Bagel (tennis)

In tennis, a bagel is when the set ends with a score of 6–0.^[1] An extremely rare type of bagel, where no point is lost, is called a golden set. Most bagel sets occur in the early rounds of tennis tournaments where the favorites meet with lower ranked players such as a lucky loser or a wild card.

Surface disparity[]

Statistics of the men's singles Grand Slam tournaments from 2000 to 2016 are as follows: at Wimbledon (grass surface), 127 bagels were made; at French Open (clay surface), 267; at the US Open Tennis Championship (hard surface), 275, and at the Australian Open (hard surface), 238.^{[citation needed]}. Björn Borg (five-time Wimbledon champion and six-time French Open champion) recorded 20 6–0 sets at the French Open, and only 5 at Wimbledon.

Double bagel[]

Men's singles[]

Grand Slam matches in the men's singles category are best of five sets. Thus, a kind of "inner double bagel" is possible, when a tennis player wins two consecutive 6–0 sets in a single match. The most recent occurrence is in 2018 when Gaël Monfils defeated Facundo Bagnis 7–6^(7–4), 3–6, 6–0, 6–0.^[2]

In the 1970s, first round matches at the French Open and US Open were only best of three sets. There are 3 cases of a double bagel Grand Slam victory:^{[citation needed]}

Winner	Opponent	Event
Raúl Ramírez	V. Franchitti	1974 French Open
Guillermo Vilas	Hans-Joachim Plötz	1975 French Open
Ilie Nastase	Frew McMillan	1977 US Open

Women's singles[]

For women in Grand Slam tournaments, a double bagel result is possible as the matches are best of three sets. In the Open Era, not a single Grand Slam tournament match ended with a double bagel in 1968 and 2005.^{[citation needed]} The most double bagels were in the seasons of 1974 and 1993, when eight matches had a result of 6–0, 6–0.^{[citation needed]}

The following players had at least five double-bagels in Grand Slam singles events:^{[citation needed]}

#	Player
14	Suzanne Lenglen
	Margaret Court
13	Chris Evert
10	Helen Wills-Moody
7	Steffi Graf
6	Kim Clijsters
	Mary Pierce
5	Monica Seles
	Conchita Martínez
	Maria Sharapova

Between No. 1 ranked players[]

Men[]

Winner	Opponent	Event
Ivan Lendl	Jimmy Connors	1984 Forrest Hills[3]

Women[]

Winner	Opponent	Event
Chris Evert	Martina Navratilova	1981 Amelia Island[4]
Chris Evert	Tracy Austin	1982 East Rutherford[5]
Steffi Graf	Tracy Austin	1994 Indian Wells
Martina Hingis	Monica Seles	2000 Miami Open
Lindsay Davenport	Maria Sharapova	2005 Indian Wells[6]
Kim Clijsters	Dinara Safina	2011 Australian Open

Triple bagel[]

The triple bagel is very infrequent. In the Open Era, this has occurred five times in the men's singles Grand Slam tournaments so far:

Winner	Opponent	Event
Nikola Špear	Daniel Contet	1968 French Open
Karel Nováček	Eduardo Bengoechea	1987 French Open
Stefan Edberg	Stefan Eriksson	1987 Wimbledon
Ivan Lendl	Barry Moir	1987 US Open
Sergi Bruguera	Thierry Champion	1993 French Open

In total, taking into account the preliminary rounds of Davis Cup in the Open Era, there have been 17 triple-bagels.^[7]

Records[]

Grand Slam tournaments[]

Men's singles[]

In the history of the Grand Slam tournaments in the men's single category, the largest number of 6–0 sets won is the following:^[8]

#	Player
50	Andre Agassi
47	Roy Emerson
46	Roger Federer
44	Jimmy Connors
42	Rafael Nadal
42	Ivan Lendl
41	John Bromwich
40	Bill Tilden
40	Novak Djokovic
35	Björn Borg

At individual majors the players with the most 6–0 sets are:^{[citation needed]}

• Australian Championship: 1. R. Federer – 17; 2. Jack Crawford (Australia) – 16; 3. A. Agassi; N. Djokovic – 15
• French Open: 1. R. Nadal – 23; 2–3. B. Borg, G. Vilas – 20 each; 4–5. Jaroslav Drobný (Czechoslovakia / Egypt), R. Lacoste – 17 each.
• Wimbledon: 1. R. Emerson – 15; 2–3. J. Connors, B. Tilden – to 12.
• US Championship: 1. J. Connors – 22; 2–3. I. Lendl, B. Tilden – 20 each.

Australian Neale Fraser won at least one 6–0 set in 16 Grand Slam tournaments in a row: starting with the 1957 Australian Championship and ending with the 1960 US championship.

Women's singles[]

In the women's singles, the largest number of 6–0 sets won:^{[citation needed]}

#	Player
106	Chris Evert
89	Margaret Court
72	Martina Navratilova
71	Steffi Graf
64	Serena Williams
57	Helen Wills-Moody
54	Monica Seles
49	Maria Sharapova
46	Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
44	Gabriela Sabatini

In individual tournaments of the Grand Slam, the largest number of 6–0 sets won is:^{[citation needed]}

• Australian Championship: 1. M. Court – 25; 2. M. Sharapova – 16; 3. S. Williams – 14.
• French Open: 1. C. Evert – 26; 2. A. Sanchez – 22; 3. G. Sabatini – 21.
• Wimbledon: 1–2. Suzanne Lenglen (France), C. Evert – to 29; 3. M. Court – 25.
• US Championship: 1. C. Evert – 43; H. Wills-Moody – 31; 3. M. Court – 27.

All tournaments[]

Men's singles[]

#	Bagels[9]
479	Bill Tilden
464	Josiah Ritchie
280	Anthony Wilding
266	Frank Parker
245	Jaroslav Drobny
224	Roy Emerson
216	Ken Rosewall
209	John Bromwich
197	Jimmy Connors
186	Gardnar Mulloy

#	Double Bagels[10]
106	Bill Tilden
87	Josiah Ritchie
51	Anthony Wilding
42	John Bromwich
37	Frank Parker
32	Jaroslav Drobny
25	George Worthington
24	Wayne Sabin

#	Triple Bagels[11]
11	Bill Tilden
5	Karel Kozeluh
4	Arthur Gore
	Josiah Ritchie
	Harry Parker
	Gordon Lowe
	Bob Hewitt

Trivia[]

• In 1910 in Bruxelles Max Decugis beat Tony Wilding 3–6, 0–6, 7–5, 6–0, 6–0. Wilding was winning 6–3, 6–0, 5–0.
• In 1948 Don Budge won the first match against George Hudson 6–0, 6–0, 6–0 at the US Professional Championship, and against Jerome Adler 6–0, 6–0, 6–1 in the second round.
• In 1969, in the second round of Wimbledon, top seed Rod Laver began with the loss of the first two sets to the unseeded Indian Premjit Lall. However, the game ended in his favor with a score of 3–6, 4–6, 6–3, 6–0, 6–0.
• There are five cases in the history of tennis (two of which occurred in the French Open in one tournament), when the winner of the match lost 2 bagel sets:^[12]
  • 1935 (U.S. Pro Tennis Championship) Bill Tilden – Karel Koželuh 0–6, 6–1, 6–4, 0–6, 6–4 ^[13]
  • 1962 (Tasmanian Championship) Rod Laver – Neale Fraser 7–5, 0–6, 0–6, 6–1, 6–2
  • 1969 (French Open) Stanley Matthews – Ilie Nastase 6–3, 0–6, 0–6, 6–4, 8–6
  • 1969 (French Open) Dennis Ralston – Patricio Rodríguez 6–2, 6–4, 0–6, 0–6, 6–4
  • 1981 (US Open) José Luis Clerc – Mel Purcell 6–3, 0–6, 0–6, 6–4, 6–3
• In 1981, in the first round of the US championship Jimmy Connors, who in the mid-70s almost married Chris Evert,^{[citation needed]} beat her then-husband^{[citation needed]} John Lloyd with a score of 6–0, 6–0, 6–2.^[14]
• Suzanne Lenglen won 9 tournaments in which she did not lose a single game in all matches.^[15]
• Guillermo Vilas won 2 matches with a score of 6–0, 6–0 in 2 consecutive seasons (1980 and 1981).^[16]
• Björn Borg won 116 6–0 sets during his career ^[17]
• Two women's finals in the history of the Grand Slam tournaments have ended with a double-bagel:^[18]
  • 1911 (Wimbledon) Dorothea Lambert-Chambers – Dora Boothby 6–0, 6–0
  • 1988 (French Open) Steffi Graf – Natasha Zvereva 6–0, 6–0
• Swiss tennis player Martina Hingis achieved her first Olympic bagel in singles in 1996, and the second in pairs twenty years later.
• Spanish tennis player Conchita Martínez scored the first double bagel against a player inside the top ten in Hamburg in 1995 when she defeated Magdalena Maleeva.
• Polish tennis player Iga Świątek scored the first double bagel on a WTA 1000 final, defeating top ten Czech player, and former world number 1, Karolína Plíšková in Rome.

References[]