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

Roger Federer
reaches
I Kuba

Historical windowComplete archive

The connection uses 6 links and 7 careers. Every step below represents a recorded head-to-head meeting within the selected window.

The complete route

Career by career

4,648 players examined
  1. 1 meeting10September 13, 1999
    View Roger Federer × Cedric Pioline
  2. 10 meetings91September 1, 1971 — August 13, 1979
    View Jimmy Connors × Colin Dibley
  3. 1 meeting10January 7, 1980
    View Colin Dibley × Gary Penberthy
  4. 1 meeting10January 1, 1968
    View Gary Penberthy × P Neck
  5. 1 meeting10January 1, 1968
    View P Neck × I Kuba

Parallel routes

One search may have several correct answers.

Besides the detailed route, we found 4 more sequences with the same 6 links. Every route travels the shortest possible distance in the archive.

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 →