View source for Tennis/Catalogs/World No. 1 male players

This is a supplement to the articles about [[Tennis]] and [[Famous tennis players]], and to the articles about the individual players.

'''Under construction:''' This will be a chronological listing of both the male tennis player who, at the end of a full year of play, has generally been considered to be the best overall player for the entire year, and of the runner-up for that year.  Before the Open era of tennis arrived in 1968, rankings for amateur players were normally only compiled for a full year of play and the professional players had no rankings at all except for seedings in individual tournaments.  Even for the amateurs, there was no single official overall ranking that encompassed the entire world; rankings were done by the national tennis association of each individual country.  It was only with the introduction of computerized rankings in the Open era that rankings became common on a more frequent basis than at the end of the year.  There were no official rankings of players worldwide until approximately 1972, so that all rankings in this list, no matter how authoritative, are both unofficial and entirely subjective.  For each year, however, at least one, and sometimes more, authoritative source for that ranking is given:

('''A.''' = Amateur, '''P.''' = Professional)

{|class=wikitable
!Year!!Name!!World No. 2!!Source of Ranking and Additional Information
|-

|| 1913 || '''[[Tony Wilding]]''' (NZ) '''A.''' || [[Norman Brookes]] (AUS) '''A.''' and [[Maurice McLoughlin]] (USA) '''A.''' || '''A. Wallis Myers''' of the London '''Daily Telegraph'''; his top 10 players, all amateur, were Wilding, Brookes and McLoughlin tied for 2nd, [[Jim Cecil Parke]], [[R. Norris Williams]], [[Percy Dixon]], [[Otto Froitzheim]], [[Stanley Doust]], [[André Gobert]], and [[Max Décugis]].
|-
|| 1914 || '''[[Maurice McLoughlin]]''' (USA) '''A.''' || [[Norman Brookes]] (AUS) '''A.''' and [[Tony Wilding]] (NZ) '''A.''' || '''Myers:''' his top 10 players, all amateur, were McLoughlin, Brookes and Wilding tied for 2nd, Froitzheim, Williams, Parke, [[Arthur Lowe (tennis)|Arthur Lowe]], [[F. Gordon Lowe]], [[Heinrich Kleinschroth]], and Décugis.
|-
|-
|| 1915 || '''[[World War I]]''', no world rankings || || '''The United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA)''' ranked the top 10 American amateurs as being [[Bill Johnston|Little Bill Johnston]], Williams, McLoughlin, [[K. H. Behr]], [[T. R. Pell]], [[N. W. Niles]], [[C. J. Griffin]], [[W. M. Washburn]], [[G. M. Church]], and [[W. M. Hall]].
|-
|| 1916 || '''[[World War I]]''', no world rankings || || The USLTA ranked the top 10 American amateurs as being 
|-
|| 1917 || '''[[World War I]]''', no world rankings  || || No USLTA rankings 
|-
|| 1918 || '''[[World War I]]''', no world rankings  || || The USLTA ranked the top 10 American amateurs as being  
|-
| 1919 || '''[[Gerald Patterson]]'''(AUS) '''A.''' and '''[[Bill Johnston|Little Bill Johnston]]''' (USA) '''A.'''  || both ranked equally || '''Myers:''' his top 10 players, all amateur, were Patterson and Johnston tied for 1st, Gobert, [[Bill Tilden]], Brookes, [[Algernon Kingscote]], Williams, [[Percival Davson]], [[Willis Davis]], and [[William Laurentz]].
|-
| 1920 || '''[[Bill Tilden|Big Bill Tilden]]''' (USA) '''A.''' || [[Bill Johnston|Little Bill Johnston]] (USA) '''A.''' || '''Myers:''' his top 10 players, all amateur, were Tilden, Johnston, Kingscote, Parke, Gobert, Brookes, Williams, Laurentz, [[Zenzo Shimidzu]], and Patterson. 
|-
| 1921 || '''[[Bill Tilden|Big Bill Tilden]]''' (USA) '''A.''' || [[Bill Johnston|Little Bill Johnston]] (USA) '''A.''' || '''Myers:''' his top 10 players, all amateur, were Tilden, Johnston, [[Vinnie Richards]], Shimidzu, Patterson, [[James Anderson (tennis player)|James Anderson]], [[Brian Norton]], [[Manual Alonso]], Williams, and Gobert. 
|-
|| 1922 || '''[[Bill Tilden|Big Bill Tilden]]''' (USA) '''A.''' || [[Bill Johnston|Little Bill Johnston]] (USA) '''A.''' || '''Myers:''' his top 10 players, all amateur, were Tilden, Johnston, Patterson,  Richards, Anderson, [[Henri Cochet]], [[Pat O'Hara Wood]], Williams, Kingscote, and Gobert. 
|-
| 1923 || '''[[Bill Tilden|Big Bill Tilden]]''' (USA) '''A.''' || [[Bill Johnston|Little Bill Johnston]] (USA) '''A.'''  || '''Myers:''' his top 10 players, all amateur, were Tilden, Johnston, Anderson, Williams, [[Frank Hunter]], Richards, Norton, Alonso, [[Jean Washer]], and Cochet. 
|-
|| 1924 || '''[[Bill Tilden|Big Bill Tilden]]''' (USA) '''A.''' || [[Vincent Richards|Vinnie Richards]] (USA) '''A.'''  || '''Myers:''' his top 10 players, all amateur, were Tilden, Richards, Anderson, Johnston, [[René Lacoste]], [[Jean Borotra]], [[Howard Kinsey]], Patterson, Cochet, and Alonso.
|-
|| 1925 || '''[[Bill Tilden|Big Bill Tilden]]''' (USA) '''A.''' || [[Bill Johnston|Little Bill Johnston]] (USA) '''A.''' || '''Myers:''' his top 10 players, all amateur, were Tilden, Johnston, Richards, Lacoste, Williams, Borotra, Patterson, Alonso, Norton, and [[Takeichi Harada]].
|-
|| 1926 || '''[[René Lacoste]]''' (FR) '''A.''' || [[Jean Borotra]] (FR) '''A.''' || '''Myers:''' his top 10 players, all amateur, were Lacoste, Borotra, Cochet, Johnston, Tilden, Richards, Harada, Alonso, Kinsey, [[Jacques Brugnon]]; the promoter [[Charles C. Pyle]] signed Richards, [[Harvey Snodgrass]], Kinsey, and [[Paul Féret]] for the first professional tour, which toured the United States and Canada in the fall of 1926; the headliner, however, was the French female player [[Suzanne Lenglen]] against [[Mary Kendall Browne]] and there are only scattered records of the men's matches.
|-
| 1927 || '''[[René Lacoste]]''' (FR) '''A.''' || [[Bill Tilden|Big Bill Tilden]] (USA) '''A.''' || '''Myers:''' his top 10 players, all amateur, were Lacoste, Tilden, Cochet, Borotra, Alonso, [[Frank Hunter]], [[George Lott]], [[John Hennessey]], Brugnon, and [[Jan Koželuh]]; '''Ray Bowers''', in '''History of the Pro Tennis Wars''', ranks [[Karel Koželuh]], the older brother of [[Jan Koželuh]], and Vinnie Richards as being tied for #1 among the few professional players but does not make a joint amateur-professional ranking.
|-
| 1928 || '''[[Henri Cochet]]''' (FR) '''A.''' || [[René Lacoste]] (FR) '''A.''' || '''Bowers''' merges his professional rankings with '''Myers's''' amateur list and rates the top 8 players in the world as being Cochet, Lacoste, Tilden, Karel Koželuh, Richards, Hunter, Borotra, and [[George Lott]], with Koželuh and Richards being the only professionals.
|-
| 1929 || '''[[Henri Cochet]]''' (FR) '''A.''' || [[René Lacoste]] (FR) '''A.''' || '''Bowers''' ranks the top 8, both amateur and pro, as being Cochet, Lacoste, Borotra, Tilden, Karel Koželuh, Hunter, Lott, and Richards, with Koželuh and Richards being the only professionals.
|-
| 1930 || '''[[Henri Cochet]]''' (FR) '''A.''' || [[Bill Tilden|Big Bill Tilden]] (USA) '''A.''' || '''Bowers''' ranks the top 8, both amateur and pro, as being Cochet, Tilden, Richards, Karel Koželuh, Borotra, Doeg, [[Frank Shields]], and [[Wilmer Allison]], with Koželuh and Richards being the only professionals.
|-
| 1931 || '''[[Bill Tilden|Big Bill Tilden]]''' (USA) '''P.'''  || [[Henri Cochet]] (FR) '''A.''' || Tilden, aged 38, turned professional and, in a head-to-head tour, def. Koželuh either 63 matches to 13 ('''Joe McCauley''') or, according to Tilden himself, 50 to 17 in the North American part of the tour (see '''Bowers'''); '''Bowers''' ranks the top 8, both amateur and pro, as being Tilden, Cochet, [[Bunny Austin]], [[Ellsworth Vines]], [[Fred Perry]], Karel Koželuh, Richards, and Shields, with Tilden, Koželuh, and Richards being the only professionals; this was, however, the first year that a professional was ranked either No. 1 or No. 2.
|-
| 1932 || '''[[Ellsworth Vines]]''' (USA) '''A.''' || [[Bill Tilden|Big Bill Tilden]] (USA) '''P.''' || In the pros Tilden beat [[Vinnie Richards]] 12-1 and, according to '''Bud Collins''', was 60-40 against the young German [[Hans Nüsslein]]; '''Bowers''' ranks the top 8, both amateur and pro, as being Vines, Tilden, Cochet, Karel Koželuh, Borotra, [[Martin Plaa]], Allison, and Nüsslein, with Tilden, Koželuh, Plaa, and Nüsslein being professionals.
|-
| 1933 || '''[[Jack Crawford (tennis player)|Jack Crawford]]''' (AUS) '''A.''' || [[Fred Perry]] (GBR) '''A.''' || The professional picture was murky: Cochet, aged 31, turned pro; neither Tilden, aged 40, Koželuh, 38, nor the younger Nüsslein, Cochet, Richards, or Plaa was able to establish any clear superiority; data from more than half of the Tilden-Nüsslein tour in America (January—early May) indicate that Tilden won 2/3 of their meetings; the amateur Ellsworth Vines ranked the top pros as being Tilden, Cochet, Koželuh, Richards; the professional Albert Burke, however, ranked them as being Nüsslein, Tilden, Koželuh, and Plaa; '''Bowers''' ranks the top 8, both amateur and pro, as being Crawford, Perry, Nüsslein, Tilden, Karel Koželuh, [[Jiro Satoh]], Austin, and Vines, with Nüsslein, Tilden, and Koželuh being the only professionals.
|-
| 1934 || '''[[Fred Perry]]''' (GBR) '''A.''' || [[Ellsworth Vines]] (USA) '''P.''' || Vines, aged 22, turned pro; in their initial head-to-head tour, Vines def. Tilden 11 matches to 9; in subsequent tours Tilden beat Plaa 10-0 and Cochet 8-2 while Vines beat Cochet 10-0 and Plaa 8-2; '''Bowers''' says that by the end of May, having played somewhat more than 50 matches, Vines led Tilden by 19 wins; '''Bowers''' ranks the top 8, both amateur and pro, as being Perry, Vines, Crawford, [[Gottfried von Cramm]], Nüsslein, Tilden, Austin, and Allison, with Vines, Nüsslein, and Tilden being the only professionals.
|-
| 1935 || '''[[Fred Perry]]''' (GBR) '''A.'''  and '''[[Ellsworth Vines]]''' (USA) '''P.''' || both ranked equally || Vines beat [[Les Stoefen]] 25-1 in a head-to-head tour while Tilden was beating [[George Lott]] 20-4 with one tie; after Stoefen fell ill, Vines beat Nüsslein in another tour about three-quarters of the time (and also Tilden in their few meetings); '''Bowers''' ranks the top 8, both amateur and pro, as being Perry and Vines tied for #1, then Crawford, von Cramm, Tilden, Nüsslein, Allison, and Austin, with Vines, Tilden, and Nüsslein, being the only professionals.
|-
| 1936 || '''[[Fred Perry]]''' (GBR) '''A.''' and '''[[Ellsworth Vines]]''' (USA) '''P.''' || both ranked equally  || In the American tour Vines defeated Les Stoefen; exact results are unknown but on March 29th Vines led 33-5; in an Asian tour Vines led Tilden 8-1 at the end of the Japanese part of the tour; '''Bowers''' ranks the top 8, both amateur and pro, as being Perry, Vines, von Cramm, Nüsslein, [[Don Budge]], Tilden, [[Adrian Quist]], and Cochet, with Vines, Nüsslein, Tilden, and Cochet being the only professionals; '''Bowers''' also writes that three other experts, '''L'Auto''' (a French sports magazine), '''Don Budge''', and '''Bill Tilden''', all ranked Vines ahead of Perry for the year.
|-
| 1937 || '''[[Fred Perry]]''' (GBR) '''P.''', '''[[Ellsworth Vines]]''' (USA) '''P.''', '''[[Don Budge]]''' (USA) '''A.'''  || all 3 ranked equally || Vines beat Perry in the North American head-to-head tour 32-29 while Perry won a short British Isles tour 6-3; Perry def. Tilden 4-3 in America; '''Bowers''' ranks the top 8, both amateur and pro, as being Perry, Vines, and Budge tied for #1, with von Cramm and Nüsslein being tied for #4, then Henkel, Austin, and Tilden, with Perry, Vines, Nüsslein, and Tilden being the only professionals.
|-
| 1938 || '''[[Don Budge]]''' (USA) '''A.''' || [[Ellsworth Vines]] (USA) '''P.''' || On the professional tour Vines def. Perry 49-35 (or 48-35); '''Bowers''' ranks the top 8, both amateur and pro, as being Budge, Vines, Perry and Nüsslein tied for #3, Austin, [[John Bromwich]], [[Bobby Riggs]], and Tilden, with Vines, Perry, Nüsslein, and Tilden being the only professionals
|-
| 1939 || '''[[Don Budge]]''' (USA) '''P.''' || [[Ellsworth Vines]] (USA) '''P.''' || Budge defeated Vines 22-17 in the North American tour and also defeated Perry 28-8; Budge, Vines, Tilden, and Stoefen competed in a spring-summer European tour that was mainly a succession of 4-man tournaments; Budge was the winner, in particular beating Vines 15-5; '''Bowers''' ranks the top 8, both amateur and pro, as being Budge, Vines, Nüsslein, Perry, Riggs, Bromwich, Quist, and Tilden, with Budge, Vines, Nüsslein, Perry, and Tilden being professionals, the first time that 5 of the top 8 were pros.
|-
| 1940 || '''[[Don Budge]]''' (USA) '''P.''' || [[Fred Perry]] (GBR) '''P.''' || Because of [[World War II]] there were no more world rankings of amateurs by the '''Telegraph''', but '''Bowers''' ranks the top 4 players as being Budge and Perry, followed by the American amateurs [[Don McNeill]] and Bobby Riggs; he goes on to say that in spite of uncertainty because of the war the next four are probably the 4 top American amateurs as shown in '''Bud Collins'''' ''Official Encyclopedia'': [[Frank Kovacs]], [[Joseph Hunt|Joe Hunt]], [[Frank Parker]], and [[Jack Kramer]]; however, he also says that the Australians Bromwich and Quist could plausibly be included in the top 8.
|-
| 1941 || '''[[Fred Perry]]'''(GBR) '''P.''' and '''[[Bobby Riggs]]''' (USA) ''' A.''' || both ranked equally || Both '''Collins''' and '''McCauley''' say that Budge defeated Tilden 51-7 in their head-to-head tour, but '''Bowers''' says that by his count the outcome was most probably 46-7 plus one tie, with 49 matches being fully documented for a result of 43-5 plus 1 tie; Perry completely dominated Tilden in a summer tour; there were no more world amateur rankings because of the war but '''Bowers''' ranks the top 6 as Riggs and Perry in a tie for first with amateur Kovacs third, while amateur Parker and professional [[Dick Skeen]] are tied for fourth; Budge is sixth.
|-
| 1942 || '''[[Don Budge]]''' (USA) '''P.''' || [[Bobby Riggs]] '''P.''' (USA) and [[Wayne Sabin]] (USA) '''P.''' || Riggs and Kovacs turned pro; in round-robin matches Budge was the winner, 52-18; Riggs was 36-36, Kovacs 25-26, Perry 23-30, Stoefen 2-28; because of the war the only significant amateur rankings were American: '''Shannon''' lists [[Ted Schroeder]] as number 1, followed by Parker, [[Gardnar Mulloy]], [[Pancho Segura]], [[Bill Talbert]], [[Sidney Wood]], [[Seymour Greenberg]], [[George E. Richards (tennis)|George Richards]], [[Vic Seixas]], and [[Ladislav Hecht]]; '''Bowers''' ranks the top 8, both amateur and pro, as being Budge, Riggs and Sabin tied for number 2, Kovacs, Perry, Schroeder, Parker, and Skeen, the only amateurs being Schroeder and Parker; the United States Professional Lawn Tennis Association ranked the top pros as Budge, Riggs, Sabin, and Kovacs.
|-
|| 1943 || '''[[World War II]]''', no world rankings || || The United States Lawn Tennis Association ranked the top 10 American amateurs as being [[Joseph Hunt|Joe Hunt]], Kramer, Segura, Talbert, Greenberg, Wood, [[Bob Falkenburg]], Parker, [[James Brink]], and [[Jack Tuero]]; there were a few professional exhibition matches but no real tour.
|-
|| 1944 || '''[[World War II]]''', no world rankings || || The USLTA ranked the top 10 American amateurs as being Parker, Talbert, Segura, [[Don McNeill (tennis player)|Don McNeill]], Greenberg, Falkenburg, [[Jack Jossi]], [[Charles W. Oliver]], [[Jack McManis]], and [[J. Gilbert Hall]]; in the professionals, there were a number of matches for the war effort or Red Cross benefits.
|-
|| 1945 || '''[[World War II]]''', no world rankings  || || The USLTA ranked the top 10 American amateurs as being Parker, Talbert, Segura, [[Elwood Cooke]], Wood, Mulloy, Shields, [[Harold Surface]], Greenberg, and McManis. 
|-
| 1946 || '''[[Bobby Riggs]]''' (USA) '''P.''' || [[Don Budge]] (USA) '''P.''' || '''Collins''' says Riggs defeated Budge 18-16 on the head-to-head tour,<ref>''Total Tennis'', page 118</ref> while '''McCauley''' has it 23-21;<ref>''The History of Professional Tennis'', page 41</ref> '''Riggs''' himself says twice in his autobiography that it was 24-22;<ref>''Tennis Is My Racket'', page 129 and page 171</ref> Tilden organized a series of 31 tournaments: Riggs won 14 of them, Kovacs 7, Perry 4, Budge 3, Van Horn 2, and Skeen 1; the "Official '''PPA'''" top 10 rankings for the year were Riggs, Budge, Kovacs, Perry, Van Horn, [[Wayne Sabin]], [[Carl Earn]], Jossi, [[John Faunce]], and [[Jack March]];<ref>McCauley, page 43</ref>  
|-
|}

==References==
<references/>

==Sources==
*''The Official Encyclopedia of Tennis'' of the [[United States Tennis Association]] (formerly the United States Lawn Tennis Association), edited by Bill Shannon, Harper & Row, New York, 1981, has annual rankings for the top 10 amateur players as compiled every year from 1914 through 1980, pages 496-501.  These rankings were made annually by various tennis experts at a London newspaper, '''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''': '''A. Wallis Myers''' (1913-1938), '''Sir F. Gordon Lowe''' (1939), '''Pierre Gillow''' (1946 and 1951), '''John Dliff''' (1947-1950), and '''Lance Tingay''' (1952-1980). Beginning with the late 1920s, first many, then most, of the best players in the world were professionals; once turning professional, as Bill Tilden did in 1931, they were not longer included in these annual lists.  It also has the official top 10 amateur American players for every year from 1885 through 1980, with professionals being including from 1970 on, pages 480-488. These rankings were made by the USTA (USLTA).

*''History of the Pro Tennis Wars'', by Ray Bowers, is a Web site associated with the '''Tennis Server''' site.  In twelve chapters, Bowers gives a very detailed account of the first sixteen years of professional tennis, from its modest beginnings in 1926 on through 1942.  In his summing-up for each year, he gives his rankings for the top 8 to 10 best players of the year, combining both amateurs and professionals.  In almost all cases, as far as amateurs are concerned, his rankings coincide with those of the '''Daily Telegraph'''.

*''Total Tennis: The Ultimate Tennis Encyclopedia'' (2003), by [[Bud Collins]].  This massive work has year-by-year chapters in which Collins gives a brief summation of the Pro Tour results, often with personal comments about the players.  It also has somewhat more complete rankings from the early years of the '''Daily Telegraph'''.  The combined amateur-professional rankings for 1968 through 1972 are those of Collins himself.  Beginning with 1973, the [[Association of Tennis Professionals]] (ATP) began issuing computer-generated weekly rankings.  ''Total Tennis'' shows the top 10 players in these rankings for the last week of every calendar year through [[2002]], and the top 2 player are included here.

*''The History of Professional Tennis'' (2003) by Joe McCauley.  This book, published in England, is a year-by-year account of the professional tours and tournaments between 1926 and 1968, then has 80 additional pages of year-by-year results of as many tournaments, tours, and head-to-head matches as the author, a long-time writer for ''World Tennis'', could find.

*PLTA.  The Professional Lawn Tennis Association was a group of professional players in the late 1940s and early 1950s who, for several years, issued their own official rankings of the professional players at the end of each year; it was also apparently called the '''PPA''', or Professional Players Association in at least 1946.

*''The Game, My 40 Years in Tennis'' (1979), by [[Jack Kramer (tennis player)|Jack Kramer]].  Kramer's autobiography has information about the 1954 professional tour that is somewhat different from the other sources but that must be considered authoritative in that Kramer himself was the tour promoter that year.

*''Tennis Is My Racket'' (1949), by [[Bobby Riggs]].  Riggs's autobiography has information about the 1946 professional tour that is slightly different from the other sources.  He also writes at length about his 1948 tour with Jack Kramer but says nothing about his playing record in 1947, about which there is much conflicting information.

*''The Life & Times of Bobby Riggs, The Last Sure Thing'' (2003) by Tom LeCompte.  A biography published after Riggs's death that jibes with Riggs's own information for 1946 but that is at odds with other sources about Riggs's record in 1947.

==See also==
*[[Famous tennis players]]

==External links==
* ''History of the Pro Tennis Wars'', by Ray Bowers
** [http://www.tennisserver.com/lines/lines_99_10_31.html Chapter I: Suzanne Lenglen and the First Pro Tour]
** [http://www.tennisserver.com/lines/lines_01_03_01.html Chapter II, Part 1: The eminence of Karel Kozeluh and Vincent Richards 1927-1928]
** [http://www.tennisserver.com/lines/lines_01_04_01.html Chapter II, Part 2: Deja vu 1929-1930]
** [http://www.tennisserver.com/lines/lines_02_03_03.html Chapter III: Tilden's Year of Triumph in 1931]
** [http://www.tennisserver.com/lines/lines_02_10_05.html Chapter IV: Tilden and Nusslein, 1932-1933]
** [http://www.tennisserver.com/lines/lines_03_03_01.html Chapter V: The Early Ascendancy of Vines, 1934]
** [http://www.tennisserver.com/lines/lines_03_12_01.html Chapter VI: Vines's Second Year: 1935]
** [http://www.tennisserver.com/lines/lines_04_07_25.html Chapter VII: Awaiting Perry, 1936]
** [http://www.tennisserver.com/lines/lines_04_12_03.html Chapter VIII: Perry and Vines, 1937]
** [http://www.tennisserver.com/lines/lines_05_07_30.html Chapter IX: Readying for Budge, 1938]
** [http://www.tennisserver.com/lines/lines_05_11_22.html Chapter X: Budge's Great Pro Year, 1939]
** [http://www.tennisserver.com/lines/lines_06_10_01.html Chapter XI: America, 1940-1941]
** [http://www.tennisserver.com/lines/lines_07_03_19.html Chapter XII: America, 1942]

[[Category:CZ Live|Catalog of World No. 1 male tennis players]]
[[category:Sports Workgroup|Catalog of World No. 1 male tennis players]]