Number Theory: The age outliers in world tennis

Mike Bryan of the US and India's Rohan Bopanna are the only two players this century to hold the number one ranking above the age of 40

When the world tennis rankings are updated on Monday, they will show India’s Rohan Bopanna, 43, as the world’s number one player in men’s doubles. After 21 years on tour, it’s a remarkable first for Bopanna. While he’s played his tennis at a time when the aspect of physicality in tennis has increased, it’s also been a time when players — male and female, in singles and doubles — have pushed the boundaries of longevity further.

Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna

This aspect of longevity and accomplishment shines through at the very summit of tennis, in the top 10 rankings, as this analysis of men’s rankings since 1990 and women’s since 2000, the earliest granular data available, shows. What is also evident is the generational shift underway in tennis, which is pushing down the average age of top players.

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  Shooting Stars

  Players such as Bopanna are among the last vanguards of that generation. Bopanna is not just the oldest number one in men’s doubles. He’s also the oldest number one across both men’s and women’s tennis, singles and doubles, this century. The oldest before him was Mike Bryan of the US, one-half of the Bryan twins, who was the number one men’s doubles player in 2018 and 2019, aged 41 years. Bryan and now Bopanna are the only two players this century to hold the number one ranking above the age of 40. The next discipline that is receptive to older age is women’s doubles. The singles side is a different story. On the men’s side, the generational troika of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal leave their imprint. As does Serena Williams on the women’s side, as the only woman to be ranked number one in singles beyond the age of 30 years.

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  Degrees of longevity

  Not only at the summit, even in the top 10, that’s broadly the pecking order of accomplishments in an age band that poses greater challenges to tennis players. Take men’s doubles. Given that rankings are updated on a weekly basis, since January 1, 1990, there are about 15,000 entries for the top 10 rankings. Players aged 35 years and above have occupied 20% of these. The share of players aged 30 years or more is 57%. Even in women’s doubles, this figure is a fairly decent 37%. In women’s singles, this figure drops to 9%. There are only 16 women who have been in the top 10 singles ranking while being above the age of 30 years. Of the 5,163 weekly spots occupied by them since 2000, Serena Williams occupied 1,028 spots and sister Venus Williams occupied 696. They were followed by Li Na of China (591 weeks) and Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia (516 weeks).

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  Upwards, and Back

  In the top 10, men’s tennis has seen a greater rise in longevity than women’s tennis in the last 15 years or so. For example, in men’s singles, the average age of the top 10 men’s players generally ranged between 23 and 25 years between 1990 and 2010. Between 2015 and 2019, this range had shifted upwards to 28-30 years, largely due to the presence of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Andy Murray. With the gradual passing through of this phenomenal group of players, the average age is once again gravitating to the 25-year range. Amid this, what stands out is the stretch between 2017 and 2024, when for much of this period the top-ranked men’s singles players—Murray, Nadal and Djokovic—had a clear age gap to the rest of the top 10 group.

• Doubles, Not Quits

  On the men’s doubles side, the longevity has been even more. The median age of the top 10 men’s doubles players has climbed up from 27 years in the 1990-99 period to 30 years in the 2000-09 period to 33 years in the 2010-19 period to 34 years since then. This carries forward to the 40+ group also in men’s doubles. During our overall period under review, not a single woman has been in the top 10 in women’s singles. In women’s doubles, only Martina Navratilova (53 weeks) and Kveta Peschke (3 weeks) have occupied top 10 slots. In men’s singles, only Roger Federer, for eight weeks in 2021. But in men’s doubles, 30 players have been in the top 10 aged 40 years or more. And some of them have stayed a substantial amount of time there, led by Leander Paes of India, who spent 288 weeks in the top 10 in his 40s. Bopanna is number six on that list, at 154 weeks. The 40s are not too bad, at least in doubles.