Has Any Athlete Dominated an Event Like Nadal at the French Open?

[nevets88]

I mean, come on, look at graphic below... Borg won 6. OK, he retired early, but tennis, like golf, is much more competitive now than it was in the 70s and 80s. Like Woods with a 54 hole lead, he's never lost a FO final. Tomorrow's semifinal I hope will be epic. The Joker is a great player, but I'll be rooting for Rafa.

[billchao]

Simone Biles.

[nevets88]

1 minute ago, billchao said:

Simone Biles.

I haven't been following her career, I need to catch up.

[onthehunt526]

Maybe not an event, but Dale Earnhardt was the best restrictor-plate driver there ever was, period. Yes he only won 1 Daytona 500 (1998). But he dominated Speedweek... won something like 50 races at Speedweek.

[ncates00]

https://www.golfchannel.com/news/ranking-tiger-woods-nine-tournament-victories-bay-hill

Tiger at Bay Hill.

[saevel25]

Some of these articles are dated, but Fivethirtyeight does a good job..

Somehow Rafael Nadal Got Better On Clay | FiveThirtyEight

---

The 10-time French Open winner has been tearing through the clay court season at age 31.

Rafael Nadal's Most Untouchable Records

---

2019 U.S. Open champoin, Rafael Nadal, holds many tennis records. Here are seven of his most untouchable ones.

Rafael Nadal Clay Court Record: Why Nadal is so dominant on clay | Clay Court Statistics | Clay Court titles | Nadal vs Djokovic | Nadal vs Tsitsipas | King of Clay

---

The strong relationship between Rafael Nadal and clay court goes back a long way. The Spaniard emerged as a serious contender when he clinched the French Open title in 2005. In this article w

This level of dominance is a bid absurd. It's almost statistically impossible to believe. At some point you think someone would just knock him out of the tournament. 

 

[Shorty]

16 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

. At some point you think someone would just knock him out of the tournament. 

 

Well - it has happened. 2009, 2015 and 2016. Doesn't make his achievement less astonishing but he isn't unbeaten. You imply that he has never been knocked out.

FUN FACT: Q:  How many matches are played in a tennis  (or other) tournament? 

A: The number of players minus 1. In a singles tournament, one player loses in each match. And in a knockout tournament everyone has to lose once, except the winner. So - if it's 128 the answer in 127. 64 players means 63 matches, etc.

 

Edited June 11, 2021 by Shorty

[saevel25]

Just now, Shorty said:

Well - it has happened. 2009, 2015 and 2016. Doesn't make his achievement less astonishing but he isn't unbeaten. You imply that he has never been knocked out.

 

I know, but his winning % on clay is over .900! 

I could understand like over a 3 year stretch a player pops off or something. An entire career, especially in Tennis when old age isn't that kind. It really seems unbelievable.

[Shindig]

2 hours ago, ncates00 said:

https://www.golfchannel.com/news/ranking-tiger-woods-nine-tournament-victories-bay-hill

Tiger at Bay Hill.

or Tiger at Torrey.  I don't know enough about tennis to know, but did second place in any of these French Opens ever refer to himself or herself as the "winner of B-flight"?  Because it happened at Torrey once when Tiger won (Farmers Insurance Open, not a U.S. Open)

[ncates00]

15 minutes ago, Shindig said:

or Tiger at Torrey.  I don't know enough about tennis to know, but did second place in any of these French Opens ever refer to himself or herself as the "winner of B-flight"?  Because it happened at Torrey once when Tiger won (Farmers Insurance Open, not a U.S. Open)

Yep, or Firestone. Tiger has won at Bay Hill 9x and 8x each at the other two. Pretty darn good. 

[dennyjones]

Ralf Schumann — ISSF World Cup

Sport: Shooting

Country: Germany

Years of dominance: 1989-2007

Key stats: Won 13 World Cup finals in 25-meter rapid fire pistol, including eight in a row from 1989 to 1996. Also a three-time Olympic gold medalist and four-time world champion.

 

Marit Bjoergen — World Cup Skiing

Sport: Cross-country skiing

Country: Norway

Years of dominance: 2000-18

Key stats: 114 individual World Cup wins. Four overall World Cup titles. Eight World Cup discipline titles (five sprint, three distance).

Edited June 11, 2021 by dennyjones

[Vinsk]

Lance Armstrong? 🥴

[Big Lex]

Team sport, but the NY Yankees between 1947 and 1964 won the AL Pennant 15 out of 18 years. I think the Canadiens have a similar or better. period of dominance in hockey. 

Martina Navratilova, 8 Wimbledon singles championships in 10 years. 

Edited June 12, 2021 by Big Lex

[Golfingdad]

Has nobody mentioned the Harlem Globetrotters vs. Washington Generals? They’ve been pretty dominant. 🙂

[Shindig]

23 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

Has nobody mentioned the Harlem Globetrotters vs. Washington Generals? They’ve been pretty dominant. 🙂

He's spinning the ball on his finger! Just take it! Take it!  That game was fixed! They were using a freakin' ladder.

[bwdial]

I know it's not the same since he's a coach, but Nick Saban's six national championships over the past 15 years is pretty remarkable. However, this stat blows my mind; Alabama has either won the national title or lost to the team that did in 14 of Nick Saban's 15 seasons in Tuscaloosa. 

The lone exception was 2013, when Alabama lost to Auburn.

Auburn lost the national championship to Florida State with 0:13 remaining in the game.

 

In the world of motor racing, Tom Kristensen has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans nine times; six consecutively.

Graham Hill won the Monaco Grand Prix five times in the 1960s.

Juan Manuel Fangio won the World Championship five times - with four different teams - from 1951 through 1957.

Michael Schumacher won seven World Championships from 1994 through 2004.

Edited January 31, 2022 by bwdial

[Ty_Webb]

Jahangir Khan at squash. 

Squash Info | Jahangir Khan | Squash

 

He won 555 consecutive matches over a 5 and a half year period. I suspect he's the most dominant sportsperson of any sort. The other person I bring up in threads like these is Don Bradman. Australian cricketer from the 1930s mostly. His batting average is 99.94. Next best is about 62. As far as standard deviations from the mean, it's broadly equivalent to a baseball player having a career batting average of around 0.392. 

Donald Bradman

 

[pganapathy]

Rocky Marciano and his 49-0 record has to come into the discussion here, though admittedly you can't say boxing is a location or event based sport like say tennis or golf being played at a course or stadium.  And would we be willing to consider Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France, though admittedly he eventually had his titles stripped due to doping.