Players who danced one summer...

K

King Fed WW

Guest
and then disappeared never to be seen again.

Here is some examples:

Martin Verkerk, who reached the 2003 French Open final beating Moya in the QFs and Coria in the Semis. After dispatching Roger Federer conquerer Luis Horna in a 5 set epic in R2. Verkerk has not been sighted since June 2003.

verkerk.jpg


Jordi Arrese, the Catalan native and nearly one of the stories of the Barcelona 92 Olympics. The home hero went all the way to the final before falling 8-6 in the 5th to Marc Rosset, having stormed back from 2 sets down.





I can think of a few more but what say you?

Also to clarify don't take the message too literally.
 
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D

Deleted member 77403

Guest
I remember Verkerk. :) The way he dismantled Coria was stunning. Everyone was talking about how much of a bigger threat he would be at Wimbledon with his big serve and big game, but he never did anything after that amazing RG in 03.
 

Russeljones

Talk Tennis Guru
In 1977 John Lloyd was making a decent living probably but few expected him to get to the Australian Open final where he lost to Gerulaitis in 5 sets.

John Marks was probably the MaliVai Washington of his day, after beating Ashe en route to the 1978 AO final, which he duly lost to Vilas. Marks entered that AO at No. 177 in the world.
 

TheMusicLover

G.O.A.T.
I remember Verkerk. :) The way he dismantled Coria was stunning. Everyone was talking about how much of a bigger threat he would be at Wimbledon with his big serve and big game, but he never did anything after that amazing RG in 03.
Verkerk went completely down the "big cars, women, & party-till-you-drop"-routine after that win / reaching the RG final. ;)

Of course blaming his demise thereafter on "injuries" but my countrymen just happen to know a little bit better.
 

Gazelle

G.O.A.T.
There was some guy who beat Boris Becker in a clay masters final in 1989, also reached RG QF that year losing to Edberg, then dissapeared.

Forgot his name, think he was South American.
 

Gazelle

G.O.A.T.
Robby Ginepri and his awesome hard court run in 2005 starting with his title in Indy, 2 epic 3 set Masters losses to Federer and finally his run to the SF of the US Open falling in 5 to Agassi!

There was a thread with lots of people predicting he would be top 10 in 2006!
 

Deanjam

Professional
There was some guy who beat Boris Becker in a clay masters final in 1989, also reached RG QF that year losing to Edberg, then dissapeared.

Forgot his name, think he was South American.

Alberto Mancini, Argentinian. Won both Monte Carlo (vs Becker) and Rome (vs Agassi) before making the quarters at Roland Garros as you said. Also made the fourth round of the US open later that summer.
 
J

JRAJ1988

Guest
Alexander Popp reached two Wimbledon Quarter Finals.

Albert Portas whom won the Hamburg Masters in 2001, the "Dropshot Dragon"

 

Mainad

Bionic Poster
I remember Verkerk. :) The way he dismantled Coria was stunning. Everyone was talking about how much of a bigger threat he would be at Wimbledon with his big serve and big game, but he never did anything after that amazing RG in 03.

All that and then went down lamely to Ferrero in the final. He could have been yet another one-time Slam winner at RG. Instead, he just settled for being a one-time Slam finalist!
 

Mainad

Bionic Poster
Alberto Berasategui? What did he do other than his run to the 1994 French Open final?

Gaston Gaudio? What did he do before or after his 2004 French Open win?

Jerzy Janowicz? Reached the final of a Masters tournament (2012 Paris) and a semi-final at Wimbledon (2013) and now struggles to get past the 2nd round in pretty much anything he plays!
 
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Mainad

Bionic Poster
Is this real?

He's reached 3rd round at the USO in 87, and has Slam SFs and Fs (doubles and mixed doubles)... Those surely would be more note-worthy?

I think that particular stat popped up simply because he happened to be commentating at Queens at the time. :)
 
L

Laurie

Guest
But that stat is so uninspiring that it's actually kinda humiliating to Castle to mention it.

Especially as someone took a screenshot and it has been now posted all over the place for at least 3 years, that is a very old picture.
 
L

Laurie

Guest
I have one for sure. Nicolas Massu won gold in singles and doubles at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He wasn't known much before that and we never really heard from him after those achievements either.

082713-Tennis-Nicolas-Massu-Retirement-DG-PI_20130827222302213_660_320.JPG
 

Bukmeikara

Legend
Massu reached the Madrid final in 2003 so he is not a one time pony. Ginnepri is the perfect example, with the game he showed in 2005 he should have achieve more, still some years later he reached the 4th round at the French.
 
D

Deleted member 77403

Guest
All that and then went down lamely to Ferrero in the final. He could have been yet another one-time Slam winner at RG. Instead, he just settled for being a one-time Slam finalist!

But Ferrero ended up a one-time slam winner at RG instead. ;)
 

Mainad

Bionic Poster
There was some guy who beat Boris Becker in a clay masters final in 1989, also reached RG QF that year losing to Edberg, then dissapeared.

Forgot his name, think he was South American.

You are probably thinking of Alberto Mancini, an Argentinian player who beat Becker in the final of 1989 Monte Carlo and also went on to beat Agassi in the final of Rome. He lost to Edberg in the quarter-finals of RG that year (Edberg went on to play his only final at RG, losing to Chang).

Kevin Curran ??

Curren was South African, not South American. He made 2 Slam finals: 1984 Australian Open (lost to Wilander) and 1985 Wimbledon (lost to Becker).
 
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tacou

G.O.A.T.
Robby Ginepri and his awesome hard court run in 2005 starting with his title in Indy, 2 epic 3 set Masters losses to Federer and finally his run to the SF of the US Open falling in 5 to Agassi!
Ahh I long for those days ! Honestly 05 might be my favorite year in tennis. I love Coria but I recall their match together -- we were having a family cookout and the match was on in the basement with the door open, so I kept diving in the pool, running in to watch the match, going back out for wiffle ball, etc. etc.

Buy yeah Ginepri was a force that summer essentially vanished after
 
MaliVai Washington is too good to be mentioned here. He was a solid player his entire career.

I'm going to mention a name so obscure most of you will say "who?", and it's Roberto Carretero. Never did anything prior, qualified to win at Hamburg in 1996, never did anything afterwards, retired five years later.
 
K

King Fed WW

Guest
Marray and Nielsen. One of those fairytale runs.

2012 Wimbledon Champions

Frederik-Nielsen-and-Jonny-Marray-doubles-cha_2792175.jpg
 

Raindogs

Hall of Fame
Surprised no one has mentioned Yannick Noah. A very good player with a high ranking for much of his career, however he never came close to winning another slam except for his one magical 1983 victory on the Terre Battue.

phoaction-480x480.jpg
 

Kalin

Legend
Verkerk went completely down the "big cars, women, & party-till-you-drop"-routine after that win / reaching the RG final. ;)

Of course blaming his demise thereafter on "injuries" but my countrymen just happen to know a little bit better.

Interesting... tell us more! I remember Verkerk's great run and I always knew/thought it was injuries that did him in. Seems he had a lot more things in than we thought... or at least the same thing in but quite often :eek:

We had a kid in Bulgaria (Krassimir Lazarov was his name) that as a junior beat Boris Becker twice in clay tournaments (ok, BB sucked on clay but it's still BB we're talking about). A year later Boris won his fisrt Wimbledon while our guy never made it to the big show :(
 
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