This is what the entire Open Era "looks" like

[El Dude]

You're thinking...wtf? Well, here's a key:

Those are the 25 greatest players to win a title during the Open Era...or roughly speaking. I've decided to include pre-Open Era greats like Roy Emerson and Pancho Gonzales, both of whom won multiple titles in the Open Era, while excluding "near-greats" like Gerulaitis, Stich, Muster, Chang, Kuerten, Hewitt, Roddick, and Medvedev, not to mention early players like Santana, Stolle and Roche. Meaning, I wanted to consider their inclusion based upon their overall records to get a sense of the density of all-time greats playing, even though several dozen guys had better Open Era careers than Gonzales and, more so, Emerson.

There were other early greats that played during the Open Era but didn't win titles, such as Lew Hoad, Frank Sedgman, and Pancho Segura. Sedgman actually played pro matches as late as 1976 when he was 49 years old, and Segura played as late as 1974 just a few months shy of his 53rd birthday (!). Segura even beat the other Pancho, Gonzales, and Fred Stolle--both roughly #10ish--in 1969, when Segura was 48 years old. But I digress.

Anyhow, the chart is color-coded with the 25 players listed in the key. It is obviously less about specifics and more general visual impression. A few things come to mind, though:

• The first two decades were a lot "busier," with a wider range of greats winning titles - especially the first 5-10 years.
• As contrast, the mid-90s to early 2000s were a lot sparser. A lot of those dark grey titles were won by very good players who weren't quite great: Kuerten, Chang, Ivanisevic, Rios, Corretja, Enqvist, Safin, Hewitt, Roddick, etc.
• Now I have another version of this chart in which I color-code a lot more players - guys like those mentioned. But it is even more hectic than the one above. I thought a "greats only" would be a lot more meaningful, and even then I was tempted to exclude less greats like Smith and Courier.
• Oh, you can also see the dominance of the Big 3/4, and it isn't hard to see where clay season is!

p.s. Make sure you click on the chart as then you can see it a lot bigger, and also see the names. I included full last names for Slams and initials for other big titles and ATP 500s.

 

[El Dude]

And here's one more, to show the span of their careers in which they won titles:

I like this one because it gives a sense of just how much of the careers of Gonzales, Rosewall, Emerson and Laver were played before the Open Era.