Tennis male players statistics - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Professional tennis before the start of the open era

Before the start of the open era in 1968, the professional circuit was much less popular than the traditional amateur circuit. For example, Wimbledon

The Championships, Wimbledon

The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...

in 1957 was a success despite its being an amateur-only tournament and exclusion of Pancho Gonzales

Pancho Gonzales

Ricardo Alonso González , generally known as Richard "Pancho" Gonzales was an American tennis player. He was the world no. 1 professional tennis player for an unequalled eight years in the 1950s and early 1960s...

, Pancho Segura

Pancho Segura

Pancho Segura, born Francisco Olegario Segura , was a leading tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, both as an amateur and as a professional. In 1950 and 1952, as a professional, he was the World Co-No. 1 player...

, Frank Sedgman

Frank Sedgman

Frank Arthur Sedgman, born 29 October 1927, in Mont Albert, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, was a tennis player who was arguably the world No.1 in 1952. In his 1979 autobiography Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, included Sedgman in his list of the 21...

, Ken Rosewall

Ken Rosewall

Kenneth Robert Rosewall AM MBE is a former world top-ranking amateur and professional tennis player from Australia. He won 23 Majors including eight Grand Slam singles titles and before the Open Era a record fifteen Pro Slam titles . Rosewall won 9 slams in doubles with a career double grand slam...

, and Tony Trabert

Tony Trabert

Marion Anthony Trabert is a retired American tennis champion and long-time tennis author, TV commentator, instructor, and motivational speaker...

. The only exceptional male player who entered Wimbledon that year was Lew Hoad

Lew Hoad

Lewis Alan Hoad was a champion tennis player....

. In contrast, the Pro Tournament of Champions in Forest Hills, New York, which was held just a few weeks after Wimbledon, experienced small crowds and lost money, despite the presence of the top professional players.

Until the start of the open era, there was a marked difference in skill between professional and amateur players. For example, Hoad turned professional in July 1957, just after winning the Wimbledon final 6-2, 6-1, 6-2. Although he had been the top amateur player, Hoad won just two of his first eleven matches on the professional tour.

The professional tour before the start of the open era was not popular and was fragile financially. It was difficult for the tour to establish tradition because poor attendance or the lack of television coverage could cause any professional tournament to be cancelled at any time. In contrast, the amateur tour had loads of tradition because the events did not change from year to year and because the schedules of amateur players were virtually dictated by their national tennis federations. For example, Gottfried von Cramm

Gottfried von Cramm

Gottfried Alexander Maximilian Walter Kurt Freiherr von Cramm was a German amateur tennis champion and twice French Open champion.-Birth:...

was not allowed to enter the singles event at the French Championships in 1937, although he was cruelly forced to play the doubles event there. He was not allowed to participate in any Grand Slam

Grand Slam (tennis)

The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and...

tournament between the 1938 French Championships and the 1939 U.S. Championships. Another example is John Bromwich

John Bromwich

John Edward Bromwich was a male tennis player from Australia who, along with his countryman Vivian McGrath, was one of the first great players to use a two-handed forehand....

, the best Australian player, who was prevented by Norman Brookes

Norman Brookes

Brookes was also an Australian rules footballer in his youth, playing two matches for Victorian Football League club St Kilda Football Club in 1898, kicking two goals.-Honours:Norman Brookes was knighted "in recognition of service to public service" in 1939...

, president of the Australian Lawn Tennis Association

Tennis Australia

Tennis Australia is the governing body for the sport of Tennis in Australia. The organisation exists to promote tennis and conduct domestic and international tournaments on behalf of Australia, including the Australian Open and the Davis Cup for the Australian Davis Cup Team...

, from playing Wimbledon three consecutive years (1938, 1939, 1946) because Brookes' priority was to win the Davis Cup

Davis Cup

The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation and is contested between teams of players from competing countries in a knock-out format. The competition began in 1900 as a challenge between Britain and the United States. By...

. There were many similar examples, which finally motivated tour players to create the Association of Tennis Professionals

Association of Tennis Professionals

The Association of Tennis Professionals or ATP was formed in 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, and Cliff Drysdale to protect the interests of male professional tennis players. Since 1990, the association has organized the worldwide tennis tour for men and linked the title of the tour with the...

in 1972 because they no longer wanted to be dependent on tennis federations or professional tennis promoters.

Since 1983, men's tennis has had a very strong tradition and clear hierarchy of tournaments: (1) Grand Slam tournaments, including Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open; (2) the Tennis Masters Cup

Tennis Masters Cup

The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals is a tennis tournament played at the end of each year, involving the top eight players in the men's tennis world rankings....

; and (3) the Davis Cup. Before 1983, however, and in particular before the start of the open era in 1968, the hierarchy of professional tournaments changed virtually every year. For example, in 1934, the U.S. Pro was a high-class tournament with all the best players, but just two years later, this tournament was ordinary because only professional teachers (no leading touring pros) entered the event.

Before the start of the open era and in addition to numerous small tournaments and head-to-head tours between the leading professionals, there were a few major professional tournaments that stood out at different periods:

Some survived sporadically because of financial collapses and others temporarily stood out when other important tournaments were not held:
- Bristol Cup (held at Cannes or at Beaulieu) in the 1920s
- Queen's Club
  Queen's Club
  The Queen's Club is a private sporting club in West Kensington, London, England. Founded in 1886, the Queen's Club was the world's first multipurpose sports complex and named after Queen Victoria, its first patron...
  
  Pro (in 1928)
- International Pro Championship of Britain in Southport in the 1930s
- World Pro Championships in Berlin in the 1930s
- U.S Pro Hardcourt in Los Angeles, California
  Los Angeles, California
  Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
  
  in 1945 (the only significant professional tournament that year)
- Philadelphia Pro 1950-1952
- Pro Tournament of Champions, held in Los Angeles in 1956 and at Forest Hills thereafter (when it was not mergeed with the U.S. Pro)
- Masters Pro Round Robin in Los Angeles in 1957 and 1958
- Australian Pro in 1954, 1957, and 1958
- Madison Square Garden Pro in 1966 and 1967
- Wimbledon Pro
  Wimbledon Pro
  During Wimbledon in 1966, Jack Kramer was doing radio commentary for the BBC when Wimbledon's working chairman Herman David came to the broadcast booth and talked to Kramer and BBC tennis exec Bryan Cowgill to discuss the possibility of making the tournament "open" to both amateurs and pros. The...
  
  in 1967
- ... and a few other Australian pro or South African pro tournaments.

There were a few team events modeled on the Davis Cup, such as the Bonnardel Cup in the 1930s and the Kramer Cup from 1961 through 1963.

Three traditional "championship tournaments" survived, often having all the leading players but sometimes having very depleted fields. The most prestigious of the three was generally the London Indoor Professional Championship. Played between 1934 and 1990 at Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena
Wembley Arena is an indoor arena, at Wembley, in the London Borough of Brent. The building is opposite Wembley Stadium.-History:...

in England, it was unofficially usually considered the world championship until 1967. The oldest of the three was the United States Professional Championship, played between 1927 and 1999. From 1954 through 1962, this tournament was played indoors in Cleveland and was called the "World Professional Championships." The third major tournament was the French Professional Championship, played usually at Roland Garros
Stade Roland Garros
Le Stade de Roland Garros is a tennis venue located in Paris, France. It hosts the French Open tennis tournament , a Grand Slam event played annually in May and June. The facility was constructed in 1928 to host France's first defense of the Davis Cup...

from 1934 (perhaps before but the data are unclear) through 1968. The British and American championships continued into the open era but soon devolved to the status of minor tournaments.

Because of the instability of the professional tour, the greatest tournaments in a given year could be the three "championship tournaments" (such as in 1964) or other tournaments (such as in 1959 when the greatest tournaments probably were the Forest Hills Pro, the Masters Pro in Los Angeles, and almost all the Australian pro tournaments).

However these 3 tournaments were considered by some tennis experts as the 3 tournaments of the professional Grand Slam (until 1967). Some years as in 1948, only one of them was held, the U.S Pro in this case, and even in 1944 none was organized : this explains why professionals players have less impressive records than those of the modern players but it doesn't mean that the banished players of the pre-open era were less great than their open era colleagues.

Fundamental remark

As any statistics, those of this article should be prudently considered because

a) they are mixing performances of the amateur circuit (until 1967), the professional circuit (until 1967) and the open circuit (since 1968)

and b) they don't always take into account the greatest events of a given year (see the 1959 example above).

For instance Rosewall's amateur successes between 1953 and 1956 aren't worth much because the very best players were professionals and then couldn't play the same events as Rosewall.

Another example : when Rod Laver captured the amateur Grand Slam in 1962 he was probably only the 5th player in the world behind Rosewall, Hoad, Segura and Gimeno, all professionals, and therefore his 1962 Grand Slam is not as impressive as it may seem. In 1967 this same Rod Laver was omnipotent on fast courts by winning all the greatest pro tournaments that year, Wimbledon Pro

Wimbledon Pro

During Wimbledon in 1966, Jack Kramer was doing radio commentary for the BBC when Wimbledon's working chairman Herman David came to the broadcast booth and talked to Kramer and BBC tennis exec Bryan Cowgill to discuss the possibility of making the tournament "open" to both amateurs and pros. The...

(grass), the U.S. Pro (grass), Wembley Pro (indoor wood, fastest surface ever used in tennis) and the French Pro (indoor wood). In the classic statistics these tournaments are seldom listed because only the amateur tournaments were taken into account but no one (not even Newcombe or Emerson, the best amateurs in 1967) disputed Laver's supremacy in 1967 : in the above Laver's statistics (19 major tournaments) three of the four previous tournaments are listed. But to give you another ironic example : the one tournament not chosen is 1967 Wimbledon Pro

Wimbledon Pro

because it wasn't a "Grand Slam pro" tournament (and of course not a Grand Slam amateur tournament) but it was probably the greatest pro event of the 60's and in particular of 1967. It just indicates once more that the Grand Slam label is not always attributed to the greatest tournaments of a given year.

In reality to fairly compare pre-open era players records with open era players's it would be necessary to select from the tennis beginnings the 4 greatest events of each year, knowing it would change every year (some years it is awfully difficult to choose the 4 greatest tennis events). Thus, for instance, Ken Rosewall's record of 23 victories, indicated above, would be reduced to about 21 tournaments "equivalent to the modern Grand Slam tournaments" : Wembley Pro 1957, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963 - New York City-Madison Square Garden Pro 1966 - French Pro 1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966 - French Open 1968 - U.S. Pro 1963, 1965 - US Open 1970 - Australian Open 1971 - WCT Finals 1971, 1972. In that list on one hand have disappeared all Rosewall's great amateur successes (Australia 1953, 1955 - Roland Garros 1953 - U.S. 1956) and also the 1972 Australian Open without eighteen of the twenty best players but on the other hand have appeared some great pro tournaments which weren't one of the 3 classic ones (see Ken Rosewall

Ken Rosewall

's article).

Most major singles titles

The three professional tournaments (Wembley Pro

Wembley Championship

The Wembley Championship was a tennis event held from 1934–1990 with some periods of inactivity in between and is considered as a part of the professional grand slam from 1927 - 1967 until the advent of the open era...

, French Pro

French Pro Championship

In 1930 the "Association Française des Professeurs de Tennis " held its first pro tournament, titled "Championnat International de France Professionnel" June 18–22, 1930, and is considered as a part of the professional grand slam from 1927 to 1967 till the advent of Open Era.From 1930 the French...

, U.S. Pro) until 1967 are sometimes referred as the professional Grand Slam tournaments by tennis historians as Robert Geist in DER GRÖSSTE MEISTER Die denkwürdige Karriere des australischen Tennisspielers Kenneth Robert Rosewall or Raymond Lee in his Greatest Player of All time: A Statistical Analysis article http://www.sportsmediainc.net/tennisweek/index.cfm?func=showarticle&newsid=17405.

This table includes those major professional titles before the Open Era

Open era

Open era or Open Era may refer to:* Open Era , the period since 1968 where professionals can compete in Grand Slams* Glasnost era, the increased openness in the Soviet Union from the mid-1980s...

. The top 12 are:

Player	Total	Grand Slam Tournaments Grand Slam (tennis) The four Major tennis tournaments, also called the Slams, are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of world tour ranking points, tradition, prize-money awarded, strength and size of player field, and public attention. They are the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and... ^a				Pro Slam Tournaments
Player	Total	Australian Australian Open The Australian Open is the only Grand Slam tennis tournament held in the southern hemisphere. The tournament was held for the first time in 1905 and was last contested on grass in 1987. Since 1972 the Australian Open has been held in Melbourne, Victoria. In 1988, the tournament became a hard court...	French	Wimbledon The Championships, Wimbledon The Championships, Wimbledon, or simply Wimbledon , is the oldest tennis tournament in the world, considered by many to be the most prestigious. It has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. It is one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments, the other three Majors...	U.S.	French Pro French Pro Championship In 1930 the "Association Française des Professeurs de Tennis " held its first pro tournament, titled "Championnat International de France Professionnel" June 18–22, 1930, and is considered as a part of the professional grand slam from 1927 to 1967 till the advent of Open Era.From 1930 the French...	Wembley Pro Wembley Championship The Wembley Championship was a tennis event held from 1934–1990 with some periods of inactivity in between and is considered as a part of the professional grand slam from 1927 - 1967 until the advent of the open era...	U.S. Pro
Australia Ken Rosewall Ken Rosewall Kenneth Robert Rosewall AM MBE is a former world top-ranking amateur and professional tennis player from Australia. He won 23 Majors including eight Grand Slam singles titles and before the Open Era a record fifteen Pro Slam titles . Rosewall won 9 slams in doubles with a career double grand slam... ^b	23	1953, 1955, 1971, 1972	1953, 1968		1956, 1970	1958, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966	1957, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963	1963, 1965
Australia Rod Laver Rod Laver Rodney George "Rod" Laver MBE is an Australian former tennis player who holds the record for titles won in career, and was the World No. 1 player for seven consecutive years, from 1964 to 1970... ^c	19	1960, 1962, 1969	1962, 1969	1961, 1962, 1968, 1969	1962, 1969	1967	1964, 1965, 1966, 1967	1964, 1966, 1967
Roger Federer Roger Federer Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP no. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks, and 285 weeks overall. As of 28 November 2011, he is ranked World No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals . Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles...	16	2004, 2006, 2007, 2010	2009	2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009	2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
United States Bill Tilden Bill Tilden William Tatem Tilden II , nicknamed "Big Bill," is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. An American tennis player who was the World No. 1 player for seven years, he won 14 Majors including ten Grand Slams and four Pro Slams. Bill Tilden dominated the world of... ^d	15			1920, 1921, 1930	1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1929	1933, 1934		1931, 1935
United States Pete Sampras Pete Sampras Pete Sampras is a retired American tennis player and former world no. 1. During his 15-year tour career, he won 14 Grand Slam singles titles and became recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of all time....	14	1994, 1997		1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000	1990, 1993, 1995, 1996, 2002
United States Pancho Gonzales Pancho Gonzales Ricardo Alonso González , generally known as Richard "Pancho" Gonzales was an American tennis player. He was the world no. 1 professional tennis player for an unequalled eight years in the 1950s and early 1960s...	14				1948, 1949		1950, 1951, 1952, 1956	1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961
Australia Roy Emerson Roy Emerson Roy Stanley Emerson is an Australian former tennis player who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles and 16 Grand Slam men's doubles titles. He is the only male player to have won singles and doubles titles at all four Grand Slam tournaments. His 28 Grand Slam titles are an all-time record for a male...	12	1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967	1963, 1967	1964, 1965	1961, 1964
Sweden Björn Borg Björn Borg Björn Rune Borg is a former world no. 1 tennis player from Sweden. Between 1974 and 1981 he won 11 Grand Slam singles titles. He won five consecutive Wimbledon singles titles and six French Open singles titles...	11		1974, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981	1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980
United States Don Budge Don Budge John Donald Budge was an American tennis champion who was a World No. 1 player for five years, first as an amateur and then as a professional...	10	1938	1938	1937, 1938	1937, 1938	1939	1939	1940, 1942
Fred Perry Fred Perry Frederick John Perry was a championship-winning English tennis and table tennis player who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slams and two Pro Slams. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1934 and 1936 and was World No. 1 four years in a row...	10	1934	1935	1934, 1935, 1936	1933, 1934, 1936			1938, 1941
Spain Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Rafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera is a Spanish professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. , he is ranked No. 2 by the Association of Tennis Professionals...	10	2009	2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011	2008, 2010	2010
France Henri Cochet Henri Cochet Henri Jean Cochet was a champion tennis player, one of the famous "Four Musketeers" from France who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s.... ^e	9		1926, 1928, 1930, 1932	1927, 1929	1928	1936

Notes:

^a Grand Slam tournaments of Open Era (including amateur and professional players) are marked in bold font.

^b Rosewall's wins at the Wembley Pro in 1968 and the U.S. Pro in 1971 are not included in the list of his "major" titles because those tournaments were not major events after the start of the open era in April 1968.

^c Laver's wins at the Wembley Pro in 1969 and 1970, the U.S. Pro in 1968 and 1969, and the French Pro in 1968 are not included in the list of his "major" titles because those tournaments were not major events after the start of the open era.

^d Including World Hard Court Championships

World Hard Court Championships

World Hard Court Championships, frequently considered as the precursor to the French Open was held from 1912 till 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. The venue, was the clay courts of the Stade Français in Saint-Cloud, with one exception, namely 1922, when they were held at the Royal Leopold...

in 1921 (official clay court world championships).

^e Including World Hard Court Championships in 1922.

Statistics

An observation to make is that the draw of Pro majors was dramatically smaller than the traditional tournaments of Grand Slam; usually they only had 16 or even less professional players. Though they were the top players in the world, this meant only 4 rounds of play instead of the modern six or seven rounds of play.

Player	Total	Era			Surface				Time Span			Win/Loss	Win %
Player	Total	Amateur	Pro	Open	Grass	Clay	Hard	Indoor	Age	Span	Years	Win/Loss	Win %
Australia Ken Rosewall Ken Rosewall Kenneth Robert Rosewall AM MBE is a former world top-ranking amateur and professional tennis player from Australia. He won 23 Majors including eight Grand Slam singles titles and before the Open Era a record fifteen Pro Slam titles . Rosewall won 9 slams in doubles with a career double grand slam...	23	4	15	4	8	6	N/A	9	18 - 37	20	1953–1972	246-46	84.24
Australia Rod Laver Rod Laver Rodney George "Rod" Laver MBE is an Australian former tennis player who holds the record for titles won in career, and was the World No. 1 player for seven consecutive years, from 1964 to 1970...	19	6	8	5	12	2	N/A	5	21 - 31	10	1960–1969	180-36	83.33
Roger Federer Roger Federer Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP no. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks, and 285 weeks overall. As of 28 November 2011, he is ranked World No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals . Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles...	16	N/A	N/A	16	6	1	9	N/A	21 - 28	8	2003–2010	228-34	87.02
United States Pete Sampras Pete Sampras Pete Sampras is a retired American tennis player and former world no. 1. During his 15-year tour career, he won 14 Grand Slam singles titles and became recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of all time....	14	N/A	N/A	14	7	0	7	N/A	19 - 31	13	1990–2002	203-38	84.23
United States Bill Tilden Bill Tilden William Tatem Tilden II , nicknamed "Big Bill," is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. An American tennis player who was the World No. 1 player for seven years, he won 14 Majors including ten Grand Slams and four Pro Slams. Bill Tilden dominated the world of...	14	10	4	N/A	11	3	0	0	27 - 42	16	1920–1935	150-30	83.33
United States Pancho Gonzales Pancho Gonzales Ricardo Alonso González , generally known as Richard "Pancho" Gonzales was an American tennis player. He was the world no. 1 professional tennis player for an unequalled eight years in the 1950s and early 1960s...	14	2	12	0	2	0	N/A	12	20 - 33	14	1948–1961	103-29	78.03
Australia Roy Emerson Roy Emerson Roy Stanley Emerson is an Australian former tennis player who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles and 16 Grand Slam men's doubles titles. He is the only male player to have won singles and doubles titles at all four Grand Slam tournaments. His 28 Grand Slam titles are an all-time record for a male...	12	12	N/A	0	10	2	N/A	N/A	24 - 30	7	1961–1967	174-39	81.69
Sweden Björn Borg Björn Borg Björn Rune Borg is a former world no. 1 tennis player from Sweden. Between 1974 and 1981 he won 11 Grand Slam singles titles. He won five consecutive Wimbledon singles titles and six French Open singles titles...	11	N/A	N/A	11	5	6	0	N/A	18 - 25	7	1974–1981	141-16	89.81
United States Don Budge Don Budge John Donald Budge was an American tennis champion who was a World No. 1 player for five years, first as an amateur and then as a professional...	10	6	4	N/A	6	3	0	1	22 - 27	5	1937–1942	95-18	84.07
United Kingdom Fred Perry Fred Perry Frederick John Perry was a championship-winning English tennis and table tennis player who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slams and two Pro Slams. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1934 and 1936 and was World No. 1 four years in a row...	10	8	2	N/A	7	2	0	1	24 - 32	8	1933–1941	120-22	84.51
Spain Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Rafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera is a Spanish professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. , he is ranked No. 2 by the Association of Tennis Professionals...	10	N/A	N/A	10	2	6	2	N/A	19 - 25	7	2005–2011	143-20	87.73
France Henri Cochet Henri Cochet Henri Jean Cochet was a champion tennis player, one of the famous "Four Musketeers" from France who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s....	9	8	1	N/A	7	2	0	1	19 - 33	14	1922–1936	N/A	N/A

Most Single Titles

	Player	Titles
1.	Australia Rod Laver Rod Laver Rodney George "Rod" Laver MBE is an Australian former tennis player who holds the record for titles won in career, and was the World No. 1 player for seven consecutive years, from 1964 to 1970...	200 Rod Laver career statistics This is a list of the main career statistics of professional tennis player Rod Laver.- Singles: 17 finals :- Singles: 14 :-Performance Timeline:...
2.	United States Jimmy Connors Jimmy Connors James Scott "Jimmy" Connors is an American former world no. 1 tennis player....	149 Jimmy Connors James Scott "Jimmy" Connors is an American former world no. 1 tennis player....
3.	Czech Republic/ United States Ivan Lendl Ivan Lendl Ivan Lendl is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player. Originally from Czechoslovakia, Lendl became a United States citizen. He was one of the game's most dominant players in the 1980s and remained a top competitor into the early 1990s. He is considered to be one of the greatest tennis...	146 Ivan Lendl career statistics -Singles: 19 :-Singles: 9 :*Note: Lendl holds the record for most final appearances.Roger Federer broke a tie with Lendl and Pete Sampras by claiming his sixth year-ending championship on November 27, 2011....
4.	Czech Republic Jaroslav Drobný Jaroslav Drobný Jaroslav Drobný was an amateur tennis champion as well as being an ice hockey player for the Czechoslovakian national team...	139
5.	Australia Ken Rosewall Ken Rosewall Kenneth Robert Rosewall AM MBE is a former world top-ranking amateur and professional tennis player from Australia. He won 23 Majors including eight Grand Slam singles titles and before the Open Era a record fifteen Pro Slam titles . Rosewall won 9 slams in doubles with a career double grand slam...	133 Ken Rosewall career statistics This is a list of the main career statistics of former tennis player Ken Rosewall.-Performance timeline:Ken Rosewall joined professional tennis in 1957 and was unable to compete in 45 Grand Slam tournaments until the open era arrives in 1968...
6.	United States Bill Tilden Bill Tilden William Tatem Tilden II , nicknamed "Big Bill," is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. An American tennis player who was the World No. 1 player for seven years, he won 14 Majors including ten Grand Slams and four Pro Slams. Bill Tilden dominated the world of...	130 Bill Tilden career statistics This is a list of the main career statistics of former tennis player Bill Tilden.-Performance timeline:Bill Tilden joined Professional tennis in 1931 and was unable to compete in the Grand Slams tournaments.- Amateur Slam :...
7.	United States Pancho Gonzales Pancho Gonzales Ricardo Alonso González , generally known as Richard "Pancho" Gonzales was an American tennis player. He was the world no. 1 professional tennis player for an unequalled eight years in the 1950s and early 1960s...	113 Pancho Gonzales career statistics This is a list of the main career statistics of former tennis player Pancho Gonzales.-Performance timeline:Gonzales joined professional tennis in 1950 and was unable to compete in the Grand Slam tournaments until the start of the Open Era at the 1968 French Open...
8.	New Zealand Tony Wilding Tony Wilding Anthony "Tony" Frederick Wilding was a champion tennis player from Christchurch, New Zealand and a soldier killed in action during World War I near Neuve-Chapelle, Pas-de-Calais, France....	112 Tony Wilding Anthony "Tony" Frederick Wilding was a champion tennis player from Christchurch, New Zealand and a soldier killed in action during World War I near Neuve-Chapelle, Pas-de-Calais, France....
9.	Australia Roy Emerson Roy Emerson Roy Stanley Emerson is an Australian former tennis player who won 12 Grand Slam singles titles and 16 Grand Slam men's doubles titles. He is the only male player to have won singles and doubles titles at all four Grand Slam tournaments. His 28 Grand Slam titles are an all-time record for a male...	110
10.	United States John McEnroe John McEnroe John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. During his career, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles , nine Grand Slam men's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title...	104 John McEnroe career statistics McEnroe won a total of 148 ATP titles during his career — 77 in singles, 71 in men's doubles, and 1 in mixed doubles .He won seven Grand Slam singles titles...
11.	Sweden Björn Borg Björn Borg Björn Rune Borg is a former world no. 1 tennis player from Sweden. Between 1974 and 1981 he won 11 Grand Slam singles titles. He won five consecutive Wimbledon singles titles and six French Open singles titles...	101 Björn Borg career statistics This is a list of the main career statistics and records of professional tennis player Björn Borg.-Grand Slam singles finals: 16 finals :-Grand Prix year-end championships singles finals: 4 finals :...
12.	United States Bobby Riggs Bobby Riggs Robert Larimore "Bobby" Riggs was a 1930s–40s tennis player who was the World No. 1 or the co-World No. 1 player for three years, first as an amateur in 1941, then as a professional in 1946 and 1947...	95
13.	Romania Ilie Năstase Ilie Nastase Ilie Nastase is a Romanian former professional tennis player, one of the world's top players of the 1970s. Năstase was the World No. 1 tennis player between 1973 and 1974 . He is one of the five players in history to win more than 100 ATP professional titles . He was inducted into the...	87 Ilie Nastase Ilie Nastase is a Romanian former professional tennis player, one of the world's top players of the 1970s. Năstase was the World No. 1 tennis player between 1973 and 1974 . He is one of the five players in history to win more than 100 ATP professional titles . He was inducted into the...
14.	United States Gardnar Mulloy Gardnar Mulloy Gardnar Putnam Mulloy is a tennis player primarily known for playing in doubles matches with partner Billy Talbert. When he was the Tennis Coach of the University of Miami, he recruited Pancho Segura for the tennis team. Pancho won three straight NCAA Singles Titles in 1943, 1944, and 1945,...	80
15.	United States Budge Patty Budge Patty John "Budge" Edward Patty was an American male tennis player. He was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, United States.1950 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Singles...	78
16.	Spain Manuel Santana Manuel Santana Manuel Martínez Santana, best known as Manolo Santana, is a former tennis champion from Spain. He was born in Madrid....	74
16.	Roger Federer Roger Federer Roger Federer is a Swiss professional tennis player who held the ATP no. 1 position for a record 237 consecutive weeks, and 285 weeks overall. As of 28 November 2011, he is ranked World No. 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals . Federer has won a men's record 16 Grand Slam singles titles...	74 Roger Federer career statistics This is a list of the main career statistics of professional tennis player Roger Federer.-Singles: 23 :Federer is the 6th man to achieve a singles Career Grand Slam. With 16, Federer has won more singles Grand Slam titles than any other man. With 23, Federer has reached more singles Grand Slam...
18.	United States Arthur Ashe Arthur Ashe Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. was a professional tennis player, born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. During his career, he won three Grand Slam titles, putting him among the best ever from the United States...	73
19.	Australia Martin Mulligan	72
20.	Australia John Newcombe John Newcombe John David Newcombe, AO, OBE is a former World No. 1 tennis player.-Biography:He won seven Grand Slam singles titles, A natural athlete, Newcombe played several sports as a boy until devoting himself to tennis. He was the Australian junior champion in 1961, 1962, and 1963 and was a member of...	70
21.	Argentina Guillermo Vilas Guillermo Vilas Guillermo Apolinario Vilas is a retired and former World No. 2 professional tennis player from Argentina. He was the second Latin-American to win a Grand Slam tournament.-Career:...	68 Guillermo Vilas Guillermo Apolinario Vilas is a retired and former World No. 2 professional tennis player from Argentina. He was the second Latin-American to win a Grand Slam tournament.-Career:...
22.	United States Andre Agassi Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi is a retired American professional tennis player and former world no. 1. Generally considered by critics and fellow players to be one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Agassi has been called the best service returner in the history of the game...	65 Andre Agassi career statistics This is a list of the main career statistics of former tennis player Andre Agassi.-Singles: 15 :By winning the 1999 French Open, Agassi completed a men's singles Career Grand Slam...
23.	United States Pete Sampras Pete Sampras Pete Sampras is a retired American tennis player and former world no. 1. During his 15-year tour career, he won 14 Grand Slam singles titles and became recognized as one of the greatest tennis players of all time....	64 Pete Sampras career statistics This is a list of the main career statistics of former tennis player Pete Sampras.-Singles: 18 :-Singles: 6 :-Singles: 19 :-Singles: 88 :Wins...
24.	United States Stan Smith Stan Smith Stanley Roger "Stan" Smith is a former American tennis player and two time Grand Slam singles champion who also, with his partner Bob Lutz, formed one of the most successful doubles teams of all time. Together, they won many major titles all over the world...	60
25.	United States Tony Trabert Tony Trabert Marion Anthony Trabert is a retired American tennis champion and long-time tennis author, TV commentator, instructor, and motivational speaker...	57
26.	United States Vic Seixas Vic Seixas Elias Victor Seixas, Jr. is an American former tennis player.Seixas was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of Portuguese Sephardi Jewish ancestry. After serving in World War II, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , where he was a member of Alpha Sigma of the Chi Psi...	56
27.	Italy Nicola Pietrangeli Nicola Pietrangeli Nicola "Nicky" Pietrangeli is a former tennis player from Italy. He is considered by many to be Italy's greatest-ever tennis champion....	54
28.	Netherlands Tom Okker Tom Okker Thomas S. Okker is a former Dutch tennis player. He was ranked among the world's top 10 singles players for seven consecutive years, 1968–74, reaching a career high of world # 3 in 1969. He also was ranked World # 1 in doubles in 1969.-Tennis career:Okker was the Dutch champion from 1964 through...	51
29.	Spain Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Rafael "Rafa" Nadal Parera is a Spanish professional tennis player and a former World No. 1. , he is ranked No. 2 by the Association of Tennis Professionals...	50 Rafael Nadal career statistics This is a list of the main career statistics of professional tennis player Rafael Nadal.-Rafael Nadal's historic achievements:Nadal captured four straight French Open singles titles from 2005 to 2008, joining Björn Borg in 2008 as the only other man to have won four consecutive singles titles...
30.	Germany Boris Becker Boris Becker Boris Franz Becker is a former World No. 1 professional tennis player from Germany. He is a six-time Grand Slam singles champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and the youngest-ever winner of the men's singles title at Wimbledon at the age of 17...	49 Boris Becker career statistics -Singles: 10 :-Singles: 8 :-Singles: 2 :-Singles: 11 :-Singles: 6 :*Note: before the ATP took over running the men's professional tour in 1990 the Grand Prix Tour had a series of events that were precursors to the Masters Series known as the Grand Prix Tennis Championship Series.-Singles: 77 :Wins...

Sources: ATP; Michel Sutter, Vainqueurs Winners 1946-2003, Paris 2003; Joe McCauley, The History of Professional Tennis, London 2001; Robert Geist, Der Grösste Meister Die denkwürdige Karriere des australischen Tennisspielers Kenneth Robert Rosewall, Vienna 1999 ; Tony Trabert in "Tennis de France" magazine; ATP ; John Barrett editor,World of Tennis Yearbooks, London 1969 to 1983

Before 1972 tennis results were not automatically registered as they are now with the ITF (International Tennis Federation) and the ATP. Many have been lost or never even recorded. In particular, many professional results before 1968 have disappeared or are contradictory (for instance Ray Bowers, who gives a very detailed account of the 1926-1945 pro era called "History of the Pro Tennis Wars" in the "Tennis Server" Web site, categorically affirms that there was no 1936 Wembley Pro tournament (and no 1938 edition too) while McCauley lists a final result). However the most important ones have been preserved. ATP data is far from being exhaustive. They only begin in 1968 and they omit many results until 1971-1972 and even after. For example, there are no results of the Dunlop Sydney Open in March 1970 (won by Laver) or of the New South Wales Championships in 1973 (Mal Anderson) or in 1974 (Tony Roche).

Therefore the global amounts listed here are at least equal if not superior to those of the ATP (even the modern players as Connors, Lendl, McEnroe, Nastase, Ashe or Borg have more titles here (for instance Borg won his first tournament at Helsinki in 1973 and it doesn't appear in the ATP statistics)). Other remark : Michel Sutter chose about 150-200 tournaments each year including some invitation tournaments or tournaments which were at the time (before the nineties) the equivalent of the challenger series tournaments of today. When those tournaments appeared in the early nineties Sutter listed them in his book. Sutter, being the main source of that part of the article, such tournaments are counted in this list (this explains for instance why Federer has four more wins than his ATP wins number).

Male tennis players with most major pro tours won before the open era

In the years before the open era, male professionals often played more frequently in tours than in tournaments because a head-to-head tour between two tennis stars was much more remunerative than a circuit of pro tournaments and the number of professional tournaments was small. For example, Fred Perry

Fred Perry

Frederick John Perry was a championship-winning English tennis and table tennis player who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slams and two Pro Slams. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1934 and 1936 and was World No. 1 four years in a row...

earned U.S. $91,000 in a 1937 North American tour against Ellsworth Vines

Ellsworth Vines

Henry Ellsworth Vines, Jr. was an American tennis champion of the 1930s, the World No. 1 player or the co-No. 1 for four years in 1932, 1935, 1936 and 1937.-Biography:...

but won only U.S. $450 for his 1938 victory at the U.S. Pro Tennis Championships

U.S. Pro Tennis Championships

The U.S. Pro Tennis Championships was the oldest professional tennis tournament played until its final year of 1999 and is considered as a part of the professional grand slam from 1927 - 1967 until the advent of Open Era...

. Vines probably never entered a tournament between the London Indoor Professional Championship in October 1935, which he won, and the May 1939 edition of that tournament, which he lost. In 1937, Vines played 70 matches on two tours and no matches in tournaments. Even in the 1950s, some professionals continued to play numerous tour matches. During his first five months as a professional (January through May 1957), Ken Rosewall

Ken Rosewall

played 76 matches on a tour against Pancho Gonzales

Pancho Gonzales

but only 9 matches in tournaments. As an example of the small number of professional tournaments held before the open era, Joe McCauley has determined that for 1952, only 7 professional tournaments were played by the top international players, and 2 other professional tournaments (the British Pro and the German Pro) were reserved for domestic players. It was only during the 1960s that professional tournaments became more significant than tours.

The prevalence of head-to-head tours and the small number of professional tournaments makes it necessary to consider the tours when comparing male players from before the open era with male players during the open era. The following lists the pre-open era professionals who won the most tours based on the information currently available.

Pancho Gonzales: 7 major pro tours

January 3, 1954 - May 30, 1954: This tour was in the United States and Canada and was a series of 4-man tournaments (all formats : eliminatory rounds with or without 3rd place match; round-robin events) except in Charlottesville VA, January 13, where a 3-man round-robin event without Donald Budge was held.

From January 3 to March 25 the players involved were Pancho Gonzales

Pancho Gonzales

, Pancho Segura

Pancho Segura

, Frank Sedgman

Frank Sedgman

, and Donald Budge. In April Carl Earn replaced Budge. In May Earn was in his turn replaced by Bobby Riggs

Bobby Riggs

Robert Larimore "Bobby" Riggs was a 1930s–40s tennis player who was the World No. 1 or the co-World No. 1 player for three years, first as an amateur in 1941, then as a professional in 1946 and 1947...

.
There were 70 tournaments played in that tour.
Gonzales won the tour ahead of Segura and Sedgman if we consider head-to-head win-loss records and prize money won. On June 2 a report stated that Gonzales won 29 tournaments and had a 85-40 win-loss while Sedgman won 21 tournaments and Segura won 20 tournaments.
In head-to-head meetings the results aren't 100% sure :
Gonzales win-loss record against Segura was about 30-21 (or 30-20) and was possibly exactly equal against Sedgman, 30-21 (or 30-20) too; and Segura would have led Sedgman by the slightest margin, 23-22.
Budge won only one match in that tour (against Gonzales in the first round of the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles on February 19); Earn apparently won none; and Riggs won one against Gonzales on May 20 in Victoria (Canada, British Columbia).

December 9, 1955 - June 3, 1956: This was a head-to-head tour in the United States against Tony Trabert
Tony Trabert
Marion Anthony Trabert is a retired American tennis champion and long-time tennis author, TV commentator, instructor, and motivational speaker...

. Gonzales prevailed 74-27.
January 1957 - May 1957: This was a world tour against Ken Rosewall
Ken Rosewall
Kenneth Robert Rosewall AM MBE is a former world top-ranking amateur and professional tennis player from Australia. He won 23 Majors including eight Grand Slam singles titles and before the Open Era a record fifteen Pro Slam titles . Rosewall won 9 slams in doubles with a career double grand slam...

. Gonzales prevailed 50-26.
January 1958 - May 1958: This was a world tour against Lew Hoad
Lew Hoad
Lewis Alan Hoad was a champion tennis player....

. Gonzales prevailed 51-36.
February 20, 1959 - April ?, 1959: This was a world tour including Hoad, Ashley Cooper, and Mal Anderson. Gonzales finished with a 47-15 record. Hoad was 42-20, Cooper was 21-40, and Anderson was 13-48.
January 1960 - June 1960 : This was a world tour including Rosewall, Segura, and Alex Olmedo
Alex Olmedo
Alejandro "Alex" Rodríguez Olmedo is a former tennis player from Peru, who was ranked as the top amateur player in the world in 1959. Although born and raised in Peru, he came to Southern California and was mentored by Perry T. Jones, President of the Southern California Tennis Association at the...

. Gonzales finished with a 49-8 record. Rosewall was 32-25, Segura was 22-28, and Olmedo was 11-44.
December 30, 1960 - May 28, 1961: This was a world tour including Gonzales (with Segura occasionally substituting for him), Andrés Gimeno
Andrés Gimeno
Andrés Gimeno Tolaguera is a retired Spanish tennis player. He major achievement came in 1972, when he won the French Open....

, Hoad (with Trabert, Cooper, and Sedgman occasionally substituting for Hoad), Barry MacKay
Barry MacKay
Barry MacKay is a former American tennis player and tournament director and a current tennis broadcaster. While competing in college for the University of Michigan, he won the singles title at the 1957 NCAA Men's Tennis Championship to clinch the team title for Michigan. He was also a finalist...

, Olmedo, and Butch Buchholz
Butch Buchholz
Earl "Butch" Buchholz, Jr., is a former professional tennis player from the United States who was one of the game's top players in the late-1950s and early-1960s....

. In the first phase, Gonzales finished with a 33-14 record (including the Segura matches). Gimeno was 27-20, Hoad was 24-23 (including the Trabert, Cooper, and Sedgman matches), MacKay was 22-25, Olmedo was 18-29, and Buchholz was 16-31. In the second and final phase, Gonzales def. Gimeno 21-7.

Ellsworth Vines: 5 major pro tours

January 10, 1934 - May 17, 1934: This was a North American tour against Bill Tilden
Bill Tilden
William Tatem Tilden II , nicknamed "Big Bill," is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. An American tennis player who was the World No. 1 player for seven years, he won 14 Majors including ten Grand Slams and four Pro Slams. Bill Tilden dominated the world of...

. The results are not known definitively; however, at the end of the tour, the two players had played somewhat more than 50 matches and Vines led Tilden by 19 wins. (Vines also dominated Henri Cochet
Henri Cochet
Henri Jean Cochet was a champion tennis player, one of the famous "Four Musketeers" from France who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s....

10-0 and Martin Plaa
Martin Plaa
Martin Plaa was a professional tennis player from France and had success as a professional in the early 1930s.Plaa worked for some years in the late 1920s that the then very successful French Davis Cup team coach. During the first years of the 1930s belonged Plaa himself to the extreme world...

8-2 in a small United States versus France team tour in the U.S., with Tilden being Vines' teammate.)
January 9, 1935 - April ?, 1935: This was a North American tour including Les Stoefen at first, then Hans Nüsslein
Hans Nüsslein
Hans Nüsslein was a German tennis player of the 1930s.Born in Nuremberg, he had almost no background in amateur tennis. In late 1931, as a professional, he played Bill Tilden twice in Europe, taking him to 5 sets each time. Later in the 1930s, as Tilden aged, Nüsslein would beat the far more...

(and Tilden occasionally). Vines led Stoefen 25-1 until the latter fell ill. Thereafter, Vines beat Nüsslein about three-quarters of the time and occasionally played and beat Tilden, as the Vines-Tilden match-up seemed to be a better draw.
January 11, 1936 - May 11, 1936: This was a U.S. tour against Stoefen. Although the final standings are unknown, Vines led 33-5 as of March 29. (In October and November 1936, Vines and Tilden faced each other in an Asian tour. The final standings are also unknown, but at the end of the Japanese part of the tour, Vines led Tilden 8-1.)
January 6, 1937 - May 12, 1937: This was a North American tour against Fred Perry
Fred Perry
Frederick John Perry was a championship-winning English tennis and table tennis player who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slams and two Pro Slams. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1934 and 1936 and was World No. 1 four years in a row...

. Vines prevailed 32-29. (In a small British Iles tour from May 25 through June 15, Perry defeated Vines 6-3.)
January 11, 1938 - May 30, 1938: This was a U.S. tour against Perry. Vines prevailed 49-35 (or 48-35). (In a small Caribbean tour November 15–29, the two players each won four matches.)

Jack Kramer: 4 major pro tours

December 26, 1947 - May ?, 1948: In this North American tour against Bobby Riggs
Bobby Riggs
Robert Larimore "Bobby" Riggs was a 1930s–40s tennis player who was the World No. 1 or the co-World No. 1 player for three years, first as an amateur in 1941, then as a professional in 1946 and 1947...

, Kramer prevailed 69-20.
October 25, 1949 - May 21, 1950: In this North American tour against Pancho Gonzales
Pancho Gonzales
Ricardo Alonso González , generally known as Richard "Pancho" Gonzales was an American tennis player. He was the world no. 1 professional tennis player for an unequalled eight years in the 1950s and early 1960s...

, Kramer prevailed 96-27 (or 97-26).
October 28, 1950 - March ?, 1951: In this North American tour against Pancho Segura
Pancho Segura
Pancho Segura, born Francisco Olegario Segura , was a leading tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, both as an amateur and as a professional. In 1950 and 1952, as a professional, he was the World Co-No. 1 player...

, Kramer prevailed 64-28 (or 58-27).
January ?, 1953 - June 1, 1953: In this North American tour against Frank Sedgman
Frank Sedgman
Frank Arthur Sedgman, born 29 October 1927, in Mont Albert, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, was a tennis player who was arguably the world No.1 in 1952. In his 1979 autobiography Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, included Sedgman in his list of the 21...

, Kramer prevailed 54-41.

Bill Tilden: 3 major pro tours

February 18, 1931 - August 16, 1931: In this North American tour against Karel Koželuh
Karel Koželuh
Karel Koželuh was a top Czech tennis, soccer, and ice hockey player of the 1920s and 1930s. Koželuh never played in the major tournaments of amateur tennis but was an all-around athlete at the very highest level....

, Tilden prevailed 50-17 (Tilden, who kept close records, summarized the outcome of this tour as follows. Overall: Tilden 50, Kozeluh 17. Indoors: Tilden 26, Kozeluh 1. Grass: Tilden 2, Kozeluh 0. Outdoor hard courts: Kozeluh 5, Tilden 3. Clay: Tilden 19, Kozeluh 11.) Later in the autumn of 1931, the two players toured in Europe with Hans Nüsslein
Hans Nüsslein
Hans Nüsslein was a German tennis player of the 1930s.Born in Nuremberg, he had almost no background in amateur tennis. In late 1931, as a professional, he played Bill Tilden twice in Europe, taking him to 5 sets each time. Later in the 1930s, as Tilden aged, Nüsslein would beat the far more...

, Martin Plaa
Martin Plaa
Martin Plaa was a professional tennis player from France and had success as a professional in the early 1930s.Plaa worked for some years in the late 1920s that the then very successful French Davis Cup team coach. During the first years of the 1930s belonged Plaa himself to the extreme world...

, Albert Burke, and Frank Hunter
Francis Hunter
For the Distinguished Service Cross recipient, see Francis Hunter .----Francis "Frank" Townsend Hunter was a male tennis player from the United States of America...

.
January 4, 1932 - July ?, 1932: This North American tour began with ten pros (including Tilden, Nüsslein, Burke, Vincent Richards
Vincent Richards
Vincent "Vinnie" Richards was a top American tennis player in the early decades of the 20th Century, particularly known as being a superlative volleyer....

, Hunter, Roman Najuch, Allen Behr, and Emmett Pare
Emmett Pare
J. Emmett Pare was an outstanding tennis player in early part of the 20th century and a coach at Tulane University....

). But by the end of January, each stop featured a Tilden-Nüsslein match, preceded by a singles match between two other pros and followed by doubles. Beginning with Koželuh's joining of the tour in May and extending through the remainder of the tour, Tilden and Nüsslein competed with the other players. Complete tour results are far from being known, but Tilden is the certain winner. As of early April 1932, Tilden led Nüsslein 32 matches to 12.
January 24, 1933 - May ?, 1933: This was another North American tour between Tilden and Nüsslein. Although the results are incomplete, Tilden was the winner. As of early May 1933, data from more than half their matches indicated that Tilden won two-thirds of the matches. (During the summer of 1933, a European tour featured several team events organized on national lines with Tilden, Bruce Barnes
Bruce Barnes (tennis)
Bruce Parkhouse Barnes was a high-ranking American tennis player of the 1930s.Barnes was born in Dallas, Texas. As a professional, he won the 1933 world men's doubles championship with Bill Tilden, and lost the finals of the 1937 United States Professional Championship to Karel Koželuh and the...

, Nüsslein, and other German and French players.)

Don Budge: 3 major pro tours

January 3, 1939 - March 6, 1939: In this North American tour against Ellsworth Vines
Ellsworth Vines
Henry Ellsworth Vines, Jr. was an American tennis champion of the 1930s, the World No. 1 player or the co-No. 1 for four years in 1932, 1935, 1936 and 1937.-Biography:...

, Budge prevailed 22-17 (or 21-18). (From March 10 through May 8, Budge dominated Perry 28-8 in another North American tour that was less important than the previous Budge-Vines tour because Perry was second to Vines in the professional ranks. Budge also won a European tour over Vines, Bill Tilden
Bill Tilden
William Tatem Tilden II , nicknamed "Big Bill," is often considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. An American tennis player who was the World No. 1 player for seven years, he won 14 Majors including ten Grand Slams and four Pro Slams. Bill Tilden dominated the world of...

, and Les Stoefen.)
January 6, 1941 - May 10, 1941: This was a North American tour against Tilden. Although complete tour results are not known with certainty, 49 of the matches are fully documented. In those matches, Budge prevailed 43-5 with 1 tie. The final outcome of the tour was probably 46-7 plus 1 tie.
December 26, 1941 - before April 5, 1942: This was a North American tour against Bobby Riggs
Bobby Riggs
Robert Larimore "Bobby" Riggs was a 1930s–40s tennis player who was the World No. 1 or the co-World No. 1 player for three years, first as an amateur in 1941, then as a professional in 1946 and 1947...

, Frank Kovacs
Frank Kovacs
Frank Kovacs was an American tennis player in the mid-century; he was known as the "Clown Prince of Tennis" for his on-court antics but was a good enough player to be each year from 1940 to 1951 one of the best five in the world. He stood 6 ft 4 inches tall and had a backhand as good as...

, Fred Perry
Fred Perry
Frederick John Perry was a championship-winning English tennis and table tennis player who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slams and two Pro Slams. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships between 1934 and 1936 and was World No. 1 four years in a row...

, and Stoefen. Budge finished with a 52-18 record. Riggs was 36-36, Kovacs was 25-26, Perry was 23-30, and Stoefen, who played only when the others were injured or ill, was 2-28.

Professional tennis before the start of the open era

Most major singles titles

Statistics

Most Single Titles

Male tennis players with most major pro tours won before the open era

Pancho Gonzales: 7 major pro tours

Ellsworth Vines: 5 major pro tours

Jack Kramer: 4 major pro tours

Bill Tilden: 3 major pro tours

Don Budge: 3 major pro tours

See also