All Mixed Up

This summer I did something I have not done in a long time, I played mixed doubles. I was playing with a friend at the Indian Village Tennis Club in Detroit and a couple of the women members approached us to play a set of doubles. As the rules of the club are to give up the court to doubles players, to maximize the court usage, we gladly agreed to play. It was a lot of fun, but it was a more controlled kind of fun that the slam-bang singles match I was counting on.

It got me to thinking about the lost art of mixed doubles. It seems like a game of a gentler time. When I think of mixed doubles I think of men playing in white linen pants and women playing in long white dresses and iced tea on the veranda following the match. While it is probably the most social form of tennis, it also seems to generate the least amount of exercise.

There is also a mixed doubles culture. There is an unwritten rule that the man cannot 'go after' the woman with a big serve or a body shot while at the net. It is a very polite, gentile form of the game.

I remember when John Lloyd won the Wimbledon mixed titles in 1983 and 1984 with Wendy Turnbull. He was the first British man to win a Wimbledon title of any kind in a number of years. That seemed like a pretty big deal to the people of England at the time.

So, as I often do, I started thinking about the history of mixed doubles and if men make better mixed doubles players than women.  Also, why is there no formal professional mixed doubles rankings? I thought that because it is a sport where the men and women play equally together it would be a great idea to come up a ranking, regardless of man or woman to determine who is currently the best mixed doubles player in the world. Again, this ranking would be blind to being male or female and simply be a ranking of who has the best mixed doubles record in 2012,

Normally there are only four professional mixed doubles tournaments each year, held at the major events;  The Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and The U.S. Open. There is a bonus this year because the Olympic Games added mixed doubles to the agenda for the first time since 1924. (This gives us one more data point)

So, lets get to it. There are four grand slam tournaments that have mixed doubles plus the Olympic Games. Interesting enough, there were ten different players who won a mixed doubles title. (Five different men and five different women, duh.) They were:

Australian Open: Sands-Mattek/Tacau
Roland Garros: Mirza/Bupathi
Wimbledon: Raymond/M. Bryan
U.S. Open: Makarova/Soares
Olympics: Azarenka/Mirnyi

Using the same ranking point system for Grand Slam tournaments from the professional men's tour and allowing the same number of points for Olympic Games as for a men's Masters event, the top ten player rankings for mixed doubles for 2012 are as follows:

1. Leander Paes/India, 3,780 points. The veteran from India did not win one of the major events but his consistency won out. He was a finalist at the Australian Open and Wimbledon with Vesnina. He was also a Semi-finalist at Roland Garros. Leander has won six major mixed doubles titles in his career.
2. Elana Vesnina/Russia, 3,480 points. Elana also did not win one of the major events, but she teamed with Paes at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. She has not yet won a major mixed doubles title in her career.
3. Sania Mirza/India, 3,470 points. Sania won the title at Roland Garros with Mahesh Bhupathi. She has also won the 2009 mixed doubles title with Bupathi at the Australian Open.
4. Lisa Raymond/USA, 3,160 points. Lisa won the Wimbledon title with Mike Bryan. She also won the Olympic Bronze medal with Mike Bryan. Lisa has won four other mixed doubles titles in her career.
5. Mahesh Bhupathi/India, 2,990 points. Mahesh won Roland Garros with Mirza. Mahesh has won eight major mixed doubles titles in his career.
6. Mike Bryan/USA, 2,960 points. Mike won the Wimbledon title with Raymond and also won the Bronze medal at the Olympic games with Raymond. Mike has won three major mixed doubles titles in his career.
7. Bruno Soares/Brazil, 2,450 points. Bruno won the US Open title with Ekaterina Makarova, it was Bruno's first Major title of any kind.
8. Max Mirnyi/Belarus, 2,260 points. Max won the Olympic title with #1 women's player Victoria Azarenka. Max has won three major mixed doubles titles in his career in addition to the Olympic title.
T9. Bethanie Mattek-Sands/USA, 2,180 points. Bethanie won her first major title of any kind at the Australian Open, the first major tournament of the year.
T9. Horia Tecau/Romania, 2,180 points. Horia was another first-time major winner with Mattek-Sands partnering with her to a win at the Australian Open.

Ten different people from six different countries. I wonder what it says that 3 of the top 5 players are from India.

Historically the best mixed doubles player was Margret Court from Australia who won 19 major mixed doubles titles during her career. The man with the most major mixed doubles titles is Owen Davidson also from Australia with 15 titles.

However, if we constrain our results to only the Open Era, since 1968, Martina Navratilova has the most mixed doubles titles with 10. The man with the most major mixed doubles titles in the open era is Mahesh Bhupathi with 8 titles.

So, there you have it. This year's mixed doubles top ranking goes to Leander Paes from India. Leander, there is no fancy trophy or big fat bonus check that come with the title, but there is the satisfaction of knowing that one man in Michigan recognizes your greatness in a game that has become a lost art.