent link is here.

The 50 Most Accomplished Players of the Open Era

	Men	Career Rank	Score			Women	Career Rank	Score
1	Novak Djokovic	Dai-Y	824		1	Serena Williams	Dai-Y	745
2	Rafael Nadal	Dai-Y	699		2	Margaret Court	Dai-Y	721
3	Roger Federer	Dai-Y	696		3	Steffi Graf	Dai-Y	698
4	Ken Rosewall	Dai-Y	551		4	Chris Evert	Dai-Y	686
5	Pete Sampras	Dai-Y	435		5	Martina Navratilova	Dai-Y	657
6	Rod Laver	Dai-Y	431		6	Billie Jean King	Dai-Y	416
7	Bjorn Borg	Dai-Y	349		7	Monica Seles	Dai-Y	307
8	Ivan Lendl	Y	348		8	Venus Williams	Y	307
9	Jimmy Connors	Y	337		9	Evonne Goolagong	Y	304
10	Andre Agassi	Y	322		10	Justine Henin	Y	251
11	John McEnroe	Y	256		11	Martina Hingis	Y	224
12	Mats Wilander	Y	240		12	Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario	Y	223
13	Stefan Edberg	Y	238		13	Maria Sharapova	Y	214
14	Boris Becker	Y	227		14	Anne Haydon-Jones	O	180
15	John Newcombe	Y	208		15	Iga Swiatek	Y	175
16	Andy Murray	Y	192		16	Hana Mandlikova	Y	171
17	Carlos Alcaraz	Y	181		17	Kim Clijsters	Y	171
18	Guillermo Vilas	O	163		18	Lindsay Davenport	Y	163
19	Jim Courier	Y	151		19	Aryna Sabalenka	Y	154
20	Jannik Sinner	Y	137		20	Jennifer Capriati	Y	121
21	Arthur Ashe	O	127		21	Nancy Richey	O	116
22	Stan Wawrinka	O	114		22	Virginia Wade	O	113
23	Jan Kodes	O	106		23	Naomi Osaka	Y	111
24	Lleyton Hewitt	O	91		24	Angelique Kerber	O	105
25	Ilie Nastase	O	90		25	Viktoria Azarenka	O	102
26	Andy Roddick	O	87		26	Simona Halep	O	100
27	Gustavo Kuerten	O	86		27	Gabriela Sabatini	O	100
28	Marat Safin	O	83		28	Mary Pierce	O	98
29	Daniil Medvedev	O	83		29	Amelie Mauresmo	O	87
30	Pat Rafter	O	81		30	Ashleigh Barty	O	86
31	Yevgeni Kafelnikov	O	79		31	Svetlana Kuznetsova	O	86
32	Stan Smith	O	74		32	Kerry Melville Reed	O	85
33	Tony Roche	O	74		33	Conchita Martinez	O	84
34	Michael Chang	O	71		34	Na Li	O	82
35	Goran Ivanisevic	S	70		35	Jana Novotna	O	82
36	Johan Kriek	O	69		36	Petra Kvitova	O	81
37	Sergi Bruguera	O	66		37	Garbine Murguruza	O	78
38	Vitas Gerulaitis	O	63		38	Coco Gauff	O	73
39	Dominic Thiem	O	62		39	Tracy Austin	O	71
40	Marin Cilic	O	62		40	Caroline Wozniacki	S	60
41	Michael Stich	O	58		41	Barbora Krejcikova	O	58
42	Juan Carlos Ferrero	O	57		42	Mima Jausovec	O	56
43	Pat Cash	O	55		43	Madison Keys	O	56
44	Juan Martin del Potro	O	55		44	Helena Sukova	O	56
45	Roscoe Tanner	O	53		45	Ana Ivanovic	O	54
46	Alexander Zverev	O	51		46	Mary Joe Fernandez	O	53
47	Manuel Orantes	S	47		47	Rosemary Casals	O	50
48	Carlos Moya	O	44		48	Samantha Stosur	O	47
49	Richard Krajicek	O	41		49	Virginia Ruzici	O	47
50	Thomas Muster	S	41		50	Wendy Turnbull	S	46

For players whose careers fall entirely into the open era - the vast majority - the score is computed as follows: one point for a grand slam quarter-final participation, 3 points for a semifinal, 9 points for a final, and 27 points for a title. Hence every win in the later stages of a slam triples the score. 

For players who split their careers between the pre-open era and the open era - including Margaret Court, Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Billie Jean King, John Newcombe Anne Haydon-Jones - adjustments are made to give credit to achievements during both periods. In the men's ranking, points accumulated on the pro tour have a weight of 2/3 per tournament (note: there were only three pro slams), points accumulated on the amateur tour have a weight of 1/2. This ensures that the total points per year remain the same as in the open era. In the ladies' game, there was only the amateur tour, hence pre-open era points count fully. 

In case of points equality, the number of tournament victories/finals/semifinals (in this order) serve as tiebreakers, followed by the sanyaku rank.  Players who had most their success  before the open era are not included, specifically: players who would have obtained a higher sanyaku rank pre-open era than they did during the open era. This applies, among others, to Andres Gimeno, Mal Anderson, Dennis Ralston, Butch Buchholz, Fred Stolle, Ray Emerson, Bob Lutz, Maria Bueno, Lesley Turner Bowrey, and Francoise Durr.