Revealing the best doubles teams and players in tennis history

The aim of this study was to identify the best male doubles teams and the best male doubles individual players in the Open Era of tennis. The obtained data were recorded from the official ATP website and include 58,365 male doubles teams (10,717 individual male doubles players) who played 128,195 matches, in the period from 1968 to the end of 2014. The problem of ranking doubles teams and individual doubles players who were active in different time periods was solved using social network analysis. Firstly, we represented male doubles teams and the matches played between them as a network of directed contacts. Secondly, network analytic methods, the PageRank algorithm in particular, were applied to the complex network system of male doubles tennis matches. The results revealed the Bryan brothers as clearly the best doubles team, and Todd Woodbridge was recognised as the best individual doubles player, in the observed period. The findings of the study establish the PageRanking procedure as an alternative tennis ranking technique to the accepted ATP ranking system.