Well, here it is...a tradition started by Jacqueline Dupree (JD--the stat queen) back in 1990. So that would make this the 16th 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) in the main draw of tournaments on the ATP Tour (not qualifying, challengers or below, or Davis Cup). 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. And the lists only include the top 50 among those who played in 10 or more events.
So let's get to the awards.
Our grand prize winners this year are Philipp Kohlschreiber
and Jerome Haehnel. Kohlschreiber takes the crown for most
first round losses. He suffered 18 of them, two more than any other
player. Last year it was another German, Rainer Schuettler who garnered
this honor, so for the second year in a row the title stays in Germany.
A total of 7 players came in with 16 first round losses including another
German, Lars Burgsmuller, along with Karol Beck, Kenneth Carlsen, Christophe
Rochus, Tomas Zib, Alberto Martin, and Igor Andreev.
In the percentage category, its Jerome Haehnel who went down in flames in his first match in 10 of the 11 events he played in in 2005. Younes El Aynaoui was attempting to come back from injury but had a rough time of it, losing 9 of 10. Jeff Morrison lost nearly 85% of his first matches while Alexander Popp was 10 of 13.
As usual, we also reward those for being on the opposite end of things. For the first time in quite a few years, we have a player who did not once lose in the first round in 10 or more events played. Considering how seldomly that happens, its quite an accomplishment. In fact, in 2005 two players achieved that status. The first is no surprise, its world #1 Roger Federer who played in 15 events and not once lost in the first round. Heck, he only lost a total of 4 times all year. The other perfect case was Richard Gasquet who played in 11 ATP events without a first round defeat.
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:
2004
2003
2002
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 Philipp Kohlschreiber GER 18 25 0.7200 2 Lars Burgsmuller GER 16 21 0.7619 3 Karol Beck SVK 16 26 0.6154 4 Kenneth Carlsen DEN 16 26 0.6154 5 Christophe Rochus BEL 16 26 0.6154 6 Tomas Zib CZE 16 27 0.5926 7 Alberto Martin ESP 16 29 0.5517 8 Igor Andreev RUS 16 32 0.5000 9 Luis Horna PER 15 24 0.6250 10 Filippo Volandri ITA 15 27 0.5556 11 Michael Llodra FRA 14 20 0.7000 12 Ivo Karlovic CRO 14 22 0.6364 13 Ricardo Mello BRA 14 23 0.6087 14 Cyril Saulnier FRA 14 26 0.5385 15 Alex Calatrava ESP 13 17 0.7647 16 Julien Benneteau FRA 13 18 0.7222 17 Jiri Vanek CZE 13 18 0.7222 18 Juan Monaco ARG 13 25 0.5200 19 Andrei Pavel ROM 13 25 0.5200 20 Jose Acasuso ARG 13 26 0.5000 21 Paradorn Srichaphan THA 13 29 0.4483 22 Jean-Rene Lisnard FRA 12 19 0.6316 23 Albert Montanes ESP 12 19 0.6316 24 Nicolas Massu CHI 12 21 0.5714 25 Nicolas Almagro ESP 12 22 0.5455 26 Gael Monfils FRA 12 23 0.5217 27 Florian Mayer GER 12 24 0.5000 28 Rainer Schuettler GER 12 24 0.5000 29 Vince Spadea USA 12 24 0.5000 30 Jurgen Melzer AUT 12 25 0.4800 31 Guillermo Garcia- ESP 12 26 0.4615 32 David Ferrer ESP 12 28 0.4286 33 Jeff Morrison USA 11 13 0.8462 34 Stefan Koubek AUT 11 15 0.7333 35 Oscar Hernandez ESP 11 16 0.6875 36 Nicolas Lapentti ECU 11 16 0.6875 37 Hyung-Taik Lee KOR 11 19 0.5789 38 Potito Starace ITA 11 20 0.5500 39 Paul-Henri Mathieu FRA 11 27 0.4074 40 Jerome Haehnel FRA 10 11 0.9091 41 Alexander Popp GER 10 13 0.7692 42 Tomas Behrend GER 10 14 0.7143 43 Raemon Sluiter NED 10 14 0.7143 44 David Sanchez ESP 10 15 0.6667 45 Santiago Ventura ESP 10 18 0.5556 46 Jonas Bjorkman SWE 10 21 0.4762 47 Jan Hernych CZE 10 22 0.4545 48 Jiri Novak CZE 10 23 0.4348 49 Max Mirnyi BLR 10 24 0.4167 50 Kevin Kim USA 10 25 0.4000 51 Juan Ignacio Chela ARG 10 26 0.3846 52 Tomas Berdych CZE 10 27 0.3704 53 Nikolay Davydenko RUS 10 29 0.3448 * 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 Jerome Haehnel FRA 10 11 0.9091 2 Younes El Aynaoui MAR 9 10 0.9000 3 Jeff Morrison USA 11 13 0.8462 4 Alexander Popp GER 10 13 0.7692 5 Alex Calatrava ESP 13 17 0.7647 6 Lars Burgsmuller GER 16 21 0.7619 7 Stefan Koubek AUT 11 15 0.7333 8 Julien Benneteau FRA 13 18 0.7222 9 Jiri Vanek CZE 13 18 0.7222 10 Philipp Kohlschreiber GER 18 25 0.7200 11 Tomas Behrend GER 10 14 0.7143 12 Raemon Sluiter NED 10 14 0.7143 13 Michael Llodra FRA 14 20 0.7000 14 Michal Tabara CZE 7 10 0.7000 15 Oscar Hernandez ESP 11 16 0.6875 16 Nicolas Lapentti ECU 11 16 0.6875 17 David Sanchez ESP 10 15 0.6667 18 Marcos Baghdatis CYP 8 12 0.6667 19 Thomas Enqvist SWE 8 12 0.6667 20 Antony Dupuis FRA 9 14 0.6429 21 Ivo Karlovic CRO 14 22 0.6364 22 Gregory Carraz FRA 7 11 0.6364 23 Jean-Rene Lisnard FRA 12 19 0.6316 24 Albert Montanes ESP 12 19 0.6316 25 Luis Horna PER 15 24 0.6250 26 Karol Beck SVK 16 26 0.6154 27 Kenneth Carlsen DEN 16 26 0.6154 28 Christophe Rochus BEL 16 26 0.6154 29 Ricardo Mello BRA 14 23 0.6087 30 Janko Tipsarevic SCG 9 15 0.6000 31 Jan-Michael Gambill USA 6 10 0.6000 32 Razvan Sabau ROM 6 10 0.6000 33 Tomas Zib CZE 16 27 0.5926 34 Hyung-Taik Lee KOR 11 19 0.5789 35 Nicolas Massu CHI 12 21 0.5714 36 Bjorn Phau GER 8 14 0.5714 37 Filippo Volandri ITA 15 27 0.5556 38 Santiago Ventura ESP 10 18 0.5556 39 Alberto Martin ESP 16 29 0.5517 40 Potito Starace ITA 11 20 0.5500 41 Nicolas Almagro ESP 12 22 0.5455 42 Irakli Labadze GEO 6 11 0.5455 43 Cyril Saulnier FRA 14 26 0.5385 44 Ivo Minar CZE 7 13 0.5385 45 Peter Wessels NED 7 13 0.5385 46 Gael Monfils FRA 12 23 0.5217 47 Juan Monaco ARG 13 25 0.5200 48 Andrei Pavel ROM 13 25 0.5200 49 Igor Andreev RUS 16 32 0.5000 50 Jose Acasuso ARG 13 26 0.5000 51 Florian Mayer GER 12 24 0.5000 52 Rainer Schuettler GER 12 24 0.5000 53 Vince Spadea USA 12 24 0.5000 54 Joachim Johansson SWE 7 14 0.5000 55 Stanislas Wawrinka SUI 7 14 0.5000 56 Wesley Moodie RSA 6 12 0.5000 * minimum 10 tournaments