On top of Roger Federer winning his 15th major title at 2009 Wimbledon, I wanted to explore the front-running champions who have walked before him. As a result, I’ve put together an visualization of these champions over time.

I should note that in doing my preparation for this infographic, I decided to extend far beyond the start of the “open era” (1968) entirely for the amount of data. A post-1968 graph would give me much less to work with.

Otherwise I feel I should pay respect to the accomplishments of Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg: both of these men had utterly remarkable runs (both earning 11 titles in less than a decade), but neither becoming the true front-runner within the constraints of this graph.

I hope you enjoy! If you find this interesting, also be sure to check out this comparison of Federer and Sampras in their race to 14 titles. Meanwhile, here’s to Federer’s hard work… let’s see how far he can take it.