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.

Choose both ends of the storyComplete archive · walkovers excluded
Historical windowOnly matches played within this period may create links.
No date limit

Shortest path found

R Kaplan
reaches
Pete Sampras

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

2,564 players examined
  1. 1 meeting01January 17, 1972
    View R Kaplan × P Sofoulis
  2. 1 meeting01January 17, 1972
    View P Sofoulis × John Cooper
  3. 3 meetings03August 2, 1971 — June 17, 1973
    View John Cooper × Jimmy Connors
  4. 2 meetings02March 13, 1992 — April 27, 1992
    View Jimmy Connors × Pete 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 →