title: Clarinet

text: The clarinet's cylindrical bore is the main reason for its distinctive timbre, which varies between the three main registers (the "chalumeau", "clarion", and "altissimo"). The A and B clarinets have nearly the same bore and nearly identical tonal quality, although the A typically has a slightly warmer sound. The tone of the E clarinet is brighter and can be heard through loud orchestral textures. The bass clarinet has a characteristically deep, mellow sound, and the alto clarinet sounds similar to the bass, though not as dark.


title: Clarinet

text: Clarinets have the largest pitch range of common woodwinds. Nearly all soprano and piccolo clarinets have keywork enabling them to play the E below middle C as their lowest written note (in scientific pitch notation that sounds D on a soprano clarinet or C, i.e. concert middle C, on a piccolo clarinet), though some B clarinets go down to E to enable them to match the range of the A clarinet. On the B soprano clarinet, the concert pitch of the lowest note is D, a whole tone lower than the written pitch. Many bass clarinets generally have additional keywork to written C. Among the less commonly encountered members of the clarinet family, contrabass clarinets may have keywork to written D, C, or B; the basset clarinet and basset horn generally go to low C. Defining the top end of a clarinet's range is difficult, since many advanced players can produce notes well above the highest notes commonly found in method books. G is usually the highest note encountered in classical repertoire, but fingerings as high as A exist.


title: Clarinet

text: All three registers have characteristically different sounds. The chalumeau register is rich and dark. The clarion register is brighter and sweet, like a trumpet heard from afar. The altissimo register can be piercing and sometimes shrill.


title: Clarinet

text: In addition to this primary compression wave, other waves, known as harmonics, are created. Harmonics are caused by factors including the imperfect wobbling and shaking of the reed, the reed sealing the mouthpiece opening for part of the wave cycle (which creates a flattened section of the sound wave), and imperfections (bumps and holes) in the bore. A wide variety of compression waves are created, but only some (primarily the odd harmonics) are reinforced. This in combination with the cut-off frequency (where a significant drop in resonance occurs) results in the characteristic tone of the clarinet.


title: Clarinet

text: The bore is cylindrical for most of the tube with an inner bore diameter between , but there is a subtle hourglass shape, with the thinnest part below the junction between the upper and lower joint. This hourglass shape, although invisible to the naked eye, helps to correct the pitch and responsiveness of the instrument. The diameter of the bore affects the instrument's sound characteristics. The bell at the bottom of the clarinet flares out to improve the tone and tuning of the lowest notes. The fixed reed and fairly uniform diameter of the clarinet result in an acoustical performance approximating that of a cylindrical stopped pipe. Recorders use a tapered internal bore to overblow at the octave when the thumb/register hole is pinched open, while the clarinet, with its cylindrical bore, overblows at the twelfth.


title: Clarinet

text: Most modern clarinets have "undercut" tone holes that improve intonation and sound. Undercutting means chamfering the bottom edge of tone holes inside the bore. Acoustically, this makes the tone hole function as if it were larger, but its main function is to allow the air column to follow the curve up through the tone hole (surface tension) instead of "blowing past" it under the increasingly directional frequencies of the upper registers. Covering or uncovering the tone holes varies the length of the pipe, changing the resonant frequencies of the enclosed air column and hence the pitch. The player moves between the chalumeau and clarion registers through use of the register key; the change from chalumeau register to clarion register is termed "the break". The open register key stops the fundamental frequency from being reinforced, and the reed is forced to vibrate at three times the speed it was originally. This produces a note a twelfth above the original note.


title: Clarinet

text: Most woodwind instruments have a second register that begins an octave above the first (with notes at twice the frequency of the lower notes). With the aid of an 'octave' or 'register' key, the notes sound an octave higher as the fingering pattern repeats. These instruments are said to overblow at the octave. The clarinet differs, since it acts as a closed-pipe system. The low chalumeau register plays fundamentals, but the clarion (second) register plays the third harmonics, a perfect twelfth higher than the fundamentals. The clarinet is therefore said to overblow at the twelfth. The first several notes of the altissimo (third) range, aided by the register key and venting with the first left-hand hole, play the fifth harmonics, a perfect twelfth plus a major sixth above the fundamentals. The fifth and seventh harmonics are also available, sounding a further sixth and fourth (a flat, diminished fifth) higher respectively; these are the notes of the altissimo register.


title: Clarinet

text: The lip position and pressure, shaping of the vocal tract, choice of reed and mouthpiece, amount of air pressure created, and evenness of the airflow account for most of the player's ability to control the tone of a clarinet. Their vocal tract will be shaped to resonate at frequencies associated with the tone being produced. Vibrato, a pulsating change of pitch, is rare in classical literature; however, certain performers, such as Richard Stoltzman, use vibrato in classical music. Special fingerings and lip-bending may be used to play microtonal intervals. There have also been efforts to create a quarter tone clarinet.


title: Clarinet

text: Clarinet bodies have been made from a variety of materials including wood, plastic, hard rubber or Ebonite, metal, and ivory. The vast majority of wooden clarinets are made from blackwood, grenadilla, or, more uncommonly, Honduran rosewood or cocobolo. Historically other woods, particularly boxwood and ebony, were used. Some student clarinets are made of plastic, such as ABS. One of the first such blends of plastic was Resonite, a term originally trademarked by Selmer. The Greenline model by Buffet Crampon is made from a composite of resin and the African blackwood powder left over from the manufacture of wooden clarinets.


title: Clarinet

text: Metal soprano clarinets were popular in the late 19th century, particularly for military use. Metal is still used for the bodies of some contra-alto and contrabass clarinets and the necks and bells of nearly all alto and larger clarinets.


title: Clarinet

text: Mouthpieces are generally made of hard rubber, although some inexpensive mouthpieces may be made of plastic. Other materials such as glass, wood, ivory, and metal have also been used. Ligatures are often made of metal and tightened using one or more adjustment screws; other materials include plastic or string, or fabric.


title: Clarinet

text: The clarinet uses a single reed made from the cane of "Arundo donax". Reeds may also be manufactured from synthetic materials. The ligature fastens the reed to the mouthpiece. When air is blown through the opening between the reed and the mouthpiece facing, the reed vibrates and produces the clarinet's sound.


title: Clarinet

text: Most players buy manufactured reeds, although many make adjustments to these reeds, and some make their own reeds from cane "blanks". Reeds come in varying degrees of hardness, generally indicated on a scale from one (soft) through five (hard). This numbering system is not standardized—reeds with the same number often vary in hardness across manufacturers and models. Reed and mouthpiece characteristics work together to determine ease of playability and tonal characteristics.


title: Clarinet

text: The reed is attached to the mouthpiece by the ligature, and the top half-inch or so of this assembly is held in the player's mouth. In the past, string was used to bind the reed to the mouthpiece. The formation of the mouth around the mouthpiece and reed is called the embouchure. The reed is on the underside of the mouthpiece, pressing against the player's lower lip, while the top teeth normally contact the top of the mouthpiece (some players roll the upper lip under the top teeth to form what is called a 'double-lip' embouchure). Adjustments in the strength and shape of the embouchure change the tone and intonation (tuning). It is not uncommon for players to employ methods to relieve the pressure on the upper teeth and inner lower lip by attaching pads to the top of the mouthpiece or putting (temporary) padding on the front lower teeth, commonly from folded paper.


title: Clarinet

text: Next is the short barrel; this part of the instrument may be extended to fine-tune the clarinet. Interchangeable barrels whose lengths vary slightly can be used to adjust tuning. Additional compensation for pitch variation and tuning can be made by pulling out the barrel and thus increasing the instrument's length. On basset horns and lower clarinets, the barrel is normally replaced by a curved metal neck.


title: Clarinet

text: The main body of most clarinets is divided into the upper joint, the holes and most keys of which are operated by the left hand, and the lower joint with holes and most keys operated by the right hand. Some clarinets have a single joint. The body of a modern soprano clarinet is equipped with numerous tone holes of which seven are covered with the fingertips, and the rest are opened or closed using a set of 17 keys. The most common system of keys was named the Boehm system by its designer Hyacinthe Klosé after flute designer Theobald Boehm, but it is not the same as the Boehm system used on flutes. The other main system of keys is called the Oehler system and is used mostly in Germany and Austria. The related Albert system is used by some jazz, klezmer, and eastern European folk musicians. The Albert and Oehler systems are both based on the early Mueller system.


title: Clarinet

text: The cluster of keys at the bottom of the upper joint (protruding slightly beyond the cork of the joint) are known as the trill keys and are operated by the right hand. The entire weight of the smaller clarinets is supported by the right thumb behind the lower joint on what is called the thumb rest. Larger clarinets are supported with a neck strap or a floor peg.


title: Clarinet

text: Finally, the flared end is known as the bell. Contrary to popular belief, the bell does not amplify the sound; rather, it improves the uniformity of the instrument's tone for the lowest notes in each register. For the other notes, the sound is produced almost entirely at the tone holes, and the bell is irrelevant. On basset horns and larger clarinets, the bell curves up and forward and is usually made of metal.


title: Clarinet

text: The clarinet has its roots in the early single-reed instruments used in Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt. The modern clarinet developed from a Baroque instrument called the chalumeau. This instrument was similar to a recorder, but with a single-reed mouthpiece and a cylindrical bore. Lacking a register key, it was played mainly in its fundamental register, with a limited range of about one and a half octaves. It had eight finger holes, like a recorder, and two keys for its two highest notes. At this time, contrary to modern practice, the reed was placed in contact with the upper lip.


title: Clarinet

text: Around the turn of the 18th century, the chalumeau was modified by converting one of its keys into a register key to produce the first clarinet. This development is usually attributed to German instrument maker Johann Christoph Denner, though some have suggested his son Jacob Denner was the inventor. Early clarinets did not play well in the lower register, so players continued to play the chalumeau for low notes. As clarinets improved, the chalumeau fell into disuse, and these notes became known as the "chalumeau" register. Original Denner clarinets had two keys, and could play a chromatic scale, but various makers added more keys to get improved tuning, easier fingerings, and a slightly larger range. The clarinet of the Classical period, as used by Mozart, typically had five keys.


title: Clarinet

text: Clarinets were soon accepted into orchestras. Later models had a mellower tone than the originals. Mozart considered its tone the closest in quality to the human voice and wrote numerous pieces for the instrument. By the time of Beethoven (), the clarinet was a standard fixture in the orchestra.


title: Clarinet

text: The next major development in the history of clarinet was the invention of the modern pad. Because early clarinets used felt pads to cover the tone holes, they leaked air. This required pad-covered holes to be kept to a minimum, restricting the number of notes the clarinet could play with good tone. In 1812, Iwan Müller developed a new type of pad that was covered in leather or fish bladder. It was airtight and let makers increase the number of pad-covered holes. Müller designed a new type of clarinet with seven finger holes and thirteen keys. He referred to this model as "omnitonic" since it was capable of playing in all keys, rather than requiring alternating joints as was common at the time.


title: Clarinet

text: The final development in the modern design of the clarinet used in most of the world today was introduced by Hyacinthe Klosé in 1839. He implemented ring keys that eliminated the need for complicated fingering patterns. It was inspired by the Boehm system developed for flutes by Theobald Boehm. Klosé was so impressed by Boehm's invention that he named his own system for clarinets the Boehm system, although it is different from the one used on flutes. This new system was slow to gain popularity but gradually became the standard, and today the Boehm system is used everywhere in the world except Germany and Austria. These countries still use a direct descendant of the Mueller clarinet known as the Oehler system clarinet. Some contemporary Dixieland players continue to use Albert system clarinets.


title: Clarinet

text: Other key systems have been developed, many built around modifications to the basic Boehm system, including the Full Boehm, Mazzeo, McIntyre, Benade NX, and the Reform Boehm system.


title: Clarinet

text: The modern orchestral standard of using soprano clarinets in B and A has to do partly with the history of the instrument and partly with acoustics, aesthetics, and economics. Before about 1800, due to the lack of airtight pads, practical woodwinds could have only a few keys to control accidentals (notes outside their diatonic home scales). The low (chalumeau) register of the clarinet spans a twelfth (an octave plus a perfect fifth) before overblowing, so the clarinet needs keys/holes to produce all nineteen notes in this range. This involves more keywork than on instruments that "overblow" at the octave—oboes, flutes, bassoons, and saxophones, for example, which need only twelve notes before overblowing. Clarinets with few keys cannot therefore easily play chromatically, limiting any such instrument to a few closely related keys. For example, an eighteenth-century clarinet in C could play music in F, C, and G (and their relative minors) with good intonation, but with progressive difficulty and poorer intonation as the key moved away from this range. With the invention of the airtight pad, and as key technology improved and more keys were added to woodwinds, the need for clarinets in multiple keys was reduced. However, the use of multiple instruments in different keys persisted, with the three instruments in C, B, and A all used as specified by the composer.


title: Clarinet

text: The lower-pitched clarinets sound "mellower" (less bright), and the C clarinet—being the highest and therefore brightest of the three—fell out of favor as the other two could cover its range and their sound was considered better. While the clarinet in C began to fall out of general use around 1850, some composers continued to write C parts after this date, e.g., Bizet's Symphony in C (1855), Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2 (1872), Smetana's overture to "The Bartered Bride" (1866) and "Má Vlast" (1874), Dvořák's "Slavonic Dance" Op. 46, No. 1 (1878), Brahms' Symphony No. 4 (1885), Mahler's Symphony No. 6 (1906), and Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier" (1911).


title: Clarinet

text: While technical improvements and an equal-tempered scale reduced the need for two clarinets, the technical difficulty of playing in remote keys persisted, and the A has thus remained a standard orchestral instrument. In addition, by the late 19th century, the orchestral clarinet repertoire contained so much music for clarinet in A that the disuse of this instrument was not practical.


title: Clarinet

text: The orchestra frequently includes two players on individual parts—each player is usually equipped with a pair of standard clarinets in B and A, and clarinet parts commonly alternate between the instruments. In the 20th century, composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, and Gustav Mahler employed many different clarinets, including the E or D soprano clarinets, basset horn, bass clarinet, and/or contrabass clarinet. The practice of using different clarinets to achieve tonal variety was common in 20th-century classical music.


title: Clarinet

text: In a concert band or wind ensemble, clarinets are an important part of the instrumentation. The E clarinet, B clarinet, alto clarinet, bass clarinet, and contra-alto/contrabass clarinet are commonly used in concert bands, which generally have multiple B clarinets; there are commonly three or even four B clarinet parts with two to three players per part.


title: Clarinet

text: The clarinet is widely used as a solo instrument. The relatively late evolution of the clarinet (when compared to other orchestral woodwinds) has left solo repertoire from the Classical period and later, but few works from the Baroque era. Many clarinet concertos and clarinet sonatas have been written to showcase the instrument, for example those by Mozart and Weber.


title: Clarinet

text: Groups of clarinets playing together have become increasingly popular among clarinet enthusiasts in recent years. Common forms are:


title: Clarinet

text: The clarinet was originally a central instrument in jazz, beginning with the Dixieland players in the 1910s. It remained a signature instrument of jazz music through much of the big band era into the 1940s. American players Alphonse Picou, Larry Shields, Jimmie Noone, Johnny Dodds, and Sidney Bechet were all prominent early jazz clarinet players. Swing performers such as Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw rose to prominence in the late 1930s.


title: Clarinet

text: Beginning in the 1940s, the clarinet faded from its prominent position in jazz. By that time, an interest in Dixieland or traditional New Orleans jazz had revived; Pete Fountain was one of the best known performers in this genre. The clarinet's place in the jazz ensemble was usurped by the saxophone, which projects a more powerful sound and uses a less complicated fingering system. However, the clarinet did not entirely disappear from jazz. Prominent players since the 1950s include Stan Hasselgård, Jimmy Giuffre, Eric Dolphy (on bass clarinet), Perry Robinson, and John Carter. In the US, the prominent players on the instrument since the 1980s have included Eddie Daniels, Don Byron, Marty Ehrlich, Ken Peplowski, and others playing the clarinet in more contemporary contexts.


title: Clarinet

text: The clarinet is uncommon, but not unheard of, in rock music. Jerry Martini played clarinet on Sly and the Family Stone's 1968 hit, "Dance to the Music". The Beatles included a trio of clarinets in "When I'm Sixty-Four" from their "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album. A clarinet is prominently featured in what a "Billboard" reviewer termed a "Benny Goodman-flavored clarinet solo" in "Breakfast in America", the title song from the Supertramp album of the same name.


title: Clarinet

text: Clarinets feature prominently in klezmer music, which entails a distinctive style of playing. The use of quarter-tones requires a different embouchure.


title: Clarinet

text: The popular Brazilian music style of choro uses the clarinet, as does Albanian "saze" and Greek "koumpaneia" folk music, and Bulgarian wedding music. In Turkish folk music, the Albert system clarinet in G is often used, commonly called a "Turkish clarinet".


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: California High-Speed Rail (also known as CAHSR or CHSR) is a publicly funded high-speed rail system currently under construction in California in the United States. Planning for the project began in 1996, when the California Legislature and Governor Pete Wilson established the California High-Speed Rail Authority and tasked it with creating a plan for the system and presenting it to the voters of the state for approval. In 2008, voters approved Proposition 1A, which established a route connecting all the major population centers of the state, authorized bonds to begin implementation, and set other requirements.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The CAHSR system is being implemented in segments. The first of the dedicated HSR segments, the Interim Initial Operating Segment ("Interim IOS"), is being constructed now in the San Joaquin Valley portion of California's Central Valley. It will run from Merced to Bakersfield, and is planned to begin operations in 2029. Concurrently, in the major metropolitan areas of San Francisco Bay Area and Greater Los Angeles, the commuter rail systems are being upgraded for improved safety and service, and to support a "blended system" in the future with CAHSR sharing upgraded tracks, power, train control, and stations. Extending the Interim IOS to connect to the northern and southern metropolitan segments is dependent on future funding, so their timing is uncertain.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: Maximum train speeds will be about in the dedicated HSR segments, and about in the blended segments. Once the full Phase 1 system opens, the nonstop trains between San Francisco and Los Angeles – which are about apart by air – must not exceed 2 hours and 40 minutes travel time.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The high-speed rail system is anticipated to provide environmental benefits (reducing pollution and carbon emissions), traffic benefits (improving passenger travel, and reducing vehicular traffic and air travel congestion), and economic benefits (especially in the Central Valley). The implementation of the project has been controversial, due to its selected route, construction delays, cost over-runs, delays in land acquisition, and a lack of funding to finish the entire system.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: Phase 1 runs from San Francisco to Los Angeles and Anaheim, and is being implemented in sections. In the Central Valley there is massive construction underway, and more is in preliminary processing. The Authority is currently constructing miles of guideway and structures. To make the Interim Initial Operating Segment ("Interim IOS") self-sustaining, additional length is in the process being added at each end to reach the cities of Merced (north) and Bakersfield (south) for a total length of about . At each end, the Interim IOS will connect to other transit systems for passenger transfers. The Authority indicates the Interim IOS will go into service before 2030. "Bookend" investments are also being made in the Bay Area and Southern California upgrading existing infrastructure to be able to support eventual HSR service.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: After completing the Interim IOS, the Authority plans to advance construction on the Merced-San Jose segment, linking the Central Valley to the tracks of the Caltrain commuter rail system. This will allow HSR trains to run from San Francisco to Bakersfield. Funding for construction of this segment has yet to be secured.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: Phase 1 must be operational before Phase 2 is built. Phase 2 will extend the HSR system north to Sacramento and south to San Diego. These extensions are still in the preliminary planning stages.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The California High-Speed Rail Peer Review Group (established by the California Legislature) has noted a number of concerns about the progress of the project, including issues acquiring property in the Central Valley, delays due to lawsuits, an early lack of requisite management experience, and weak legislative oversight. Inflation has also become a major concern due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the War in Ukraine.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The project will require legislative action, so the issues raised by the Peer Review Group and KPMG, the Authority's project consultant, will help the legislature select from the Board's proposed plans or other alternatives.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The 2022 Business Plan includes information regarding the project's status, goals, and activities. In order to make an effective, self-supporting Initial Operating Segment, due to financial constraints the Authority is focusing on five areas:


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: Also, a major addition to the development and operation plan is a new emphasis on risk analysis and risk mitigation (with these now integrated into the formal authorization process), and contingency reserves are being increased. Revenue and expense projections indicate that constructing an operable segment is feasible.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: As of September 2022, the Authority's plans indicated $23.4 billion in identified funding through 2030, with a budget of $17.9 billion for Central Valley construction (about ), design work for the Merced and Bakersfield extensions, the "bookend" projects now underway in the northern and southern metropolitan areas, completing the environmental clearances needed for all of Phase 1, and $4.6 to $6.0 billion for double-trackage and trainsets for the Interim IOS.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: As of November 2022, there is an additional $8 billion in funding sought via grants from the federal government. These will allow the Authority to leverage its resources, and use those additional federal funds for:


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The funding and budget strategy is now to leverage existing state funds and use matching federal funds to achieve the optimal result in project investments. Table 3.3 in the 2022 Business Plan shows how the Authority is matching the proposed funding with the different project results. For example, "System-Wide Advancement/Start Bay Area Connection" (see figure above) includes advanced design as well as right-of-way acquisition in the San Jose to Merced segment.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: There is no cost estimate as yet to complete the HSR route north to San Francisco, however, cost estimates to complete the entire Phase 1 system range from a low-estimate of $76.7 billion, to a mid-estimate of $92-94 billion, to a high-estimate of $113 billion. (A major unknown is the cost of tunneling, which will not be known until exploratory field studies are done.) It is expected that new figures will be provided in the 2023 Project Update Report in March 2023.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In the Central Valley major construction projects are underway. Three separate construction packages total 119 miles of guideway and 93 structures. As of September 2022, 48.6 miles of guideway are complete, and 38.4 are underway; of concrete structures, 33 are complete, and 35 are underway. Exhibit 2.6 from the 2022 Business Plan gives an overall comparison between the packages as of Mar. 31, 2022.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The project aims to connect California's major metropolitan areas together, and link to their local commuter systems. It will be built in two major phases. Phase 1 connects San Francisco and the Bay Area through the San Joaquin Valley (the southern part of the Central Valley) to Anaheim in the Greater Los Angeles area, a distance of about . Phase 2 extends the north end of the Central Valley section up to Sacramento, and extends the Los Angeles section in the south through the Inland Empire down to San Diego at the bottom of the state, for a total system length of about .


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The number of stations on the completed system was limited by Proposition 1A to 24. Not all station locations have been decided. At the start of operations of the Interim Initial Operating Segment (Interim IOS) there will be 5 stations.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: Although the Authority is focused on getting the Interim IOS in the Central Valley in operation by the end of the decade, it is also looking ahead to the next step (that is, connecting to San Francisco using the prepared Caltrain blended route). On April 28, 2022 it approved the final route in the San Jose to Merced section. This alignment (Alternative 4) uses the existing UPRR alignment from San Jose to Gilroy.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: East of Gilroy the alignment becomes a pure HSR section with approximately of tunnels through the Pacheco Pass. When tunnel field studies, early engineering, and design work are completed for this section, it will be ready for construction when funding is available.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In January 2015, the Authority issued a request for proposal (RFP) for complete trainsets. The proposals received will be reviewed so that acceptable bidders can be selected, and then requests for bids will be sent out.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In February 2015, ten companies formally expressed interest in producing trainsets for the system: Alstom, AnsaldoBreda (now Hitachi Rail Italy), Bombardier Transportation, CSR, Hyundai Rotem, Kawasaki Rail Car, Siemens, Sun Group U.S.A. partnered with CNR Tangshan, and Talgo.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: Due to company acquisitions and mergers since then (CSR merged with CNR, and Bombardier Transportation merged with Alstom), the number of companies now qualified for the tender is seven. The qualified companies are Alstom, Siemens Mobility, Talgo, Hitachi Rail Italy, CRRC, Hyundai Rotem, and Kawasaki Rail Car.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: An additional factor for the selection of a model is the Buy America regulation for production of rolling stock in the US. The Federal Railroad Administration granted a waiver for two prototypes to be manufactured off-shore. The remaining trainsets would need to be built according to the rules. This requirement was mentioned as a significant reason that Chinese manufacturers dropped out of the Brightline West (then known as XpressWest) project with similar technical trainset specifications.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: Included in a May 2022 grant request to the Biden administration is a request for funds to purchase six HSR trainsets. It is estimated that for the entire Phase 1 system up to 95 trainsets might be required.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The CAHSR trains will use a different standard than Caltrain for their floor height above the rails. The CAHSR trains have a floor height of above the rails, which is significantly higher than the floors of Caltrain's commuter trainsets. To resolve this issue, Caltrain is procuring new Stadler KISS EMUs that have doors at both heights. Each station provides either one platform height or the other. Only a few of the stations will service both trainsets. Thus, in the Bay Area most of the stations will be used exclusively by Caltrain.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In April 2017, the CHSRA announced it had received five responses to its request for qualifications for the contract to assist with the development and management of the initial phase of the high-speed line and be the Interim IOS operator.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In October 2017, the California High-Speed Rail Authority announced that DB E.C.O. North America Inc (formerly known as DB Engineering & Consulting USA Inc.) had been chosen as the Early Train Operator. This decision came after a Request for Qualifications was put out by the Authority looking for well established groups able to provide operational guidance for the future system once opened.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: This project already has a long history. Topics included in the main History page (the link shown above) include the early history (before 2015), discussion of HSR alternatives, legislation, financing, construction, and legal challenges.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In 1996, the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) was established to begin formal planning in preparation for a ballot measure in 1998 or 2000.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In 2008, California voters approved Proposition 1A to construct the initial segment of the high-speed rail network, and issued $9 billion in bonds to begin its construction. It also set certain requirements for the project:


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The proposition also authorized an additional $950 million for improvements on local commuter systems, which will serve as feeder systems to the high-speed rail system.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In June 2014, state legislators and Governor Jerry Brown agreed to apportion the state's annual cap and trade funds so that 25% goes to high-speed rail as an ongoing source of funds.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In 2014, the CHSRA was challenged on its compliance with its statutory obligations under Proposition 1A


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: ("John Tos, Aaron Fukuda, and the Kings County Board of Supervisors v. California High-Speed Rail Authority"). In November 2021 a circuit court ruled against the plaintiffs, and effectively ended this litigation.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: On December 15, 2014, the federal Surface Transportation Board determined that its approval of the HSR project in August "categorically preexempts" lawsuits filed under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). This determination was tested in a similar case, "Friends of Eel River v. North Coast Railroad Authority". The Supreme Court of California determined on July 27, 2017 that CEQA is not exempted by federal law.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In February 2022, Hollywood Burbank Airport sued the Authority over its approval of the draft EIR for that section of the high-speed railway.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In addition to the direct reduction in travel times the HSR project will produce, there are other anticipated benefits, both general to the state, to the regions the train will pass through, and to the areas immediately around the train stations.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The Central Valley Training Center (located in Selma, California) is an organization supported by the Authority and local non-profit and governmental organizations. Since 2020 it has provided a hands-on, free, 12-week pre-apprenticeship program to prepare local veterans, at-risk young adults, minority, and low-income populations for construction jobs on the CAHSR project. To-date, it has graduated 7 cohorts, totaling over 100 students, and further assisted them by providing job placement.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: CAHSR is designed to be an entirely environmentally sustainable system. Each year the Authority produces a Sustainability Report. The highlights of the 2022 report are:


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The 2022 Business Plan listed these estimated benefits which will come from the Interim Initial Operating Segment (Merced to Bakersfield only):


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The 2021 Economic Impact Factsheet estimated that as of June 2021, the statewide economic benefits of the project included 64,400–70,500 job-years of employment, $4.8–$5.2 billion in labor employment, and $12.7–13.7 billion in economic output, and that as of February 2022, 699 small businesses were involved in the project.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The Authority's economic impact analysis is updated annually. The 2021 Economic Analysis Report contains data as of June 2021.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: According to a 2022 Carbon Footprint Calculator on the Authority website, the environmental benefits of the system include CO2e/GHG emissions savings per passenger round-trip of:


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The Authority estimates that by 2040, the system could carry 50 million riders per year, and that at full operation, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions will be equivalent to removing 400,000 vehicles off the road.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In its 67-page ruling in May 2015, the federal Surface Transportation Board noted: "The current transportation system in the San Joaquin Valley region has not kept pace with the increase in population, economic activity, and tourism. ... The interstate highway system, commercial airports, and conventional passenger rail systems serving the intercity market are operating at or near capacity and would require large public investments for maintenance and expansion to meet existing demand and future growth over the next 25 years or beyond." Thus, the Board sees the HSR system as providing valuable benefits to the region's transportation needs.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The San Joaquin Valley is also one of the poorest areas of the state. For example, the unemployment rate near the end of 2014 in Fresno County was 2.2% higher than the statewide average. And, of the five poorest metro areas in the country, three are in the Central Valley. The HSR system has the potential to significantly improve this region and its economy. A large January 2015 report to the CHSRA examined this issue.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In addition to jobs and income levels in general, the presence of HSR is expected to benefit the growth in the cities around the HSR stations. It is anticipated that this will help increase population density in those cities and reduce "development sprawl" out into surrounding farmlands.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: There have also been some reported negative impacts from the project's land acquisitions and constructions. Thus far, in the Phase 1 construction the project displaced or adversely affected immigrants (Mexican, Cambodian, and Japanese), homeless outreach organizations, homeless shelters, firefighters, nonprofits working with welfare recipients, thrift stores, and disadvantaged communities such as Wasco.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: There are two types of review and criticism noted here: the legally established "peer review" process that the California legislature established for an independent check on the Authority's planning and implementation efforts, and public criticisms by groups, individuals, public agencies, and elected officials.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: At the February 2015 conference "Bold Bets: California on the Move?", hosted by "The Atlantic" magazine and Siemens, Dan Richard, the then-chair of the Authority, warned that not all issues facing the HSR system had been resolved.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The California Legislature established the California High-Speed Rail Peer Review Group to provide independent analysis of the Authority's planning and implementation efforts. Their documents are submitted to the Legislature as needed.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: Study #1. Eric Eidlin, an employee of the Federal Transit Administration (Region 9, San Francisco), wrote a study in 2015 funded by the German Marshall Fund of the United States comparing the structural differences of two HSR European systems and their historical development with California's HSR system. He also focused on the issue of station siting, design, use, and impact on the surrounding community. From this, he developed ten recommendations for CAHSRA. Among these are:


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: Eidlin's study also notes that in California there has been debate on the disadvantages of the proposed blended service in the urban areas of San Francisco and Los Angeles, including reduced speeds, more operating restraints, and complicated track-sharing agreements. There are some inherent advantages in blended systems that have not received much attention: shorter transfer distances for passengers, and reduced impacts on the neighborhoods. Blended systems are in use in Europe.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: Study #2. A 202-page study by A. Loukaitou-Sideris, D. Peters, and W. Wei of the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University in 2015 compared examples of "blended systems" in Spain and Germany where conventional and high-speed rail (HSR) services either used the same tracks over a portion of track or at a specific station. The study found that blended systems were cheaper to build, required less space, and provided easy transfers between different modes of transportation, but resulted in lower system capacity (due to greater separation distances required when combining HSR and conventional traffic), were often not possible to properly implement in urban areas due to the additional land area requirements for passing sidings, resulted in additional challenges in operations, and caused frequent delays.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In 2008 the Reason Foundation, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and Citizens Against Government Waste (all right-wing organizations), published a study which they named the "Due Diligence Report" critiquing the project. In 2013, the Reason Foundation published an "Updated Due Diligence Report". Key elements of the updated critique include:


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: This 2013 critique was based on the 2012 Business Plan. Although the 2012 Business Plan has been superseded by the 2022 Business Plan, the critique does include the Blended System approach using commuter tracks in SF and LA.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: James Fallows in "The Atlantic" magazine summarized public criticism thus, "It will cost too much, take too long, use up too much land, go to the wrong places, and in the end won't be fast or convenient enough to do that much good anyway."


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In April 2022 UC Berkeley's Institute of Government Studies released a survey of registered voters that found 56% supported continuing the high-speed rail project even if "its operations only extend from Bakersfield to Merced in the Central Valley by the year 2030 and to the Bay Area by the year 2033." Approval varies by political affiliation with 73% of Democrats backing the project versus 25% of Republicans.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: An older statewide survey, in March 2016, by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) indicated that 52% of Californians support the project, while 63% of Californians think the project is either "very important" or "somewhat important" for California's economy and quality of life. Support varies by location (with the San Francisco Bay Area the highest at 63%, and lowest in Orange/San Diego at 47%), by race (Asians 66%, Latinos 58%, Whites 44%, and Blacks 42%), by age (declining sharply with increasing age), and by political orientation (Democrats 59%, independents 47%, and Republicans 29%). Dan Richard, then-chair of the Authority, said in an interview with James Fallows that he believes approval levels will increase when people can start seeing progress, and trains start running.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: Brightline West (formerly Desert Xpress and XpressWest) is a project that since 2007 has been planning to build a high-speed rail line between Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada, part of the "Southwest Rail Network" they hope to create. The rail line would begin in Las Vegas and cross the Mojave Desert stopping outside of Victorville, California and eventually terminating in Palmdale, California (where it would connect with CAHSR and Metrolink). This route would total about . A second branch into Rancho Cucamonga (in the Inland Empire) is also planned.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In 2012, Lisa Marie Alley, speaking for CAHSRA, said that there have been ongoing discussions concerning allowing the trains to use CAHSRA lines to go further into the Los Angeles area, although no commitments have been made as yet. While many approvals have been obtained for the rail line from Victorville to Las Vegas, the section from Palmdale to Victorville has none as yet.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In October 2021, Brightline signed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CAHRSA). "The MOU sets the framework regarding the use of 48 miles within Interstate 15 to be used for Brightline West to connect its planned Victor Valley station and a newly planned station in Rancho Cucamonga." (The Rancho Cucamonga station links to both Metrolink and the Ontario Airport.) This planned HSR extension will bring Brightline West down towards Ontario in the Inland Empire, providing a second branch of their line into Southern California. Brightline has agreed to purchase a 5 acre parcel for their HSR service adjacent to the planned multimodal upgrade to the existing station.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The Authority's Business Plan is updated every even year (since 2008). It must be submitted to the Legislature by May 1. It describes the project's goals, financing, and development plans.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The Authority's Update Report is produced every odd year (since 2015). It must be submitted to the Legislature by March 1. The report gives a program-wide summary, as well as information for each project section, in order to clearly describe the project's status.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The Authority's Info Center provides factsheets, regional newsletters, maps, and video simulations of route "fly-overs".


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The California Peer Review Group produces independent analysis of the project for the state legislature. Its documents are available on its website.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: The state legislature also has provided that independent financial review be conducted of the Authority's plans. Project Finance Advisory Limited (“PFAL”) was selected to do this beginning in November 2015. The September 2022 review is available at Independent Financial Advisor Report To California High-Speed Rail Authority Regarding: Proposition 1A Funding Plan.


title: California High-Speed Rail

text: In 2014-2015, James Fallows wrote a series of 17 articles for "The Atlantic" about the HSR system. The series covered many aspects of the system, criticisms of it, and responses to those criticisms.


title: Spanish Steps

text: The Spanish Steps () in Rome, Italy, climb a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church, at the top.


title: Spanish Steps

text: The monumental stairway of 135 steps was built with French diplomat Étienne Gueffier's bequeathed funds of 20,000 "scudi", in 1723–1725, linking the Trinità dei Monti church under the patronage of the Bourbon kings of France, at the top of the steps, and the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See in the Palazzo Monaldeschi at the bottom of the steps. The stairway was designed by architects Francesco de Sanctis and Alessandro Specchi.


title: Spanish Steps

text: Generations of heated debate over how the steep, 29-meter slope to the church on a shoulder of the Pincio should be urbanized preceded the final execution. Archival drawings from the 1580s show that Pope Gregory XIII was interested in constructing a stair to the recently completed façade of the French church.


title: Spanish Steps

text: French diplomat to the Holy See died in 1660, leaving part of his fortune for the construction of the stairs. The Roman-educated Cardinal Mazarin took a personal interest in the project and entrusted it to his agent in Rome, whose plan included an equestrian monument of Louis XIV of France, an ambitious intrusion that created a furore in papal Rome. Mazarin died in 1661, the pope in 1667, while Gueffier's will was successfully contested by a nephew who claimed half; so the project lay dormant until Pope Clement XI Albani renewed interest in it in the early 18th century.


title: Spanish Steps

text: A competition was held in 1717, which was won by Francesco de Sanctis, though Alessandro Specchi was long thought to have produced the winning entry. Little is known of the architect, who was favored by the French in the design process. His drawing was engraved by Girolamo Rossi in 1726, with a long dedication to Louis XV.


title: Spanish Steps

text: The solution is a gigantic inflation of some conventions of terraced garden stairs. The first such divided and symmetrical stairs were devised for the Belvedere Courtyard in the 1600s by Donato Bramante, while shaped and angled steps were introduced by Michelangelo in the vestibule to the Laurentian Library. The Bourbon fleur-de-lys and Innocent XIII's eagle and crown are carefully balanced in the sculptural details.


title: Spanish Steps

text: Mid-18th century writers Joseph de Lalande and Charles de Brosses noted that the steps were already in poor condition. They have been restored several times since, including from May to December 1995.


title: Spanish Steps

text: Sponsored by the Italian luxury brand Bulgari (which has its Italian flagship store in the nearby Via dei Condotti) a new renovation commenced on 8 October 2015, with the steps being reopened to the public on 21 September 2016. The restoration of the almost of travertine stone, as well as brick, marble and plaster employed more than 80 people and cost €1.5 million.


title: Spanish Steps

text: Over the years several city administrations have tried to dissuade visitors from getting too comfortable on the steps, banning loitering and eating, but the ordinances have not been enforced. However in July 2019 the administration of Mayor Virginia Raggi, as part of an attempt to get ill-mannered tourists to behave themselves in Rome, introduced more stringent ordinances designed to "guarantee decorum, security and legality". These regulations allow for fines of €250 for sitting down on the steps and up to €400 for dirtying or damaging the steps (including eating or pushing a pram up or down them).


title: Spanish Steps

text: In the Piazza di Spagna at the base is the Early Baroque fountain called "Fontana della Barcaccia" ("Fountain of the longboat"), built in 1627–29 and often credited to Pietro Bernini, father of a more famous son, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who is recently said to have collaborated on the decoration. The elder Bernini had been the pope's architect for the Acqua Vergine, since 1623. According to a legend, Pope Urban VIII had the fountain installed after he had been impressed by a boat brought here by a flood of the Tiber.


title: Spanish Steps

text: In the piazza, at the corner on the right as one begins to climb the steps, is the house where English poet John Keats lived and died in 1821; it is now a museum dedicated to his memory, full of memorabilia of the English Romantic generation. On the same right side stands the 15th-century former cardinal Lorenzo Cybo de Mari's palace, now Ferrari di Valbona, a building altered in 1936 to designs by Marcello Piacentini, the main city planner during Fascism, with modern terraces perfectly in harmony with the surrounding baroque context.


title: Spanish Steps

text: At the top, the stairway ramp up the "Pincio" which is the Pincian Hill. The Villa Medici can be reached from the top of the steps.


title: Spanish Steps

text: During Christmas time a 19th-century criba manger is displayed on the first landing of the staircase. During Springtime, just before the anniversary of the foundation of Rome on 21 April, part of the steps are covered by pots of azaleas, up until early May. In modern times the Spanish Steps have included a small cut-flower market. The steps are not a place for eating lunch, being forbidden by Roman urban regulations, but they are usually crowded with people.


title: Spanish Steps

text: The film "Roman Holiday" (1953), starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck featured the Spanish Steps.


title: Spanish Steps

text: In the 1963 Italian giallo film "The Girl Who Knew Too Much", Nora witnesses a murder on the Spanish Steps.


title: Spanish Steps

text: The apartment that was the setting for "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" (1961) is halfway up on the right. Bernardo Bertolucci's "Besieged" (1998) is also set in a house next to the Steps. The Steps were featured prominently in the film version of "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1999), starring Matt Damon in the title role.


title: Spanish Steps

text: In the German television film "Martha" (1974), directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, the father of the masochistic title character (played by Margit Carstensen) dies while climbing the Spanish Steps.


title: Spanish Steps

text: In an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" (Season 5, Episode 1: Italy) which aired on October 2, 2000, Ray, Debra, Frank, and Marie climb the Spanish Steps during a family vacation in Rome.


title: Spanish Steps

text: An episode of the anime series "Gunslinger Girl", entitled "Gelato (Ice Cream)," which first aired in 2003, features the protagonist by the Spanish Steps having her "reward" of ice cream after having completed a successful raid.


title: Spanish Steps

text: In the film "To Rome with Love" (2012), Hayley (Alison Pill) and Michelangelo Santoli (Flavio Parenti) met on the Spanish Steps.


title: Spanish Steps

text: The Spanish Steps were the setting of a 'Roadblock' task during "The Amazing Race 24" (2014) in which contestants had to count the steps.


title: Spanish Steps

text: The Spanish Steps are featured in a scene in the film "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." (2015), in which Illya (Armie Hammer), posing as a Russian architect, attempts to explain to Gaby (Alicia Vikander) that the Steps were actually made by a Russian architect.


title: Spanish Steps

text: Midway through the animated film "" (2019), the Steps were featured prominently as the site where the main idol group Aqours performed the main musical number of the film, "Hop? Stop? Nonstop!," during their overseas trip from Numazu, Japan to Rome.


title: Spanish Steps

text: On 16 January 2008, the Italian artist Graziano Cecchini covered the Spanish Steps with hundreds of thousands of multicolored plastic balls. He claimed it was done to raise international awareness of the situation of the Karen people in Myanmar, and as a protest against the living conditions of artists in Italy.


title: Tyler Adams

text: Tyler Shaan Adams (born February 14, 1999) is an American professional soccer player who plays for Premier League club Leeds United and captains the United States national team. Primarily a midfielder, Adams is capable of playing as a fullback or winger on either side of the defense or midfield.


title: Tyler Adams

text: A homegrown player of the New York Red Bulls academy, Adams turned professional with the New York Red Bulls II as a sixteen-year-old before joining the New York Red Bulls first team a season later. Adams joined RB Leipzig in January 2019. Adams joined Leeds United three and a half years later in July 2022.


title: Tyler Adams

text: Adams represented the United States at multiple youth levels before making his senior team debut in 2017.


title: Tyler Adams

text: Adams joined the Red Bulls Academy in 2012 and played with the under-13, under-14, and under-16 sides before turning professional.


title: Tyler Adams

text: On March 19, 2015, Adams was signed to New York Red Bulls II, the club's senior reserve team playing in the United Soccer League. Adams made his debut for the team on April 4, 2015, in a 4–1 victory over Toronto FC II, the first victory in club history. After appearing regularly for NYRB II during the 2016 season, Adams helped the club to a 5–1 victory over Swope Park Rangers in the 2016 USL Cup Final.


title: Tyler Adams

text: On July 23, 2015, Adams made his debut with the New York Red Bulls first team featuring in a friendly match against Premier League champions Chelsea. He scored the second goal of the match, slotting a header past Asmir Begović in the 69th minute as the Red Bulls went on to win 4–2.


title: Tyler Adams

text: Adams signed his first senior team contract on November 3, 2015, and joined the first team in preseason training camp in 2016. Adams made his first MLS bench appearance as an unused substitute on April 1, 2016, during a 1–0 loss to the New England Revolution and on April 13 made his MLS debut, starting against the San Jose Earthquakes before returning to Red Bulls II on loan for the remainder of the season.


title: Tyler Adams

text: Adams emerged as a regular starter for the Red Bulls senior team in the 2017 season. On August 15, 2017, Adams helped New York to a 3–2 come from behind victory over FC Cincinnati, assisting on Bradley Wright-Phillips's 77th-minute equalizer. With the win New York reached their first Open Cup final since 2003. Adams scored his first two MLS goals in a 3–3 draw with D.C. United on September 27, 2017.


title: Tyler Adams

text: On March 13, 2018, Adams opened the scoring for New York in a 3–1 victory over Club Tijuana, helping the club advance to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions League for the first time.


title: Tyler Adams

text: Adams joined RB Leipzig in January 2019, reuniting him with former coach Jesse Marsch. He made his first league start on January 27 in a 4–0 victory against Fortuna Düsseldorf. On February 16, Adams recorded his first Bundesliga assist in a 3–1 victory over Stuttgart. He missed the entirety of April games due to an abductor injury, and until then Leipzig had not lost a single game with him on the field. On May 16, Adams returned to the team, and eleven days later started the DFB-Pokal final against Bayern Munich to which Leipzig lost 0–3.


title: Tyler Adams

text: A groin injury kept Adams sidelined for the summer of 2019 and the first half of the 2019–20 Bundesliga season. He returned for the last game before winter break, playing 86 minutes in a 3–1 victory over FC Augsburg. On March 10, Adams made his UEFA Champions League debut in the second leg game against Tottenham Hotspur, when he entered in the 56th minute as a substitute for Nordi Mukiele who sustained a head injury. Adams missed the first leg due to a minor calf injury. The game finished 3–0 (4–0 on aggregate) with Leipzig victorious and advancing to the next round.


title: Tyler Adams

text: On August 13, 2020, Adams scored the winning goal for Leipzig in a 2–1 win over Atlético Madrid, helping the club advance to the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League for the first time.


title: Tyler Adams

text: Adams joined Leeds United on a five-year contract for a reported £20 million transfer fee on July 6, 2022. He made his league debut for Leeds on August 6 as part of the starting line-up in their season opener, a 2–1 home win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.


title: Tyler Adams

text: Adams has represented the United States at the under-15, under-17, and under-20 levels. He appeared in all of his team's matches at the 2015 CONCACAF Under-17 Championships in Honduras, helping the United States qualify for the 2015 FIFA Under-17 World Cup.


title: Tyler Adams

text: In June 2019, Adams was named to the squad for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup, but was forced to withdraw due to an injury.


title: Tyler Adams

text: In November 2022, Adams was named captain of the United States squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. This made him the youngest captain at the competition and the youngest American captain since 1950.


title: Tyler Adams

text: Adams was born in Dutchess County, New York, to Melissa Russo. His stepfather, Daryl Sullivan, coached soccer at the high school and college levels. Adams graduated from Roy C. Ketcham High School in Wappingers Falls, New York. His biological father, Edmond Adams, is a Ghanaian-American from Hyde Park, New York. Adams' great-uncle on his father's side played professionally in Nigeria and Ghana, playing for a time with Ashanti Gold in the Ghana Premier League.


title: The Secret (Byrne book)

text: The Secret is a 2006 self-help book by Rhonda Byrne, based on the earlier film of the same name. It is based on the belief of the pseudoscientific law of attraction, which claims that thoughts can change a person's life directly. The book alleges energy as assurance of its effectiveness. The book has sold 30 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 50 languages. Scientific claims made in the book have been rejected by a range of critics, pointing out that the book has no scientific foundation.


title: The Secret (Byrne book)

text: "The Secret" was released as a film in March 2006, and later the same year as a book. The book is influenced by Wallace Wattles' 1910 book, "The Science of Getting Rich", which Byrne received from her daughter during a time of personal trauma, in 2004. "New York Times" bestselling authors of "The Passion Test", Janet Bray Attwood and Chris Attwood, are not featured in the film or the book, but arranged 36 of the 52 interviews for the film, many of which are referenced in the book.


title: The Secret (Byrne book)

text: Byrne re-introduces a notion originally popularized by persons such as Madame Blavatsky and Norman Vincent Peale that thinking about certain things will make them appear in one's life. Byrne provides examples of historical persons who have allegedly achieved this. Byrne cites a three-step process: ask, believe, and receive. This is based on a quotation from the Bible's : "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."


title: The Secret (Byrne book)

text: Byrne highlights the importance of gratitude and visualization in achieving one's desires, along with alleged examples. Later chapters describe how to improve one's prosperity, relationships, and health, with more general thoughts about the universe.


title: The Secret (Byrne book)

text: The book has been translated into 50 languages and has sold over 30 million copies. Due partly to an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", the book and film had grossed $300 million in sales by 2009. Byrne has subsequently released "Secret" merchandise and several related books.


title: The Secret (Byrne book)

text: US TV host Oprah Winfrey is a proponent of the book. On "The Larry King Show" she said that the message of "The Secret" is the message she's been trying to share with the world on her show for the past 21 years. Author Rhonda Byrne was later invited to her show along with people who swear by "The Secret".


title: The Secret (Byrne book)

text: Valerie Frankel of "Good Housekeeping" wrote an article about her trying the principles of "The Secret" for four weeks. While she reached some of her goals, others had improved. Frankel's final assessment is: "Counting my blessings has been uplifting, reminding me of what's already great about my life. Visualization has forced me to pay attention to what I really desire. And laughing is never a bad idea. If you ignore "The Secret"s far-too-simplistic maxims (no, you will not be doomed to a miserable life for thinking negative thoughts) and the hocus-pocus (the cosmos isn't going to deliver a new car; it's busy), there's actually some helpful advice in the book. But it's nothing you don't already know."


title: The Secret (Byrne book)

text: In 2009, Barbara Ehrenreich published "Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America" as a reaction to self-help books such as "The Secret", claiming that they promote political complacency and a failure to engage with reality.


title: The Secret (Byrne book)

text: Mark Manson, author of "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck", is one of the harshest critics, writing that the book is "full of misplaced clichés, silly quotes, and superstitious drivel," and calls it a "playbook for entitlement and self-absorption," which "anybody who reads it and implements its advice ... will likely make themselves worse off in the long run."


title: The Secret (Byrne book)

text: John G. Stackhouse Jr. has provided historical context, locating Byrne's book in the tradition of New Thought and popular religion, and concluding that "it isn’t new, and it isn’t a secret".


title: The Secret (Byrne book)

text: Byrne's scientific claims, in particular concerning quantum physics, have been rejected by a range of authors including Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons at "The New York Times" and Harvard physicist Lisa Randall. Mary Carmichael and Ben Radford, writing for the Center for Inquiry, have also pointed out that "The Secret" has no scientific foundation, stating that Byrne's book represents: "a time-worn trick of mixing banal truisms with magical thinking and presenting it as some sort of hidden knowledge: basically, it’s the new New Thought."


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: The Big Three is a common nickname in tennis for the trio of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, each considered to be among the greatest players of all-time. The trio have dominated men's singles tennis for nearly two decades, collectively winning 63 major singles tournaments; Nadal with 22 titles, Djokovic with 21, and Federer with 20. They were ranked as world No. 1s in singles for a total 892 weeks (equivalent to 17 years); Djokovic for 373 weeks, Federer for 310, and Nadal for 209. One of the three finished the season as the year-end No. 1 player every year from 2004 to 2021, with the exception of 2016. They have collectively occupied the top-three positions of the year-end ATP rankings eight times; in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2018, and 2019.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: The Big Four was used to describe the larger quartet of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, and Andy Murray from about 2008 to 2017, though the term is occasionally still used when referring to the group in that period. They have been a critical part of what has been labelled a new "Golden Era" in tennis.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: Federer was the first to come to prominence after winning Wimbledon in 2003, and became the world No. 1 after winning the Australian Open in 2004. Nadal followed in 2005 with a French Open triumph on his first attempt, including a win over Federer, and the duo occupied the top two places of the ATP rankings from July 2005 to August 2009. From 2007, Djokovic and Murray increasingly challenged Federer and Nadal's dominance with consistency. By 2011, Nadal declared that his joint dominance with Federer had ended, following the ascent of Djokovic and later Murray. Djokovic has been a dominant player since the beginning of 2011, gradually approaching or surpassing Federer and Nadal's career achievements. Despite occasional injury breaks by individual members of the Big Three, they maintained their collective dominance at the majors through to 2022. However, the emergence of new players, commonly referred to as the "Next Gen", have tempered their dominance at the ATP Finals and ATP Masters tournaments since 2017.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: The Big Four regularly held the top four places in the year-end rankings between 2008 and 2013 and were ranked year-end world top four from 2008 to 2012, the longest span of dominance for any quartet of players in tennis history. They held the top-two spots continuously from 25 July 2005 to 14 March 2021, as well as the top ranking from 2 February 2004 to 28 February 2022, meaning that no player outside the Big Four were ranked world No. 1 for 17 years or was in the top 2 for nearly 16 years. All four have reached a career-high ranking of world No. 1: Djokovic was world No. 1 for a record 373 weeks, Federer for 310 weeks, Nadal for 209 weeks, and Murray for 41 weeks. Djokovic was the year-end No. 1 for a record seven years, with Federer and Nadal at five each, and Murray at one.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: At the Grand Slam tournaments, the trio are the all-time title leaders; Nadal has won a record 22 majors including a record 14 French Open titles, Djokovic has won 21 majors including a record nine Australian Open titles, and Federer has won 20 majors including a record eight Wimbledon titles. They have each completed a Career Grand Slam by winning all four majors at least once, with Djokovic and Nadal completing it twice for a double Career Grand Slam. Djokovic has completed a non-calendar year Grand Slam, making him the only man in history to hold all four majors at once across three different surfaces. Nadal and Djokovic have each achieved a Surface Slam by winning majors on hard, clay, and grass courts in a calendar year, making them the only male players in history to do so. The trio have each completed a Channel Slam, with Nadal having achieved it twice.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: At the ATP Masters tournaments, the trio are also the top-three title leaders; Djokovic leads with a record 38 titles, followed by Nadal with 36, and Federer with 28. Djokovic has achieved the Career Golden Masters by winning all nine active Masters tournaments, a feat he has completed twice. At the ATP Finals, they won 12 titles, with Federer and Djokovic winning a record six titles each. Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, and Murray have also played vital roles in leading their countries to victory at the Davis Cup, ATP Cup, and the Olympics. At the Davis Cup, Nadal led Spain to victory in five editions, Djokovic and Federer helped Serbia (2010) and Switzerland (2014) win the title for the first time, and Murray helped Great Britain win the title in 2015. At the ATP Cup, Djokovic led Serbia to victory in the inaugural edition in 2020. At the Olympics, the Big Four have won five gold medals, two silver medals, and one bronze medal; Murray won a record two gold medals in singles and a silver in mixed doubles, Nadal won a gold medal in singles, following which he achieved a Career Golden Slam, and another gold in doubles, Federer won a silver medal in singles and one gold in doubles, while Djokovic won a bronze medal in singles.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: The early 2000s were seen as a time of transition in tennis, with older champions retiring and a few players breaking through at the very top of the game. Roger Federer first played on the ATP Tour aged 17 in 1998, finishing his first full ATP season the following year. By the end of the 2002 season, he was ranked sixth in the world. His breakthrough came in 2003 when he won his first major title at Wimbledon, won the year-end championships, and finished the year as the world No. 2 behind Andy Roddick. Federer then captured three of the four majors in 2004, losing only at the French Open, as well as becoming the world No. 1 on 2 February and maintaining the top position through the end of the year. Federer entered the 2004 Summer Olympics as the heavy favourite, but lost in the second round to Tomáš Berdych.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: Rafael Nadal won his first ATP Tour match aged 15 in April 2002, and he defeated Federer in their first meeting at the 2004 Miami Open.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: In the following three years (2005–2007), Federer almost dominated the tennis scene entirely. Between 2005 Wimbledon and 2007 US Open, he captured eight of ten majors with a record of 67–2 in those tournaments (his only two losses in that stretch were delivered by Nadal at the French Open). Federer also maintained the world No. 1 ranking for the entirety of the period.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: 2005 was Nadal's breakthrough year, in which he won 24 consecutive matches on clay, including his first French Open title, beating Federer in the semifinals, and he finished the year as the world No. 2. He was dominant on clay, suffering only one loss on the surface (to Federer at the 2007 Hamburg Masters final) between his breakthrough and the end of 2007. He established an 81-match winning streak on clay during this time.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: The period between 2005 and 2007 was thus entirely dominated by Federer and Nadal. They won 11 consecutive majors between them, meeting in each French Open and Wimbledon final from 2006 to 2008. From 2005 to 2010, they ended each season as the world's top two players.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray were born a week apart, played each other as juniors, and both made their major debuts in 2005. Djokovic made his ATP Tour debut in 2004, while Murray's was in 2005. They both reached the world's top 100 in 2005, and the top 20 in 2006. Djokovic, however, began to excel ahead of Murray in 2007, reaching one major final and two semifinals and beginning to regularly challenge Federer and Nadal. He also won two Masters titles and five overall titles during the season, finishing 2007 as the world No. 3. Murray, who was kept out of the French Open and Wimbledon by injury, ended 2007 ranked 11th.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: Between 2008 and 2010, Djokovic and later Murray attempted to end the duopoly of Federer and Nadal at the summit of tennis. They did not break it but emerged ahead of the rest of the tour.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: At the 2008 Australian Open, Djokovic defeated Federer in the semifinals, reaching his first Australian Open final and ending Federer's streak of ten consecutive major finals. Djokovic went on to defeat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (who had eliminated Nadal in the semifinals) to win his first major. Following the win, Djokovic emerged as a clear world No. 3, holding the ranking for the entirety of 2008. Meanwhile, Murray continued to rise in the rankings, reaching his first major quarterfinal at Wimbledon, losing to Nadal. He also won his first two Masters titles.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: Nonetheless, Federer–Nadal remained the lead rivalry, as the pair met in the finals of both the French Open and Wimbledon. Nadal won both, with the latter final often described as one of the greatest tennis matches of all time. In August, after winning singles gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and an early loss for Federer at the Cincinnati Masters, Nadal became the world No. 1, ending Federer's record 237 consecutive week streak at the top. At the Olympics, Federer lost in the quarterfinals to James Blake, while Djokovic lost in the semifinals to Nadal, but went on to win the bronze medal. Federer excelled in the men's doubles event and captured the gold medal, while Djokovic lost in the first round, and Murray and Nadal in the second. At the US Open, all four players reached the semifinals of the same major for the first time. Federer defeated Djokovic in the semifinals, while Murray reached his first major final after upsetting the top-ranked Nadal in four sets. Federer then defeated Murray in the final to win his fifth consecutive US Open title and his 13th major title overall. Following the tournament, Murray entered the top four in the ATP rankings for the first time. All four players qualified for the year-end championships, which Djokovic won. Despite withdrawing from the event due to injury, Nadal ended the year ranked as the world No. 1.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: In 2009, the quartet held the top four places in the rankings for the entire calendar year. This also prompted the first uses of the term 'Big Four' to refer to the players, although results saw Nadal and Federer generally remain clear leaders ahead of Djokovic and Murray, who in turn were regarded as ahead of the rest of the tour. At the Australian Open, Nadal won his first title there in another five-set final, his third consecutive major final victory over Federer, while Murray and Djokovic were eliminated earlier. Nadal continued to dominate in most of the early season. He entered the French Open as the favourite, but was defeated in a massive upset by Robin Söderling in the fourth round. Federer went on to win his first French Open title, defeating Söderling in the final. With the win, he equaled Pete Sampras' all-time record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles and completed the Career Grand Slam, having lost to Nadal at each of the previous four editions of the French Open. Federer subsequently surpassed Sampras' record by winning his 15th major title at Wimbledon.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: With Nadal's injuries, Murray and Djokovic improved in the rankings, with Murray reaching world No. 2 in August and ending the 211-week reign of Federer and Nadal as the top two ranked players. At the US Open, Murray was upset in the fourth round by Marin Čilić, while Djokovic reached his first Grand Slam semifinal of the season, losing in straight sets to Federer. Nadal was defeated by Juan Martín del Potro in the semifinals, and del Potro beat Federer in the final to claim the title. Between 2005 Australian Open and 2014 Australian Open, this was the only major not won by a member of the Big Four. At the end of 2009, Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray finished as the ATP's top four players for the second consecutive year, with only Nadal and Federer changing positions from 2008. Federer finished the season having reached all four major finals for the third time in his career following 2006 and 2007.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: During the 2010 season, the Big Four began to dominate the tour as a group for the first time. They comprised six of the eight Grand Slam finalists and won a combined 16 tournaments (compared to six for the other four competitors at the 2010 ATP Finals). At the start of the year, Federer continued his dominance as the world No. 1 by winning the Australian Open, defeating Murray in the final, but his run of 23 consecutive Grand Slam semifinals came to an end at the French Open when he lost to Robin Söderling in the fourth round. He then lost to Tomáš Berdych at Wimbledon, ending his run of seven consecutive Wimbledon finals. Nadal then resumed his domination of the clay-court season, winning all three clay-court Masters events and the French Open, where he defeated Söderling in the final. Nadal also won Wimbledon over Berdych, having missed the previous year's edition due to injury.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: At the US Open, Djokovic beat Federer in the semifinals to reach his third major final, but lost to Nadal, who went on to complete the Career Grand Slam. With the win, Nadal became the first player to win majors on three different surfaces in a single calendar year, known as the Surface Slam. Each member of the Big Four reached the 2010 ATP Finals semifinals with Federer defeating Nadal in three sets in the final, leading to them achieving their third successive season in the top four positions. Djokovic and Murray were third and fourth respectively, both reaching one Grand Slam final apiece.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: The 2011 season was dominated by Novak Djokovic. He won ten titles, including three majors (only the fifth man in the Open Era to do so) and five Masters titles (a then-record), enjoyed a 41-match winning streak (from the start of the season to his loss to Federer in the semifinals of the French Open), amassed a record amount in prize money, and ascended to the world No. 1 position for the first time in July. The season was described by many experts and former players as one of the best tennis seasons for a singles player seen in history, with "Tennis Magazine" describing it as the third-best tennis season ever, behind Federer's 2006 season, and Rod Laver's in 1969. Pete Sampras described it as "one of the best achievements in all of sport."


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: Djokovic's dominance contributed to overall control by the Big Four. They all reached the semifinals at two of the year's Grand Slam events, and between them won every Masters tournament. Nadal was the clear world No. 2 behind Djokovic, winning the French Open and reaching both the Wimbledon and US Open finals (losing both to Djokovic). Nadal ended the season with a 0–6 record against Djokovic, with every encounter between them at a final.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: By his standards, Federer had a weak season. He failed to win a Grand Slam title for the first time since 2002, losing to Nadal for the fourth time in a French Open final. He dropped to world No. 4 in November, the first time he had been ranked outside the top three since 2002. However, Federer rallied, winning his three final tournaments, including the ATP Finals, which secured an end-of-season ranking of world No. 3. Murray, meanwhile, made the semifinals of all four majors, with including a runner-up finish in the Australian Open final to Djokovic. Murray ended the year with two Masters titles for the fourth consecutive year, and five titles in total.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: The dominance of the Big Four continued in 2012. Each player won a major: Djokovic the Australian Open, Nadal the French Open, Federer Wimbledon and Murray (who hired former world number 1 Ivan Lendl as his head coach earlier in the year) his maiden major title at the US Open. This win – combined with winning the gold medal at the London Olympics at Wimbledon with consecutive victories over Djokovic and Federer – increased Murray's standing as a member of the Big Four: his end-of-season ranking of world No. 3 was his career-best. Federer would get the silver at the Olympics while Djokovic would lose the bronze medal match to Juan Martín del Potro of Argentina. Nadal did not compete due to a knee injury. In the men's doubles, none of them would get past the second round. Djokovic entered the season as the world No. 1 and remained there until July 2012, when he was overtaken by Federer, who reclaimed the top spot for the first time in two years. Federer subsequently overtook Sampras' all-time record of 286 weeks as the world No. 1, and extended the record to 302. Federer relinquished his world No. 1 ranking on 5 November to Djokovic, who ended the a second consecutive season there. Djokovic was the only player to reach the semifinals at all majors, defeating Nadal in the final of the Australian Open (in what is considered to be one of the greatest tennis matches of all time), and was the runner-up at both Roland Garros and the US Open. He and Federer each won three Masters tournaments. Federer was also the silver medalist at the Olympics, where Djokovic finished fourth. Nadal, meanwhile, had his season curtailed by an injury. Having won two clay-court Masters tournaments and Roland Garros, he was eliminated in the second round at Wimbledon – his earliest defeat at a Grand Slam tournament since 2005. He did not compete for the rest of the season, but still ended the year as world No. 4.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: The 2013 season continued similarly, with Djokovic, Federer and Murray occupying three of the four semifinal slots at the Australian Open, with Nadal still suffering from an injury. Murray beat Federer in a five-set semifinal match, meaning all four members of the Big Four had beaten each other at least once at a major, but he lost to Djokovic in the final. Nadal returned for the clay-court season, winning five events before becoming the only man to win a major eight times by taking the French Open, defeating Djokovic in an epic semifinal clash en route. However, Djokovic ended Nadal's record eight-year winning streak at the Monte-Carlo Masters. Nadal and Federer lost early at Wimbledon, thus ending Federer's record streak of 36 consecutive major quarterfinals. Murray defeated Djokovic in the final, becoming the first Briton to win the men's singles title in 77 years. Nadal dominated the US Open series, winning the Canada Masters, Cincinnati Masters, and US Open, defeating Djokovic in the final of the latter.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: Nadal and Djokovic dominated the 2013 season. Nadal won two Majors and five Masters events, and was runner-up at the ATP Finals. Nadal made the final at all eight clay-court tournaments he played, winning six; he also made the semifinals at all eight of his hard-court tournaments, winning four titles. Djokovic won one major, reached two major finals and a semifinal, and finished the year on a 22-match winning streak after taking the ATP Finals. A back injury ended Murray's season prematurely, but he finished fourth in the rankings and was the only player besides Nadal and Djokovic to win a Grand Slam event or Masters title (at Wimbledon and Miami respectively). Federer suffered his worst season in over a decade. He reached just one major semifinal at the Australian Open, failed to win a single Masters crown, and finished the year sixth in the rankings with one title to his name; he also suffered from a recurring back injury throughout the season.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: As 2013 came to a close, Federer's fall in the rankings prompted many sources to debate whether the dominance of the Big Four had ended. This debate intensified after the Australian Open, which saw Stan Wawrinka defeat Djokovic in the quarterfinal and Nadal in the final to win his first Slam title, marking just the second time since 2005 and the first since 2009 that a player outside the Big Four had won a major title. Murray and Federer fell to sixth and eighth in the rankings respectively, and after the tournament, several players expressed the opinion that they were now capable of challenging the Big Four. However, the first two Masters titles of the year in Indian Wells and Miami only had Big Four finalists, with Djokovic winning his third and fourth consecutive Masters titles with victories over Federer and Nadal respectively. Nadal struggled early in the clay season at his traditional favorite tournaments of Monte-Carlo and Barcelona. A third loss, to Djokovic in the final of the Rome Masters, was the first time Nadal had lost more than two matches on clay in a season for a decade. He did, however, win the Madrid Masters after Nishikori injured his back whilst leading Nadal 6–2, 4–3 in that final. Nadal went on to defend his French Open title, defeating Murray in the semifinal and Djokovic in the final.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: Following his back surgery at the end of 2013, Murray struggled to return to form in the first half of the year, reaching only two semifinals and losing to Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets in the quarterfinals while attempting to defend his Wimbledon title, a defeat which saw him fall to No. 10 in the world rankings. This, and Nadal's loss to Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round, his third consecutive early-round loss at Wimbledon, led former players and experts, including Jimmy Connors, to express the opinion that the "aura" around the Big Four had faded. Milos Raonic, who reached the semifinals at Wimbledon, suggested a "human side" was visible in the Big Four, which was giving players belief when facing them. However, Djokovic defeated Dimitrov and Federer beat Raonic to make it an all-Big Four final, the 24th they had contested. Djokovic defeated Federer in five sets to claim his second Wimbledon title, a result that left Djokovic, Nadal and Federer occupying the top three places in the rankings.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: Federer continued his return to form reaching the finals of Toronto and winning his first Masters title since 2012 in Cincinnati. Later, he also won the Shanghai Masters, and returned to No. 2 in the rankings, overtaking Nadal, whose season had been curtailed by a wrist injury. The US Open 2014 saw the Big Four's collective grip on the major titles slip still further, however, as Kei Nishikori and Marin Čilić beat Djokovic and Federer in the semifinals respectively to contest the first Slam final featuring none of the Big Four since the 2005 Australian Open, and the first time since 2003 that multiple first-time Grand Slam tournament winners have been crowned in a single season. Following the tournament, Murray dropped to 11th in the rankings, his first time outside the top ten since 2008. The tournament further signalled the decline of the Big Four's dominance. Towards the end of the year, Murray managed to return to form, winning three titles in Shenzhen, Vienna and Valencia, allowing him to return to the top ten in the rankings and qualify for the Tour Finals, but he bowed out at the group stages following a defeat by Federer, in which he won just a single game. Indeed, throughout the year, Murray failed to register a single victory against another member of the Big Four in nine meetings.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: At the Tour finals, Federer and Djokovic both reached the final, but Federer withdrew citing injury following a semifinal win over Wawrinka. Federer recovered to win the Davis Cup as part of the Switzerland team for his, and the country's, first triumph in the competition, leading many people to say that his tennis career was now complete. Collectively, the Big Four won 19 titles in 2014, but two Slam titles and two Masters titles went to other players. In the end-of-year rankings, Djokovic, Federer and Nadal held the top three spots, with Murray in sixth.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: Following Murray's strong end to 2014 and reaching the final of the 2015 Australian Open, he moved into the top four in the ATP rankings for the first time in over a year, meaning that the Big Four held the top four places in the rankings for the first time since early 2013, slowing the idea of the regression of the quartet. Djokovic won the title, as well as the first three Masters titles of the year in Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo. In Madrid, Murray defeated Nadal in straight sets. This was also the first time he had beaten another member of the Big Four in a tour match since Wimbledon 2013, ending a streak of 12 losses against the other members. The defeat saw Nadal slip to seventh in the rankings, his first time outside the top five in more than a decade. Djokovic defeated Federer in the Rome final. Nadal suffered his worst European clay-court season in a decade, failing to win a single title and appearing in just one final, whereas Djokovic and Murray entered the second Grand Slam event of the year unbeaten on clay. Djokovic defeated Nadal for the first time at the French Open in a straight-sets quarterfinal. This was only Nadal's second defeat at the French Open, seeing him drop to No. 10 in the rankings. Djokovic emerged victorious over Murray in a five-set match that was spread over two days but succumbed to Wawrinka in the final in four sets.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: Federer beat Murray in straight sets in the semifinals of Wimbledon. Djokovic claimed the other spot in the final, to set up a rematch of the previous year's final, and defeated Federer in four sets to win his second major of the year, denying Federer a record eighth Wimbledon title for the second year in a row. Murray and Federer shared the two North American hard-court Masters titles, at Montreal and Cincinnati respectively, with Djokovic being the losing finalist on both occasions. The US Open final was contested by Djokovic and Federer. Djokovic won in four sets, giving him a third slam title of the season.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: Djokovic then continued to dominate throughout the remainder of the year, winning in Beijing, Shanghai, Paris and at the ATP Finals. Overall, Djokovic's 2015 season was one of the greatest in the history of the game, with him winning 11 titles (the most since Federer won 12 in 2006) including, for the second time, three majors. He also became the only man in the Open Era besides Federer and Rod Laver to reach all four major finals in the same year. He was dominant even against his fellow Big Four rivals, going 15–4 against them throughout the year. Federer was the most competitive against Djokovic, winning three of their eight matches, which made up half of Djokovic's total defeats in 2015. Nadal and Murray both struggled against the Serb, with Nadal losing all four of his encounters in straight sets, and Murray winning only one of his seven encounters, in Montreal. However, Murray did lead Great Britain to Davis Cup victory in 2015, winning all eight singles rubbers and becoming the final member of the quartet to win the Davis Cup. Murray did finish at his career-highest year-end ranking of two even if he won fewer titles, reached fewer finals and had less success versus Djokovic when compared with Federer in the number three ranking.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: In 2016, Djokovic collected his sixth Australian Open title in a straight-sets victory over Murray. He followed up this solid run of form with a record-setting fifth Indian Wells and record-equaling sixth Miami masters titles. Nadal won Monte Carlo for a record ninth time. Murray and Djokovic played in the finals of Madrid and Rome and split the titles. At the 2016 French Open, Murray reached his first Paris final to complete his set of Grand Slam singles finals, but Djokovic beat him in the final to become the third Big Four member after Federer and Nadal to complete a Career Grand Slam, and the first player since Rod Laver in 1969 to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: In the Wimbledon final, Murray beat Raonic in straight sets to win his second Wimbledon title, and third major title overall. Murray's victory marked the first time since the 2010 French Open that a member of the Big Four had won a Grand Slam singles title without having to defeat one of the other three members. Federer withdrew from the remainder of the 2016 season due to a knee injury, missing the Olympics and US Open.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: At the Olympics, Djokovic was knocked out of the men's singles in the opening round by Juan Martín del Potro, in a repeat of the bronze medal match from four years earlier. Del Potro went on to defeat Nadal in an epic semifinal to set up a final meeting with Murray. Murray ultimately won the final in four sets, becoming the first male player to win the singles gold medal twice. Nadal lost the bronze medal match to Kei Nishikori but won gold in the men's doubles event. Djokovic won Toronto with Murray losing in the finals of Cincinnati. At the US Open, Djokovic reached the final but was defeated once again by Stan Wawrinka in a Grand Slam singles final.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: Murray dominated the rest of the year. He won titles in Beijing, Shanghai, Vienna and Paris. As a result, upon reaching the Paris final, Murray gained the number-one ranking, ending Djokovic's 122 consecutive weeks at the top. This meant that all of the Big Four had reached world number one at some point. Following an early loss at Shanghai, Nadal announced that he would skip the remainder of the 2016 season to recover fully from the wrist injury that troubled him earlier in the year. Thus, for the first time since 2001, neither Nadal nor Federer would be present at the year-end championships. At the ATP Finals, Murray beat Djokovic 6–3, 6–4, claiming the title and the No. 1 spot at the end of the year and ending 2016 on a 24-match winning streak, the longest of his career. He became the second player after Andre Agassi to win a Grand Slam singles tournament, ATP Finals, Olympic and Masters titles, and the first to do so in the same calendar year. 2016 marked the first year since 2003 that neither Federer, Nadal or Djokovic finished the year as world number 1. Despite his struggles with form throughout the second half of the year, Djokovic still ended 2016 as world number two. Having suffered from injury-plagued seasons, Nadal and Federer ended the year at number nine and 16 respectively. For Nadal, it was his lowest end-of-year ranking since 2004, while Federer's fall in the rankings meant that November 2016 marked his first time outside the top ten since October 2002.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: At the Australian Open, Djokovic and Murray both suffered defeats prior the quarterfinals. Nadal and Federer, meanwhile, both progressed to the final after each won five-set semifinals. In the highly anticipated final, Federer triumphed over Nadal in five sets, winning his 18th Grand Slam title and his first since Wimbledon 2012. Federer went on to win a record-equaling fifth Indian Wells title, defeating Nadal in the fourth round. Federer and Nadal once again met in the Miami Open final, where Federer again won.


title: Big Three (tennis)

text: As the 2017 clay court swing commenced, Federer skipped the entire clay season to rest and focus on the grass and hard-court seasons, as well as to prolong his career. Nadal claimed the Monte-Carlo Masters title, which saw him become the first man to win a single tournament ten times and simultaneously establish a new record for the most clay-court titles at 50, surpassing Guillermo Vilas' 49. Nadal also won in Madrid, while Djokovic fell to Alexander Zverev in the Rome final. Nadal breezed through to the French Open title, defeating Wawrinka in the final and not dropping a set at the tournament for the third time in his career. This marked Nadal's first major title since the 2014 French Open. Following the win, Nadal returned to world No. 2, while Djokovic, who lost in the quarterfinals, fell to world No. 4, his lowest ranking since October 2009 and his first time outside the top two of the rankings since March 2011.