Posted by James Martin, TENNIS.com
If you head over to
ATPtennis.com you'll notice that there's an ominous digital clock counting down. When I was last on there, it read 39d 08h 16m 06s.
For a moment there, I thought I'd accidentally stumbled onto the"24" Web site, with the world counting down to imminent extinction until Jack Bauer saves the day. Then I realized it was the official countdown to the season-ending Masters Cup.
Bit silly, don't you think? Roger Federer sewed up the top spot back in August, and you pretty much know who else is going to make it. But the countdown did get me thinking about statistics, and, in particular, three shake-your-head numbers that no recreational player can possibly relate to.
The season isn't over, at least according to that clock, but it's unlikely we'll see anything like the following stats over the remaining, let's see, it's now 39d 07h 09m 44s.
• In Memphis in February, Tommy Haas won the title -- which included a shellacking of Andy Roddick in the final -- without facing a break point in five matches. It's one thing to capture a title without losing serve; Ivan Ljubicic was the last player to do that, in Vienna in 2006. But Haas is the first player to win a title without facing a break point since the ATP started keeping match statistics in 1991.
• In Indianapolis this summer, American Sam Querrey guaranteed that no matter what else he does, or doesn't do, he would always be an impressive footnote in tennis lore. Against James Blake in the quarterfinals, the lumbering Californian blasted 10 straight aces. These weren't "service winners," folks, where the player gets some graphite or string on the ball. Clean aces. The ATP believes it to be a record, but come on? It's got to be a record.
• Just a week after Querrey served Blake off the court, 6-foot-9 American John Isner accomplished an unprecedented feat: In Washington, D.C., he won five straight matches in third-set tiebreakers. His victims were Tim Henman, Benjamin Becker, Wayne Odesnik, Haas and Gael Monfils. In the final, Isner lost to Roddick in two sets, the last one (you guessed it) in a breaker. Live by the serve…. Isner also hit a non-Grand Slam tournament record 144 aces in the tournament.
