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
Pete Sampras
reaches
B L Thomas
Historical windowComplete archive
The connection uses 4 links and 5 careers. Every step below represents a recorded head-to-head meeting within the selected window.
The complete route
Career by career
01 2 meetings20March 13, 1992 — April 27, 1992View Pete Sampras × Jimmy Connors →02 BridgeOpen career →Jimmy Connors
1 meeting10October 7, 1973View Jimmy Connors × Graham Stilwell →03 BridgeOpen career →Graham Stilwell
1 meeting10January 1, 1968View Graham Stilwell × Allan Wall →04 BridgeOpen career →Allan Wall
1 meeting10January 1, 1968View Allan Wall × B L Thomas →05 DestinationOpen career →B L Thomas
Parallel routes
One search may have several correct answers.
Besides the detailed route, we found 3 more sequences with the same 4 links. Every route travels the shortest possible distance in the archive.
- OriginPete Sampras
- BridgeJimmy Connors
- BridgeKen Rosewall
- BridgeAllan Wall
- DestinationB L Thomas
- OriginPete Sampras
- BridgeTim Wilkison
- BridgeKen Rosewall
- BridgeAllan Wall
- DestinationB L Thomas
- OriginPete Sampras
- BridgeJohn Fitzgerald
- BridgeKen Rosewall
- BridgeAllan Wall
- DestinationB L Thomas
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 →