Most painful match you've watched?

Fedforever

Hall of Fame
No question, McEnroe losing to Lendl in the French Open Final 1984. Absolutely threw it away.

After that probably Wimbledon 08 but it's not close really. Might have said AO 09 but 17 made up for that in a way.
 

mike danny

Bionic Poster
Wimb 2014, USO 2011 and AO 2009.

Miami 2009 was also painful to watch. Fed was an unforced error machine that day. If you think the Goffin match at the WTF was bad, take a look at this one.
 
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Deleted member 512391

Guest
Hamburg 2008 final, still cannot understand how Federer lost that match, arguably the choke of his life.
 

EddieBrock

Hall of Fame
Martin losing to Mal Washington at the Wimbledon semifinals in 1996 after being up 2 sets and then 5-1 in the 5th. Also watching him lose to Agassi again at Wimbledon after being way up in the 5th. Also, Coria losing at the French Open final. That was very painful


 

Fedforever

Hall of Fame
Wimb 2014, USO 2011 and AO 2009.

Miami 2009 was also painful to watch. Fed was an unforced error machine that day. If you think the Goffin match at the WTF was bad, take a look at this one.
The press conference after that game is the only time I've thought Fed was about to walk away from the game to be honest.It was quite impressive to go from that to winning the French -something the "he didn't beat Nadal" crowd don't recognise
 

King No1e

G.O.A.T.
For Federer: 2008 RG final, 2014 AO SF (it was hard to watch the usually dominant and free-swinging Maestro get shut down and humiliated publicly like that)
For Nadal: 2015 Paris QF (it was just awful to watch)
For Djokovic: 2010 RG QF, 2013 RG SF, 2017 RG QF
 

Djokovic2011

Bionic Poster
For Federer: 2008 RG final, 2014 AO SF (it was hard to watch the usually dominant and free-swinging Maestro get shut down and humiliated publicly like that)
For Nadal: 2015 Paris QF (it was just awful to watch)
For Djokovic: 2010 RG QF, 2013 RG SF, 2017 RG QF
Oh come on, he wasn't even that bad in that match, Wawrinka was just slightly better on the day. ;)
 

Apun94

Hall of Fame
AO final 2014. Nadal was playing GREAT tennis leading upto the final.
Started the match slow and Waw was zoning and got up a break in the first. Still, had 3 BPs to break back but missed. After that, his back got injured and he could barely move.
Still believe Rafa wouldve found a way and won that match, he was in great form and confidence during that time. Injury robbed him of the Double Career Slam
 

Apun94

Hall of Fame
Came to say this. No other match comes close to it. I can take him losing to Novak or Roger or anyone but not like that. Stan was great and deserved the first set but Rafa could have fought his way back if not for the back injury.
Exactly. Fed fans like to think that Waw beat Rafa in that match. Nope. It was his back
 

King No1e

G.O.A.T.
Oh come on, he wasn't even that bad in that match, Wawrinka was just slightly better on the day. ;)
I don't know, I'm just not used to seeing Nadal missing overheads and attacking forehands the way he did. It was cringe-inducing really. The way Djokovic missed that one overhead that would have earned him a 5-3 lead vs Nadal
 

King No1e

G.O.A.T.
Oh come on, he wasn't even that bad in that match, Wawrinka was just slightly better on the day. ;)
I don't know, I'm just not used to seeing Nadal missing overheads and attacking forehands the way he did. It was cringe-inducing to watch him squandering points like that.
 

boredone3456

G.O.A.T.
The 2009 Wimbledon mens Final (heartbroken for Andy)
The 2005 Wimbledon Ladies Final (amazing match but I was heartbroken for Davenport)
 

King No1e

G.O.A.T.
Oh come on, he wasn't even that bad in that match, Wawrinka was just slightly better on the day. ;)
I don't know, I'm just not used to seeing Nadal missing overheads and attacking forehands the way he did. It was cringe-inducing to watch him squandering points like that.
 

True Fanerer

G.O.A.T.
2011 Wimbledon Federer vs Tsonga :eek:
2011 UO Federer vs Djokovic :eek::eek:
Painful both because he should have never lost these two matches.
 
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a10best

Hall of Fame
Fed being crushed in final at RG 2008 - 6-1, 6-3,6-0
Gaudio beating Guillermo Coria in FO 2005
Roddick's loss at 2009 Wimbledon to Federer (16-14 in the 5th set)
 

Sudacafan

Bionic Poster
Coria 2004 RG final is up there.
Fed being crushed in final at RG 2008 - 6-1, 6-3,6-0
Gaudio beating Guillermo Coria in FO 2005
Roddick's loss at 2009 Wimbledon to Federer (16-14 in the 5th set)
Gaudio-Coria RG final was in 2004
 

Fedforever

Hall of Fame
Interesting to see the different reasons why people find a loss particularly painful. Some going for matches where they feel their player played particularly badly. Others where someone seemed to throw away a match they should have won. Those going for AO 14 because their player was unable to give of their best.

Also some of us are showing our age!!
 

Devin

Semi-Pro
Any of Federer's losses in 2004-2007.

No one has mentioned the two Canas matches. Those both were bad. Federer may have had physical issues on those days. The Volandri loss was also pretty bad.

2008 was a bit painful to watch. He lost to people he used to own, sometimes convincingly. Wimbledon and FO 2008 were pretty hard to watch. I didn't like seeing Fish beating him at IW and Stepanek beating him at Rome. His losses to Murray at the lower level events weren't very good either.

It was hard to watch Federer cry at AO 2009. The Miami SF was filled with UFEs. Federer didn't play great against Djokovic with the exception of the USO and Cincy. The Delpo loss was difficult as well. 2009 was a good year, but it could've been much better.

So basically, any time Fedr loses, but it's worse if it's in his peak years.
 

ibbi

G.O.A.T.
That was one, a few days earlier the Serena-Dementieva semi final would probably be my personal pick.
 

True Fanerer

G.O.A.T.
Interesting to see the different reasons why people find a loss particularly painful. Some going for matches where they feel their player played particularly badly. Others where someone seemed to throw away a match they should have won. Those going for AO 14 because their player was unable to give of their best.

Also some of us are showing our age!!
When Federer plays badly it doesn't bother me as much as when he blows a match.
 

Drob

Hall of Fame
Mine personally would be watching Roddick lose to Federer at Wimbledon in 2009. That was tough to watch.

Good question. And Good Choice. I agree.

Nothing against any of the winners (except maybe Korda), to the contrary (and I have four players - Connors, Becker, Federer and Djokovic, on both sides), but biggest disappointments in matches I have seen include the following, most of which were great, five-set matches. Most of these were at-the-time big disappointments. Others were less so at the time, more in hindsight. The retrospective ones I mark with an asterisk

1970 Wimbleon final Rosewall loss to Newcombe
1972 USO final Ashe loss to Nastase
1975 Las Vegas Exhibition Laver loss to Connors
1980 USO semifinal Connors loss to McEnroe
1981 Wimbledon semifinal Connors loss to Borg
1988 USO final Lendl loss to Wilander
1989 French final Edberg loss to Chang
1989 Wimbledon semifinal Lendl loss to Becker *
1991 French semifinal Becker loss to Agassi *
1991 Monte Carlo final Becker loss to Bruguera *
1995 Monte Carlo final Becker loss to Muster *
1996 WTF final Becker loss to Sampras
1998 Australian final Rios loss to Korda (lopsided loss but Korda proven steroid user in 1998) *
1999 IW finals Moya loss to Phillippoussis
1999 Grand Slam Cup final Hass loss to Rudeski
2000 Wimbledon final Rafter loss to Sampras
2000 Australian semifinal Rafter loss to Agassi
2001 USO quarterfinal Kuerten loss to Kafelnikov *
2002 WTF final Ferrero loss to Hewitt
2004 French quarterfinal Kuerten loss to Nalbandian
2006 Italian Open final Federer loss to Nadal (5th set tiebreaker) *
2009 Wimbledon semifinal Hass loss to Federer
2010 IW final Roddick loss to Ljubicic * (disappointing at time and in immediate hindsight, Roddick would have won the sunshine Double and be the only winner of the Sunshine Double and the Summer Slam)
2011 Davis Cup World Group final del Potro loss to Nadal
2013 Wimbledon semifinal del Potro loss to Djokovic
2015 Italian Open final Federer loss to Djokovic
2015 USO final Federer loss to Djokovic
2016 WTF final Djokovic loss to Murray
2017 Basel final del Potro loss to Federer
 

Tshooter

G.O.A.T.
Pete v. Goran, 1994 W. The match that tried to kill tennis. Imagine Isner v. Isner for a taste of what it was like.

Tennis hasn't been under such threat until Milos came along.
 

Aussie Darcy

Bionic Poster
2017 Wimbledon Final. Not because i'm a Cilic fan but seeing a grown man cry mid match because he was getting his ass handed to him was just uncomfortable and sad. Cilic was clearly struggling and had some sort of panic attack of sorts.



Day-Thirteen-The-Championships-Wimbledon-2017.jpg
 
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Deleted member 688153

Guest
2017 Wimbledon Final. Not because i'm a Cilic fan but seeing a grown man cry mid match because he was getting his ass handed to him was just uncomfortable and sad. Cilic was clearly struggling and had some sort of panic attack of sorts.



Day-Thirteen-The-Championships-Wimbledon-2017.jpg
It was awkward to watch, I felt terrible for him. I felt bad for Rafa during the AO 2014 final too.
 

Thundergod

Hall of Fame
Idk about about most painful, but the Fed-Youzhny USO match was really painful for me to see quality-wise. It legit looked like two senior tour level players playing. The 4th set in particular was one of the worst I've seen since Youzhny got visibly injured/cramps/w.e and Fed still had a hard time winning the set.
 
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