Origin
Open career →Tennis’s living graph
Bridges Across
Eras
Two players do not need to have shared a court for their stories to be connected. Find the shortest chain of head-to-head meetings between them.
Shortest path found
N Trotter
reaches
Pete Sampras
Historical windowComplete archive
The connection uses 5 links and 6 careers. Every step below represents a recorded head-to-head meeting within the selected window.
The complete route
Career by career
01— 1 meeting01December 30, 1968View N Trotter × J Bougher →02— BridgeOpen career →J Bougher
1 meeting01December 30, 1968View J Bougher × Rob Kilderry →03 BridgeOpen career →Rob Kilderry
1 meeting01December 30, 1968View Rob Kilderry × Phil Dent →04 BridgeOpen career →Phil Dent
2 meetings11November 8, 1982 — December 2, 1982View Phil Dent × Guy Forget →05 BridgeOpen career →Guy Forget
9 meetings45March 16, 1990 — April 15, 1996View Guy Forget × Pete Sampras →06 DestinationOpen career →Pete Sampras
Parallel routes
One search may have several correct answers.
Besides the detailed route, we found 4 more sequences with the same 5 links. Every route travels the shortest possible distance in the archive.
- —OriginN Trotter
- —BridgeJ Bougher
- BridgeRob Kilderry
- BridgePhil Dent
- BridgeJimmy Connors
- DestinationPete Sampras
- —OriginN Trotter
- —BridgeJ Bougher
- BridgeRob Kilderry
- BridgePhil Dent
- BridgeBill Scanlon
- DestinationPete Sampras
- —OriginN Trotter
- —BridgeJ Bougher
- BridgeRob Kilderry
- BridgePhil Dent
- BridgeJohn McEnroe
- DestinationPete Sampras
- —OriginN Trotter
- —BridgeJ Bougher
- BridgeRob Kilderry
- BridgePhil Dent
- BridgeTim Wilkison
- DestinationPete Sampras
How we calculate it
A search from both sides of history.
The portal traverses the head-to-head graph from both careers at the same time and stops at the first proven minimum distance. When a period is selected, only matches inside that window create links; walkovers never create connections.
Reverse the route →