Well, here it is...a tradition started by Jacqueline Dupree (JD--the stat queen) back in 1990. So that would make this the 13th annual "Time To Get a Day Job Awards." This "honors" those players who have been KO'd in the first round (or second round if they received a first round bye) of tournaments on the ATP Tour (not qualies or challengers). It is sorted in two ways: By number of first round losses and then by percentage to total tournaments played. And, remember, this is all in fun.
Note: Tournaments do not include World Team Cup or Tennis Masters Cup due to different format, just the grand slams, tennis masters series and international series events.
So let's get to the awards.
Our grand prize winners this year are Stefan Koubek and Andreas
Vinciguerra. Both have started out well in 2003 so perhaps 2002
served as a wake-up call for these two. Stefan Koubek takes home
the crown for most first round loses. He suffered 19 of them, two
more than any other player. Jan Vacek and Mariano Zabaleta were next
on the list with 17 each and three players finished with 16, Albert Portas,
Julien Boutter, and Andrea Gaudenzi. In the category of highest percentage
of first round losses, that goes to Andreas Vinciguerra who had a dismal
year. At one point, Vinciguerra was 1-17 overall and at the ATP level,
he finished the year losing 10 of his 12 opening matches. Alex Kim
was a close second, losing 9 of 11 and Alexandre Simoni lost 8 of 10.
Looking at last year's winner, Davide Sanguinetti, we know what kind of start he got to 2002. He lost his first two then went 17-2, taking titles in Milan and the Wroclaw challenger. Now this year, at the time of this report, Vinciguerra has jumped out to an 9-2 record with a quarterfinals in Doha and reaching the third round in the Australian Open, qualifying for both. And Koubek won that event in Doha and reached the quarterfinals the next week in Auckland for a 7-1 jump. So perhaps the Time To Get a Day Job Awards has become some sort of inspiration! ;-)
If we're going to note those on the low end of the totem pole, we might as well recognize the player at the other end of the list ... the one who managed to avoid first round losses. That would be Andre Agassi, who lost only once in the first round in 15 events. It happened at Indian Wells suffering a shocker to Michel Kratochvil. But Andre rebounded in a big way, winning 20 of his next 21 matches including titles the following week in Miami and also in Rome. Also somewhat surprising was Marat Safin, who lost only twice in 21 events. Other top players in this category were Tim Henman (2/19), Lleyton Hewitt (3/19), and Tommy Haas (4/22).
Well there you have it. Below is the full top 50 lists of this
year's Time To Get a Day Job Awards. For previous years' awards:
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996 (JD)
1995 (JD)
1994 (JD)
Number of first round losses: First Total Round Tourn. Player Country Losses Played* Percentage -------------------- ------- ------ ------ ---------- 1 Koubek, Stefan AUT 19 31 0.6129 2 Vacek, Jan CZE 17 24 0.7083 3 Zabaleta, Mariano ARG 17 28 0.6071 4 Portas, Albert ESP 16 23 0.6957 5 Boutter, Julien FRA 16 25 0.6400 6 Gaudenzi, Andrea ITA 16 26 0.6154 7 Delgado, Ramon PAR 15 20 0.7500 8 Burgsmuller, Lars GER 15 22 0.6818 9 Clavet, Francisco ESP 15 22 0.6818 10 Dupuis, Anthony FRA 15 23 0.6522 11 Davydenko, Nikolay RUS 15 24 0.6250 12 Mirnyi, Max BLR 15 27 0.5556 13 Rochus, Christophe BEL 14 21 0.6667 14 Squillari, Franco ARG 14 22 0.6364 15 Kratochvil, Michel SUI 14 27 0.5185 16 Ulihrach, Bohdan CZE 14 27 0.5185 17 Blanco, Galo ESP 13 19 0.6842 18 Rochus, Olivier BEL 13 22 0.5909 19 Sanguinetti, Davide ITA 13 23 0.5652 20 Montanes, Albert ESP 13 24 0.5417 21 Santoro, Fabrice FRA 13 26 0.5000 22 El Aynaoui, Younes MAR 13 28 0.4643 23 Hrbaty, Dominik SVK 13 28 0.4643 24 Lapentti, Nicolas ECU 13 28 0.4643 25 Vicente, Fernando ESP 13 28 0.4643 26 Chang, Michael USA 12 18 0.6667 27 Norman, Magnus SWE 12 19 0.6316 28 Arazi, Hicham MAR 12 21 0.5714 29 Bjorkman, Jonas SWE 12 22 0.5455 30 Pless, Kristian DEN 12 22 0.5455 31 Savolt, Attila HUN 12 22 0.5455 32 Sanchez, David ESP 12 23 0.5217 33 Arthurs, Wayne AUS 12 24 0.5000 34 Kiefer, Nicolas GER 12 24 0.5000 35 Sa, Andre BRA 12 24 0.5000 36 Gambill, Jan-Michael USA 12 26 0.4615 37 Nieminen, Jarkko FIN 12 26 0.4615 38 Knowle, Julian AUT 11 14 0.7857 39 Lee, Martin GBR 11 14 0.7857 40 Russell, Michael USA 11 15 0.7333 41 Pioline, Cedric FRA 11 16 0.6875 42 Meligeni, Fernando BRA 11 23 0.4783 43 Ljubicic, Ivan CRO 11 27 0.4074 44 Schalken, Sjeng NED 11 28 0.3929 45 Schuettler, Rainer GER 11 29 0.3793 46 Vinciguerra, Andreas SWE 10 12 0.8333 47 Sargsian, Sargis ARM 10 19 0.5263 48 Labadze, Irakli GEO 10 20 0.5000 49 Costa, Albert ESP 10 21 0.4762 50 Calleri, Agustin ARG 10 23 0.4348 51 Youzhny, Mikhail RUS 10 23 0.4348 52 Martin, Alberto ESP 10 24 0.4167 53 Nalbandian, David ARG 10 25 0.4000 * minimum 10 tournaments Percentage of first round losses to total number of ATP tournaments played: First Total Round Tourn. Player Country Losses Played* Percentage -------------------- ------- ------ ------ ---------- 1 Vinciguerra, Andreas SWE 10 12 0.8333 2 Kim, Alex USA 9 11 0.8182 3 Simoni, Alexandre BRA 8 10 0.8000 4 Knowle, Julian AUT 11 14 0.7857 5 Lee, Martin GBR 11 14 0.7857 6 Delgado, Ramon PAR 15 20 0.7500 7 Balcells, Juan ESP 9 12 0.7500 8 Ginepri, Robby USA 9 12 0.7500 9 Russell, Michael USA 11 15 0.7333 10 Vacek, Jan CZE 17 24 0.7083 11 Levy, Harel ISR 7 10 0.7000 12 Portas, Albert ESP 16 23 0.6957 13 Pioline, Cedric FRA 11 16 0.6875 14 Blanco, Galo ESP 13 19 0.6842 15 Burgsmuller, Lars GER 15 22 0.6818 16 Clavet, Francisco ESP 15 22 0.6818 17 Rochus, Christophe BEL 14 21 0.6667 18 Chang, Michael USA 12 18 0.6667 19 Dupuis, Anthony FRA 15 23 0.6522 20 Heuberger, Ivo SUI 9 14 0.6429 21 Mamiit, Cecil USA 9 14 0.6429 22 Boutter, Julien FRA 16 25 0.6400 23 Squillari, Franco ARG 14 22 0.6364 24 Norman, Magnus SWE 12 19 0.6316 25 Davydenko, Nikolay RUS 15 24 0.6250 26 Gaudenzi, Andrea ITA 16 26 0.6154 27 Galvani, Stefano ITA 8 13 0.6154 28 Koubek, Stefan AUT 19 31 0.6129 29 Zabaleta, Mariano ARG 17 28 0.6071 30 Verkerk, Martin NED 6 10 0.6000 31 Rochus, Olivier BEL 13 22 0.5909 32 Arazi, Hicham MAR 12 21 0.5714 33 Kohlmann, Michael GER 8 14 0.5714 34 Sluiter, Raemon NED 8 14 0.5714 35 Sanguinetti, Davide ITA 13 23 0.5652 36 Saretta, Flavio BRA 9 16 0.5625 37 Mirnyi, Max BLR 15 27 0.5556 38 Bjorkman, Jonas SWE 12 22 0.5455 39 Pless, Kristian DEN 12 22 0.5455 40 Savolt, Attila HUN 12 22 0.5455 41 Montanes, Albert ESP 13 24 0.5417 42 Coutelot, Nicolas FRA 7 13 0.5385 43 Golmard, Jerome FRA 7 13 0.5385 44 Okun, Noam ISR 8 15 0.5333 45 Stoliarov, Andrei RUS 8 15 0.5333 46 Hipfl, Markus AUT 9 17 0.5294 47 Llodra, Michael FRA 9 17 0.5294 48 Spadea, Vince USA 9 17 0.5294 49 Sargsian, Sargis ARM 10 19 0.5263 50 Sanchez, David ESP 12 23 0.5217 * minimum 10 tournaments