Best Player to Not....

M

McEnroeisanartist

Hall of Fame
With Nalbandian's retirement this week and people saying he is one of the best players to never win a Grand Slam, I thought it would be fun to list the

Best Player to Not Win All 4 Grand Slams - Sampras
Best Player to Not Reach Final of all 4 Grand Slams - Sampras
Best Player to Not Win at least 3 out of 4 Grand Slams - Borg
Best Player to Not Reach final at 3 out of 4 Grand Slams - Roddick
Best Player to Not Reach final at 2 out of 4 Grand Slams - Kuerten
Best Player to Not Reach semifinals of all 4 Grand Slams - Wilander
Best Player to Not Reach quarterfinals of all 4 Grand Slams - Roddick
 
The_Order

The_Order

G.O.A.T.
I got a couple more!

Best player to not beat Nadal at RG - Federer
Best player to not beat Nadal at AO - Federer
 
D

Deleted member 77403

Guest
Best player caught in a match fixing scandal
 
D

Deleted member 77403

Guest
Best player to do wrestling poses after he wins - Isner!

(I've just seen him do John Cena and Curtis Axel)
 
Mainad

Mainad

Bionic Poster
Best players not to win Wimbledon - Rosewall, Lendl and Wilander (honourable mentions for Rafter, Roddick and Henman).

Best player not to win US Open - Borg (honourable mentions for Courier, Chang and Gerulaitis).

Best players not to win French Open - Sampras and Becker.

Best player not to win Australian Open - Borg again (honourable mentions for Rafter and Hewitt).
 
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President

President

Legend
Mustard said:
Thomas Muster.
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You really think he is better than Roddick? Roddick was a real factor on 2 out of 3 surfaces and was a top 10 player for about 9 years. Yeah, Muster won many more titles but most were micky mouse clay titles. Look how many times Roddick was stopped by Federer in the early 2000' in majors. Muster was owned by players like Sampras and Edberg completely, and only made one major final. Yeah, Roddick had a dismal H2H with Federer but very respectable records against every other great player of the 2000's, including Rafael Nadal. :-?
 
Mustard

Mustard

Bionic Poster
President said:
Yeah, Muster won many more titles but most were micky mouse clay titles.
Click to expand...

Muster won the biggest titles too. He won 8 masters series events, which is more than Roddick. And Muster had his knee ligaments severed when he was 21 years old, and managed to come back from that pretty brilliantly.

President said:
Look how many times Roddick was stopped by Federer in the early 2000' in majors. Muster was owned by players like Sampras and Edberg completely, and only made one major final. Yeah, Roddick had a dismal H2H with Federer but very respectable records against every other great player of the 2000's, including Rafael Nadal. :-?
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Muster had a couple of big wins over Sampras. 1995 Essen Masters and 1998 Indian Wells Masters. The former on indoor carpet was vital in eventually getting Muster to world number 1.

Edberg was Muster's worst matchup. Muster hated playing serve and volleyers, because Muster liked to hit through opponents in baseline duels. Passing shots wasn't his strength. But like Nadal, Muster was extremely good in big hyped up matches, particularly tournament finals.
 
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tennis_pro

tennis_pro

Bionic Poster
batz said:
Two good shouts.

Are you a table tennis fan? I played to a decent level as a kid - long time ago.
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I played a lot in the old days and only occasionally in recent times. It's a pity table tennis isn't shown on the tele that often cause it would attract more fans, I'd surely join in the party after watching some of the older matches on youtube. Waldner especially who was the TT equivalent of Federer.
 
tennis_pro

tennis_pro

Bionic Poster
Mainad said:
Best players not to win Wimbledon - Rosewall, Lendl and Wilander (honourable mentions for Rafter, Roddick and Henman).

Best player not to win US Open - Borg (honourable mentions for Courier, Chang and Gerulaitis).

Best players not to win French Open - Sampras and Becker.

Best player not to win Australian Open - Borg again (honourable mentions for Rafter and Hewitt).
Click to expand...

To be honest I'm very surprised Hewitt only ONCE made it past the 4th round of the Oz Open.
 
Mainad

Mainad

Bionic Poster
tennis_pro said:
To be honest I'm very surprised Hewitt only ONCE made it past the 4th round of the Oz Open.
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It's surprising to me that the 2 best Australian players of the last 20 years and both multi-Slam champions and former world #1s to boot could neither of them win their home Slam. Rafter never even made a final.
 
NatF

NatF

Bionic Poster
Mainad said:
Best players not to win Wimbledon - Rosewall, Lendl and Wilander (honourable mentions for Rafter, Roddick and Henman).

Best player not to win US Open - Borg (honourable mentions for Courier, Chang and Gerulaitis).

Best players not to win French Open - Sampras and Becker.

Best player not to win Australian Open - Borg again (honourable mentions for Rafter and Hewitt).
Click to expand...

I'd add Djokovic to the best players not to win the French.
 
Mainad

Mainad

Bionic Poster
NatF said:
I'd add Djokovic to the best players not to win the French.
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I'm only going with players whose pro-careers have already ended and who therefore no longer have any chance to succeed where they failed or never took the opportunity.

Djokovic is very much active and still has excellent chances to win the French Open.
 
C

chandu612

Guest
Best player not to win Olympics singles gold- Laver, Sampras, Borg?
 
NatF

NatF

Bionic Poster
Mainad said:
I'm only going with players whose pro-careers have already ended and who therefore no longer have any chance to succeed where they failed or never took the opportunity.

Djokovic is very much active and still has excellent chances to win the French Open.
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Hewitt doesn't have an excellent chance at the AO? ;)
 
Mainad

Mainad

Bionic Poster
NatF said:
Hewitt doesn't have an excellent chance at the AO? ;)
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Well, I guess I think of Hewitt as kinda 'retired' from the possibility of winning Slams given that it is almost 9 years since he last made the final at the AO! ;-)
 
J

jean pierre

Professional
Mainad said:
Well, I guess there's still time for Murray while he's still playing.

But you got me thinking. How many other multi-Slam winners never achieved the #1 ranking in their careers?

I can think only of Guillermo Vilas who was never officially given the #1 ranking at any point.
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Vilas of course. But in fact, he was the real n°1 in 1977.
 
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