Fig 1. Among those tennis players who had an ATP ranking (i.e. Men's Singles ranking) less than or equal to 25 at any point in 2021, when looking back at the path they took between 2011 and 2020 to achieve this ranking which of these players made the most meteoric rises? The above chart considers the top 10 most meteroic rises to achieve a top 25 ranking. At the short end we have Janik Sinner who went from 1750 rank outsider to a top 25 ranking in less than 3 years. At the long end we have Dominic Thiem who took 10 years to make the same journey.

Fig 2. A kind of approximate cumulative probability matrix showing us the probability that a player with a rank greater than or equal to y = [500, 550, ..., 1500] in year x = [2010, 2011, ... , 2021] will make it to the top 25 by 2021. For example the probability that a player with rank greater than or equal to 1000 in 2015 has a 0.53% chance of making it to the top 25 six years later. Whereas the same ranking two years later or five years earlier has an effectively 0% chance of making it to the top 25 in 2021.

Fig 3. Among those tennis players who had an ATP ranking (i.e. Men's Singles ranking) less than or equal to 100 at any point in 2021, when looking back at the path they took between 2011 and 2020 to achieve this ranking which of these players made the most meteoric rises? The above chart considers the top 10 most meteroic rises to achieve a top 100 ranking. At the short end we have Sebastian Korda who went from 1900 rank outsider to a top 100 ranking in less than 5 years. At the long end we have Kyle Edmund who took almost 10 years to make the same journey.

Fig 4. A kind of approximate cumulative probability matrix showing us the probability that a player with a rank greater than or equal to y = [500, 550, ..., 1500] in year x = [2010, 2011, ... , 2021] will make it to the top 100 by 2021. For example the probability that a player with rank greater than or equal to 1350 in 2010 has a 1.1% chance of making it to the top 100 eleven years later (i.e. 2021).

Fig 5. Aslan Karatsev went from 1750 rank outsider in 2012 to top 25 in 2021. In this and the next four slides we look at his form over this period.

Fig 6. Percentage of Breakpoints Converted for Karatsev 2012 to 2020, as well as some tie-break analysis for this period

Fig 7. Percentage Breakpoints Faced for Karatsev, 2012 to 2020. The scatterplot on the top right is worth commenting on: we're looking at the relationship between x = percentage tie breaks played in a given year, and y = percentage matches won (blue) in a given year or lost (red) in a given year. The scatterplot beneath separates out matches won from matches lost (as this is essentially duplicated information). A general linear relationship could suggest that when closely matched to his opponent Karatsev is likely to gain the winning edge.

Fig 8. Percentage Breakpoints Saved for Karatsev, 2012 to 2020. Also some analysis of perforamce by court surface, clay being his strongest suit.

Fig 9. Height and Rank difference analysis for Karatsev, 2012 to 2020. Re: height difference between himself and his opponent, there appears to be some pattern emerging in the form of a localised cluster.

Fig 10. Stephanos Tsitsipas went from 2400 rank outsider in 2014 to top 25 in 2021. In this and the next four slides we look at his form over this period.

Fig 11. Percentage of Breakpoints Converted for Tsitsipas 2014 to 2020, as well as some tie-break analysis for this period

Fig 12. Percentage Breakpoints Faced for Tsitsipas, 2014 to 2020. The scatterplot on the top right is worth commenting on: we're looking at the relationship between x = percentage tie breaks played in a given year, and y = percentage matches won (blue) in a given year or lost (red) in a given year. The scatterplot beneath separates out matches won from matches lost (as this is essentially duplicated information). In addition to a general linear relationship, there is also distinct asymmetrical clustering - something which could potentially form the basis of different predictive models.

Fig 13. Percentage Breakpoints Saved for Tsitsipas, 2014 to 2020. Also some analysis of his performance by court surface, where in general he excels regardless of surface but certainly clay is his strongest suit.

Fig 14. Height and Rank difference analysis for Tsitsipas, 2014 to 2020. Re: rank difference between himself and his opponent, there appears to be some strong asymmetric clustering, i.e. Tsitsipas capitalises with some gusto on the both the psychological and real pre-match advantage of being ranked higher than his opponent.