LOL, revising my revision here! My initial count of 7 YEC's must have been due to me not looking closely enough at the Wiki page. and copying the "7" from his doubles YEC's count.mick1303 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 12, 2023 11:44 amHow did you came up with 7 YEC for Mac? According to my data he won it in 78, 83 and 84 (they all were held in January of next year). Did you count doubles?nelslus wrote: ↑Sun Jun 11, 2023 8:00 pmOH, for sure about Iga.ponchi101 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 11, 2023 7:44 pm Touche. It would exclude those players.
But remember, the bar has been raised. When Connors retired, Emerson had the record (12, for men). Since then, that bar has been raised higher and higher.
So, ok. It may be arbitrary, but I still do not consider her great. She is the dominant player, especially on clay, but I will wait a bit more.
It would certainly appear that the level of play has increased significantly these days. (While volleying expertise was FAR greater back in the day. Hell, Borg could give lessons on volleying to today's players.) Most definitely, the level of all players in all of the Slams these days has improved a great deal. However, I'd argue about any big increase in the levels of accomplishments- for reasons I've already posted about. The # of tournaments that Connors won. McEnroe won 7 ATP tour finals. The # of pro wins for the likes of Rosewall. Etc.
HOWEVER: According to Wiki, McEnroe had 3 "Tour Final"/The Masters wins (1978, 1983, 1984), AND 5 WCT title wins- (1979, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1989). What makes this all especially headache-y is, if I am remembering this correctly- for some years, the ATP had, basically, two tournaments that were quasi "ATP Championships"-level tournaments- one that went by the name of WCT Finals, and one in Wiki calls the Tour Final (I believe Pepsi was a sponsor of this for awhile?) They were indeed held at different times for each year. From what I recall, these would have been considered as more important (or at least on the same level) than the Roland Garros- and especially the Aussie Open- would have been for at least some of the years that McEnroe won these tournaments. My best guess would be when he won these championships from the late 70's to at least the early '80's.
IN any case, I stick to that, with both tours, there were years when the Roland Garros and especially the Aussie Open were not considered to be at the level of Wimbledon and US Open title wins. (*Albeit, to be VERY clear, I'd never want to detract from all of Borg's Roland Garros wins, especially when Borg won Wimbledon and Roland Garros from 1978- 1980).
Sorry for my confusion here!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McEnroe