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
Serena Williams
reaches
Leslie Linton
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 OriginOpen career →2 meetings11January 11, 1999 — March 5, 1999View Serena Williams × Steffi Graf →02 BridgeOpen career →Steffi Graf
3 meetings12November 19, 1984 — January 27, 1986View Steffi Graf × Wendy Turnbull →03 BridgeOpen career →Wendy Turnbull
2 meetings02January 25, 1971 — January 1, 1974View Wendy Turnbull × Kazuko Sawamatsu →04 BridgeOpen career →Kazuko Sawamatsu
1 meeting10January 1, 1968View Kazuko Sawamatsu × Irma Lesser →05 BridgeOpen career →Irma Lesser
1 meeting10January 1, 1968View Irma Lesser × Leslie Linton →06 DestinationOpen career →Leslie Linton
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.
- OriginSerena Williams
- BridgeSteffi Graf
- BridgeDianne Fromholtz
- BridgeKazuko Sawamatsu
- BridgeIrma Lesser
- DestinationLeslie Linton
- OriginSerena Williams
- BridgeLarisa Savchenko
- BridgeWendy Turnbull
- BridgeKazuko Sawamatsu
- BridgeIrma Lesser
- DestinationLeslie Linton
- OriginSerena Williams
- BridgeJana Novotna
- BridgeWendy Turnbull
- BridgeKazuko Sawamatsu
- BridgeIrma Lesser
- DestinationLeslie Linton
- OriginSerena Williams
- BridgeMary Joe Fernandez
- BridgeWendy Turnbull
- BridgeKazuko Sawamatsu
- BridgeIrma Lesser
- DestinationLeslie Linton
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 →